Plays | Raging Biblio-holism

The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies

April 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A woman called Honey grapples with, well, what being a woman means while three Maenads torment her around the edges (and even, perhaps, directly). The Review: Have you ever given much thought to a sigh? Like, really thought about it – the movement of the body, the emotion expressed therein, and so on? I confess that I never gave much thought to a sigh (other than in the moment of shoulder-loosening release that sometimes comes with sighing) […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Avant-Garde Theater, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary, Meg Whiteford, Plays, Plays Inverse, Poetic Theater, Poetry, Reviews, The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies, Theater, TNBBC

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Bloodletting in Minor Scales / The Invention of Monsters: Two Plays from Plays Inverse

December 1, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Two plays from Plays Inverse, an inventive publisher of poetic theatricality or theatrical poetry (depending). In one, a strange dissolution of reality after a mother’s attempted suicide. The other provides a series of short scenes, meant to be interpreted as you will. The Review: I’ve been sitting on these two plays for several months now (and ultimately decided to review them together) because I didn’t quite know how to talk about them. I revisited them a few […]

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Plays • Tags: Bloodletting in Minor Scales, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, C. Dylan Bassett, Contemporary, Justin Limoli, Plays, Plays Inverse, Poetry, Reviews, Stage, The Invention of Monsters, Theater, TNBBC

King Charles III

August 16, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: The Queen is dead – long live the King? Written in the style of a Shakespearean history play, Mike Bartlett imagines what might happen if Prince Charles were to ascend to the throne right now and what such a moment might mean for Britain, for the monarchy, and for a family that’s never not known power. The Review: It should come as no surprise to long-time readers that I am an Anglophile. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Almeida Theater, Book Reviews, Books, British Monarchy, Charles Windsor, Contemporary, England, Harry Windsor, Kate Middleton, King Charles, King Charles III, Mike Bartlett, Plays, Reviews, Rupert Goold, The Prince of Wales, Theater, West End, William Windsor

The Holy Ghost People

April 8, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: The Holy Ghost People – who are they? Where did they come from (are they aliens or are they human or are they ….)? What is the god they believe in? Who are we to decide? The Speakers might not believe (in any of it) – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have to come to terms with it all anyway. The Review: I have a long and still developing history with non-traditional theater. I still remember the first […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: A Play in Verse, Contemporary, Experimental, Joshua Young, Plays, Plays Inverse, The Holy Ghost People, The Holy Ghost People: A Play in Verse, Theater, TNBBC

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Dunsinane

March 10, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: The tyrant has been o’erthrown, his head upon the battlements. The English army has swept into Scotland and put Malcolm, the rightful(?) heir on the throne… but as it turns out, not everything would be as easy as they were led to believe. Siward, the valiant and well-meaning soldier, finds himself out of his depth in the wilds of Scotland – the terrain and the people are both quite difficult to master. The Review: I deeply regret […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Contemporary, David Greig, Dunsinane, Macbeth, Plays

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The Underpants

February 19, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: When Louise’s underpants mysteriously fall off during a parade for the King, Theo is convinced that he will lose his job and everything he holds dear. Meanwhile, under his nose, two gentlemen who got a view of Louise’s nether regions have arrived to rent their available room – and make off with Louise in the process. The Review: You know, I think there’s a reason we go to the French for our farces and not the Germans. […]

Categories: Classical, Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Adaptation, Carl Sternheim, Classical, Contemporary, Plays, Steve Martin, The Underpants

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Icecream

February 18, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Caryl Churchill’s late 80s thriller, about an American couple who meet their distant English relations and get caught up in a murder. The Review: The play starts a little slow. The first three scenes are confusing and not entirely cohesive… there’s a 40-something American couple and they’re in England and they’re looking around at something and it gets confusing. You don’t know what they’re doing or why they’re there. But then they meet a 20-something pair of […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Caryl Churchill, Contemporary, Icecream, Plays

Some Explicit Polaroids

February 15, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Nick has been in prison since 1984 and he’s just been released. Of course, things have changed – people have changed too. So what’s it mean to be an angry young man when everyone (including you) has grown up and the world has moved on? The Review: My first interaction with Mark Ravenhill was the execrable Over There at the Royal Court in 2009. I hated that play with a passion – it was a heavy-handed parable about […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Contemporary, Mark Ravenhill, Plays, Some Explicit Polaroids

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The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II

December 27, 2011 by Drew

The Short Version: Ten years since Macbeth was slain and Malcolm still sits upon the Scottish throne. Things are relatively peaceful, although the anniversary stirs up some still-simmering insecurities about that lingering bit of prophecy regarding Fleance. Malcolm is led by his less-than-good courtiers into a spiral of deceit and murder not unlike that of his predecessor, again leading to the inevitable conclusion that the witches prophesied so long ago. The Review: I’ve been wary of this play for some time – […]

Categories: Classical, Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Classical, Contemporary, Macbeth, Noah Lukeman, Plays, Shakespeare, The Seed of Banquo, The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Plays

The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies

Bloodletting in Minor Scales / The Invention of Monsters: Two Plays from Plays Inverse

King Charles III

The Holy Ghost People

Dunsinane

The Underpants

Icecream

Some Explicit Polaroids

The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II