All About Books discussion

Our spring theme for April - June 2016 will be modern retelling of classics; the ‘classics’ can be other plays (such as those from ancient Greece or Shakespeare) or myths, fables, folklore in other forms or even a modern take on a classic novel. The only real restriction is that the modern version must be a play!

The focus play for this theme is Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. Discussion on that play can be found here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

I'm going through a Hamlet 'phase' currently, so I look forward to reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as part of this theme.

Here are a few suggestions to give people an idea of what this theme is all about.

Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead which is a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet as told through the eyes of these two minor characters.

Antigone by Jean Anouilh is a modern retelling of Sophocles' play of the same name.

While Roxanne was a film rather than a play, it is a great example of a modernized version of a classic (in this case, Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand). In this case, the plot is not much changed but the setting is.

Ooh, we cross posted, Leslie!

Gill wrote: "Ooh, we cross posted, Leslie!"

Lol! But at least we had the same idea :)

There is another play that would be good for this theme but I can't find it here. It is called "Tartuffe: Born Again" by Freyda Thomas & is (obviously) a retelling of Moliere's Tartuffe. Here is the publisher's blurb:

"This modern adaptation casts Tartuffe as a deposed televangelist who rooks Orgon and his family of their money and property and nearly compromises Orgon's wife. The action takes place in a religious television studio in Baton Rouge where the characters cavort to either prevent or aid Tartuffe in his machinations. Written in modern verse, Tartuffe: Born Again adheres closely to the structure and form of the original. Moliere's legendary comedic characters are delightfully at home in this modern day version that played at New York's Circle in the Square."

Here is the Freyda Thomas book, Leslie. I think it's in the wrong place!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

If I can organise getting a copy and if my Spanish is up to it, (fingers crossed), I'll read Antígona furiosa, which is a reworking of the Antigone play, linking it to 'The Disappeared' in Argentina.

There's a copy of it on Scribd, I just need to sort out downloading it.

Gill wrote: "Here is the Freyda Thomas book, Leslie. I think it's in the wrong place!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

Thanks Gill, I couldn't find it! I have separated it from the original so hopefully I will be able to find it in the future.

I'll probably read Eurydice but I'm also planning on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . (I just finished Hamlet earlier this month, so I look forward to it...)

I've decided to read Antigone first. I want to be a bit clearer about the plot, so that I can compare Antígona furiosa to it.

I've found a couple of other plays that fit this theme:

After Miss Julie based on Miss Julie

One Man, Two Guvnors based on an Italian play The Servant of Two Masters.

Gill wrote: "I've found a couple of other plays that fit this theme:

After Miss Julie based on Miss Julie

One Man, Two Guvnors based on an Italian play [book:The Se..."

The second one is really funny! I'd like to read this "modern version"!!!

Another interesting one - a play by the American poet and former poet laureate Rita Dove based on the Oedipus cycle The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex / Oedipus at Colonus / Antigone except set instead on a pre-Civil War plantation in South Carolina. The play is The Darker Face of the Earth. I liked it when I read it several years ago.

Anyone interested in a buddy read of The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex / Oedipus at Colonus / Antigone? Like Gill, I want to do some re-reads of original versions first. Or Gill, if you want to call a buddy read of just Antigone, I'll join you on that one! :)

Greg, I've just reread Antigone as preparation, but it was a poor translation. I'm happy to try it again with a different translation, though.

Greg, I wonder if anyone else would like to join us? I'd like to read all 3 plays I think. How about you set up the buddy read, and then we can see if anybody else wants to join in?

The connection to the theme isn't entirely accurate, but I'm wanting to read Death and the King's Horseman: A Play. Anyway our library system has a book of six plays by Wole Soyinka, which includes this one. It also includes Opera Wonyosi, which is based on The Threepenny Opera. So I reckon I can read both of them, and get away with it.

However it did make me think about how I define the classics. There are lots of different classics in different countries. It would be interesting to see how many plays there are nowadays, that are based on classics from non-European/North American countries.

Silly me, I've just remembered that Wole Soyinka features in the next season's plays. I'll leave reading him until then.
(I thought he was featuring some time, but I thought as a seasonal author, not playwright. No wonder I couldn't find him!)

Gill wrote: "Silly me, I've just remembered that Wole Soyinka features in the next season's plays. I'll leave reading him until then.
(I thought he was featuring some time, but I thought as a seaso..."

lol Gill! I saw your post #17 and wondered if I should mention that... Next season's theme of plays by Nobel Laureates will have plenty of other options so I figured if the plays by Soyinka you mentioned fit here, that would be OK too.

