Plays

[lathany]

Which plays are well enough known that the average¹ reader would:
(a) have heard of
(b) know one or more characters of (specifically the male lead).

I want a choice of plays for a piece of writing I'm doing.

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¹ No, I wouldn't like to define average. Take your best guess!

Comments

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I'd guess Shakespeare plays are the most likely to work - especially the ones with the character names in the title and most especially the ones which have been made into films. So Romeo and Juliet would work very well because even without any knowledge of plays or Shakespeare and failing to notice the names are in the title someone could remember that one with the Di Caprio bloke in.

Not so much A Midsummers Night Dream though, unless the characters you're looking for are Oberon and Titania and Puck - I have trouble remembering the names of the 'main characters' in that :-)

There's always "I Want to be Your Canary" but that might not be the right kind of average :-)

Do musicals count?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Musicals count!

I thought Shakespeare too. The main problem being that it's a bit of a cliché (eg. murder mysteries do Macbeth if they want a play).

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I guess that's the problem with wanting a play people may have heard of - it does narrow the field a little.
If there's musicals as well there's things like Les Mis and all the long running classics which an 'average' person might know. There's the long running theatre classics like The Woman in Black and The Mousetrap but i've no idea if they're quite specific to England.
There's the stage adaptations of things like His Dark Materials where the characters might be known from the books.
This is Our Youth? Starred a number of well known 'actors' (some of whom could even act) and may have made into average knowledge as a result?

Some Tom Stoppard's may have made it into well known, i've had some discouraging experiences talking about Arcadia for example though.

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley
The Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman
The Odd Couple, Felix and Oscar

Or are these too American?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

The piece of writing is set in England. American isn't a problem in itself, but my criteria mean that it has to be something that'd also be performed on this side of the Atlantic.

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

Aside from Shakespeare, I'm not terribly familiar with English theater, so I probably won't be much help, then. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know, though!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I've heard of all three of those plays, so they're probably good options.

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I wasn't considering you in the list of average :-)

[the-original1.livejournal.com]

Is Inherit the Wind too obscure? What about Pygmalion?

Since you say musicals count, what about Jesus Christ Superstar? Evita?

Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, Yeoman of the Guard . . . ?

[the-original1.livejournal.com]

onyxblue1 just suggested Twelve Angry Men.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I particularly like both Pygmalion and Twelve Angry Men.

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

How about The Mousetrap, provided you don't give the game away?

But if you want average 'man in the street' readership who know a character, you're basically stuck with Lloyd Webber musicals, Shakespeare and anyhting that's been remade as a film and not mutilated in so doing (?The History Boys, Chicago, West Side Story). Or use historically set plays where the lead is recognisable from historical knowledge, or plays based on otehr literature (eg Oliver).

If you're aiming at the well-read (ie not me), then there's probably a lot of other authors you could go for (eg Chekov, Priestly). And they are less likely to admit to ignorance even if you pick something more obscure!!!

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

How about Ibsen's A Doll's House (2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Doll's_House")?

Or Beckett's Waiting for Godot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_For_Godot)?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I object to Beckett on the principle that all his plays could be Teletubby scenes. A Doll's House works though.