Yes, sorry to be so imperative, not my usual style as you know well, er, you do know, don't you? Anyway, I would like you all - pretty please! - to read an excellent article in The Telegraph by Mick Brown based on a long lunch-interview with Sir Tom Stoppard. Regular readers will know - and have been bored stiff on numerous occasions - that next to 'old Will', himself, Stoppard is far and away my favourite playwright. I have been lucky enough to direct three of his plays and to have seen many more. Speaking as a rank amateur myself, I can say that his plays are so brilliant that even us amateurs have difficulty spoiling them! His wit, his intelligence and his unbelievably wide learning shine through no matter what we might do to his texts. It is a great pity that reading play scripts is not more widely practised. If you have just a little imagination you will be able to visualise the scenes and the characters who inhabit them and in fact by reading them you will be able to pause and savour the brilliance.
Do yourselves not one but two favours, read the interview and then buy a copy of 'Arcadia' and read it. By the way, did I mention that this is an order!
There's a theory going around that Stoppard's plays are written by someone else, who does not wish to be recognised. My bet's on Roy 'Chubby' Brown!
Posted by: Penseivat | Saturday, 25 February 2017 at 15:07
With that bold order stated above, I have been cowering under my bed, too afraid to comment.
Posted by: Whitewall | Saturday, 25 February 2017 at 17:00
In which case, Penseivat, 'Chubby' Brown is a genius!
Brace up, Whiters, and remember you're a Carolingian, er, or something like that!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 25 February 2017 at 17:21
you're a Carolingian,
Isn't that some sort of oral sex?
My delicate upbringing precludes me from knowing.
Posted by: AussieD | Sunday, 26 February 2017 at 09:10
Why let me, ah say let me help you out there David and AussieD. A proper North Carolinian-me- is known as a Tarheel. Thus North Carolina, named for an English lass you'll remember, is called the "Tarheel State". Sometimes called other things by our neighbor to the north, and other things by our unfortunate neighbor to the south.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 26 February 2017 at 12:49
Grrrrrrr! Copy the article and paste it somewhere sensible. THAT'S an order!
Posted by: Mayfly | Monday, 27 February 2017 at 13:06
Eh? What? I cringe, Ma'am, I cringe but I just clicked on the link and up it came! What's the problem?
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 27 February 2017 at 14:11
Yes, because YOU pay for it! I get told I need to subscribe "to read further". You know what, no thanks, even though I love Stoppard as well.
Posted by: Mayfly | Tuesday, 28 February 2017 at 13:11
Sorry, sorry, Miss Mayfly, I will try and see if I can resurrect it.
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 28 February 2017 at 15:07