Gill wrote: "Greg, I wonder if anyone else would like to join us? I'd like to read all 3 plays I think. How about you set up the buddy read, and then we can see if anybody else wants to join in?"

I might -- I reread the first of the trilogy not too long ago but plays are short so I don't mind refreshing my memory. And it has been a long time since I read the other 2 or at least the last one...

Lidiana mentioned another possibility for this theme in the play chat thread -- Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra.

Greg and Gill, I'd like to read all three plays of The Oedipus Cycle, so you can count me in :)

Leslie wrote: "Lidiana mentioned another possibility for this theme in the play chat thread -- Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra."

Ooh, more Greek tragedies! This is appealing to me a lot.

Leslie, where should a readalong for the Oedipus Cycle go do you think, in this section or in the Readalongs?

Gill wrote: "Leslie, where should a readalong for the Oedipus Cycle go do you think, in this section or in the Readalongs?"

Either location would be okay. I think it fits here more naturally but more people will be likely to see it & perhaps be tempted to join if it is in the Readalong section.

I found another potential play for this theme as I was looking at my omnibus of George Bernard Shaw plays (trying to squeeze in one last Irish play before the end of the month!) -- Androcles and the Lion: An Old Fable Renovated.

Great Gill, Pink, Leslie! I guess I'll create a readalong thread for the Oedipus Cycle.

Leslie wrote: "I found another potential play for this theme as I was looking at my omnibus of George Bernard Shaw plays (trying to squeeze in one last Irish play before the end of the month!) ."


Now I'm getting so many plays I want to read!

I've read Antígona furiosa which was ok. I think maybe you'd need to see it live, to understand how Griselda Gambaro had developed it to fit with the situation in Argentina. I've watched a bit of it in YouTube, after I read the play.

I've finished reading Antigone. Well, it's a reread actually, the first time was a long time ago. I think it's a very impressive play. Originally produced in occupied Paris during World War 2, it makes clear how universal the themes of the original Antigone are.

Gill wrote: "I've finished reading Antigone. Well, it's a reread actually, the first time was a long time ago. I think it's a very impressive play. Originally produced in occupied Paris during Wor..."

I look forward to rereading this after rereading the Sophocles original. In the meantime, I am thinking about reading Androcles and the Lion.

Since I've reread Jane Eyre, I was tinking of rereading also La bambinaia francese. It seems it has not been translated from Italian - pity. For those who can read it anyway, do pick it up: it is a strange point of view of the whole story!!!!

Gill wrote: "I've finished reading Antigone. Well, it's a reread actually, the first time was a long time ago. I think it's a very impressive play. Originally produced in occupied Paris during Wor..."

We read Anouilh's Antigone in French class at school. It was my favourite, even eclipsing Shakespeare with whom I was practically obsessed at the time.
I need to brush up my French and read it again.

I'm starting to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.


My intention later during this season is to read Electra, or is it Electra? And then to follow up on this with Mourning Becomes Electra.

Edited to add, I've just seen that this is a follow on from The Oresteia. Any one know how these all link up?

And I've just seen that The Flies links in also. I think I've read this years ago; in fact I think I read it in French Les Mouches, which seems a bit unlikely to me now.

I think I'll concentrate on R and G are Dead for the time being!

Gill wrote: "I'm starting to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
.."

My sister loved this one, but I didn't get too far in it for some reason, perhaps because I am not a big Shakespeare fan (gasps, I'm sure, given my literary parents and my theatrical and poetry ridden teen years).

I had such a strange experience as I was reading the opening pages of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I realised that I saw a live performance of this many years ago. It must have been only a couple of years after it was first published. I can't remember exactly when and where, but I've definitely seen it and it was a long, long time ago.

Gill wrote: "I had such a strange experience as I was reading the opening pages of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I realised that I saw a live performance of this many years ago. It must ha..."

I saw this in fall of 1979 -- it was the first professional play I went to without any family members along! I went with a girl from my college dorm and I remember how "adult" I felt going on the train to the theater :)

Since then, I have seen the film and now my memory of the live play has been blurred. However, I feel that the film didn't live up to the live performance... but I don't have anything to back up that feeling.

Gill, Antígona furiosa sounds very interesting, but unfortunately my Spanish is really basic, not to say it's non-existent. That's a real pity, I'd have loved to read it.

