Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui

[sovay]

Hey, I've thought of a meme.

Sparked by the fact that I wouldn't actually want to be a Stoppard character—I'd die in a fire or I'd be A.E. Housman—who would you like to be a character in a play by? Why? Whose plays would you absolutely not want to find yourself in? (Nota bene: to be differentiated from the writers whose plays you feel like you're living in already. Given how most of my friendlist seems to be doing, that way lies Oh, yeah? I'll see your O'Neill and raise you Sarah Kane.) No fair just calling Shakespeare.

Otherwise I've stopped sleeping again, which makes the idea of more frequent posts seem even more remote and exhausting. I should still try.

In the meantime: talk to me about theater!

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to reflect that I can hardly think of any play I'd like to be a character in. Maybe it's just that my brain's fried from trying and failing to write a proposal for a paper for a conference on the short story in Irish-language literature, but right now it seems as if every play I can think of is one that doesn't have much in the way of happy ending.

There's bound to be something else. Maybe a Wilde play wouldn't be too bad, although there's not much place for folk like me. O'Keefe's The Poor Soldier is full of buffoons, other than the hero and the virtuous captain who arranges for his rival in love to be commissioned because he realises the woman truly loves the man and that's the only way her guardian will permit the match; that said, the songs are nice, and I'd like to see a production, although I question how and where one could find singers capable of doing it justice, cos it's too Irish to be turned to opera or Broadway but most traditional singers haven't the volume for musical theatre. Might be all right to be in a Molière play, depending which one it was--I could probably cheat the Bourgeois Gentilhomme out of a few sous for lessons in something or other, and have a bit of fun doing it.

I'll try to put some more thought into it later tonight, because this really is an interesting meme.

Any road, I hope you can find some sleep soon.

[sovay]

Might be all right to be in a Molière play, depending which one it was--I could probably cheat the Bourgeois Gentilhomme out of a few sous for lessons in something or other, and have a bit of fun doing it.

Heh. Commedia dell' arte?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Commedia dell' arte?

I was thinking more in terms of being one of the blokes at the beginning of the play who's teaching M. Jourdain fencing or music or something--maybe the one who reveals to him that he's been speaking prose all his life, rather than one of the commedia stock-type characters like Cléonte or Covielle (or, God forbid, M. Jourdain himself).

But sure, I could probably deal with outright commedia dell' arte, although I'd rather not be one of the zanni and I really don't think I could be convincing as a vecchio. As I think about it, the inamorati usually win in the end, so maybe being an inamorate would be a nice change from the usual way of things in my life.

I've not read enough other Molière, as I think on it--Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme was the one decent book from high school French. I should read more of him, sometime, or even see if I can find a video of a French production somewhere.