Simon Stephens
Författare till The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: The Play (Modern Plays)
Serier
Verk av Simon Stephens
Stephens Plays: 2: One Minute; Country Music; Motortown; Pornography; Sea Wall (Contemporary Dramatists) (2009) 16 exemplar
Associerade verk
6 Plays For Young Performers: Promise; Oedipus/Antigone; Tory Boyz; Butterfly Club; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland;… (2010) — Författare — 2 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Födelsedag
- 1971
- Kön
- male
- Nationalitet
- UK
- Födelseort
- Stockport, Cheshire, England, UK
- Bostadsorter
- London, England, UK
- Utbildning
- University of York
- Yrken
- playwright
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Jesus, I don't know... why DO we prepare so wonderfully and elaborately for birth but not for death? This audiobook covers loss in a way I was not prepared for. Hug the ones you love.
Maybe this will teach me to stop going into books blindly.
Maybe this will teach me to stop going into books blindly.
By far the best free audible book I've ever experienced. This appears to be a Broadway performance of two short works, and is delivered very well as an audiobook. They are essentially two (very depressing) stories about family, birth, and death. Not really my thing, but if you're into that kind of story, well worth the $0.
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 34
- Även av
- 2
- Medlemmar
- 413
- Popularitet
- #58,991
- Betyg
- 3.6
- Recensioner
- 10
- ISBN
- 109
- Språk
- 3
- Favoritmärkt
- 1
Review of the Methuen Drama paperback (October 9, 2023) adapted by Simon Stephens based on Anton Chekhov's original play Дядя Ваня (1897).
Those familiar with Chekhov's original Uncle Vanya should easily see how closely the above excerpt mirrors it using contemporary uncensored vernacular. You can look up the original (see below in Trivia and Links) if you like. I wanted to use that dramatic climax of Act III as an example of how Simon Stephen's adaptation differs from, but is still faithful, to the original.
I went to see Andrew Scott's extraordinary tour-de-force performance in all the parts of Vanya through the National Theatre Live in cinemas series. This capped off my month long Vanyaology expedition of seeing the revival of Liisa Reppo-Martell's acclaimed Toronto production and reading David Mamet's adaptation, Richard Nelson's adaptation and Richard Pevear's & Larissa Volokhonsky's complete translation.
See poster at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/429687275_25882464941352280_2...
National Theatre Live poster for "Vanya" with Andrew Scott. Image sourced from NTLive.
Although the playscript is credited as being developed together with actor Andrew Scott, it is only a slim replica of what the actor brings to the stage performance. Acting out all 8 roles (the walk-on part of the workman messenger is dropped, as it is in most productions), Andrew Scott makes use of the tiniest of objects (sunglasses, a dish cloth, a radio, fondling a necklace etc.) along with voice modulation to signal his change from one character to the next and then back again.
See photo at https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/429754076_25882465048018936_6...
Andrew Scott (as Michael aka Dr. Astroff) eats cheese as part of a midnight snack with Sonia during "Vanya."
I realize I'm really rating the performance here with 5-stars, but this was both the distilled essence of Chekhov presented in modern-day text along with an extraordinary challenge for a single actor to bring to life. Andrew Scott does that miraculously.
See photo at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/429661618_25882465238018917_2...
Andrew Scott (as Sonia) sits at the (imagined) knee of Uncle Vanya at the conclusion of "Vanya."
Trivia and Links
You can see a trailer for the National Theatre Live production with Andrew Scott on YouTube here. The filmed performance was in cinemas in late February/early March 2024.
As Uncle Vanya is in the public domain, you can read various online translations at sources such as Project Gutenberg. The English language translator is not identified.
You can also read the original Russian language version of Uncle Vanya at iLibrary.ru. If you turn on web translator you can obtain your own rough translation.… (mer)