I loved the original Antigone by Sophocles back when I read it, I also saw it on stage in a beautiful Roman amphitheater, which was really great. I have also seen the opera transposition by the Italian composer Ivan Fedele, which was fantastic.

Now I decided to read Antigone by Jean Anouilh in the original French version. I absolutely fell in love with it - I don't want to sound blasphemous but I loved it even more than the original by Sophocles. I feel this is often the case for me with modern retellings of classics - it was the same for Phèdre by Jean Racine and Elektra - Tragedy in One Act by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, not to mention Medea by Christa Wolf. I think this might be because modern or even contemporary retellings are closer to home for me, so they speak more closely to my sensibility.

However, I was talking about Antigone by Jean Anouilh. Well, there's not much I can say about this play, other than it left me stunned. It was so moving I actually cried. It left me completely speechless, I don't think there's many words to describe it. I think one only has to read it to understand.

Marina, did you see that there's a readalong where we've been reading and discussing Sophocles' Oedipus cycle? I'm mentioning that because there's been quite a discussion about his Antigone there, which might interest you.

And, yes, Anouilh's Antigone is immensely moving isn't it?

Gill wrote: "Marina, did you see that there's a readalong where we've been reading and discussing Sophocles' Oedipus cycle? I'm mentioning that because there's been quite a discussion about his Antigone there, ..."

Oh, thanks Gill, I hadn't seen it. I'll go check it out. I've read the Oedipus cylce some time ago and really enjoyed it.

I do agree, Anouilh's Antigone is very, very moving.

I'm reading Electra now, and will follow this later with Mourning Becomes Electra.

I'm one third of the way through Electra now, and enjoying it a great deal. However, I have just seen that the Eugene O'Neill play isn't based on this, but on The Oresteia instead.

Ho hum!!

I don't understand what 'strophe' and 'antistrophe' are about. Anyone able to explain this for me?

Gill wrote: "I'm one third of the way through Electra now, and enjoying it a great deal. However, I have just seen that the Eugene O'Neill play isn't based on this, but on ..."

I didn't know for sure but have always assumed that the strophe and antistophe were sections of the chorus that had different parts (lines) so that different points of view could be expressed.

After reading your question, I looked on Wikipedia and found this:

"A strophe (/ˈstroʊfiː/) is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode."

This I found interesting (my underlining):
"The lines of choral odes provide evidence that they were sung. Normal syllabic structure has long sounds that are twice the length of short sounds. However, some lyrics in Greek odes have long syllables that are equal to 3, 4 and 5 shorter syllables. Spoken words cannot do that, suggesting that this was a danced and sung rhythm.[2]

The chorus originally consisted of fifty members, but some later playwrights changed the size. Aeschylus likely lowered the number to twelve, and Sophocles raised it again to fifteen."

So it seems like my guess was on the right track! (and explains why it is called a chorus!)

I read Nobel Laureate G.B. Shaw's play Androcles and the Lion based on the Aesop story (and of course, reread the original story as well). Shaw basically used the framework of Aesop's story to explore some ideas about Christianity. Some interesting ideas but I think that his The Devil's Disciple was a better play.

I got 2 different plays for this theme at the library today -- both based on Sophocles' Antigone. One is a play I read years ago as a student, Jean Anouilh's Antigone and the other is by Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney - The Burial at Thebes.

I'm just starting Mourning Becomes Electra.

Leslie, I didn't realise The Burial at Thebes was a play. For some reason (well I guess for an obvious enough reason - it's by Heaney!) I thought it was poetry, must look into it.

Gill wrote: "I'm just starting Mourning Becomes Electra.

Leslie, I didn't realise The Burial at Thebes was a play. For some reason (well I guess for an obvious enough reason - it..."

I read it the other day - it was very good as a translation of Sophocles but less of a "version" than I had anticipated from the subtitle (A Version of Sophocles' "Antigone")! As Heaney is a great poet in his own right, not surprisingly his translation was a verse version. I think if I had known about this before I might have read it in preference to the Fagles!!

I am going to read the Jean Anouilh version of Antigone today. I have the print book but I also found an audiobook version while perusing my library's digital media yesterday so I will be doing an immersion read (reading and listening at the same time).

Antigone (but I have it as a digital audiobook, not CDs)

Oops! It's a good thing that I found the audiobook - I just discovered that the print copy I checked out from the library is in French!!

Absolutely wonderful -- 5★! Here is a link to my review:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...