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It is dialogue similar this which contributed to me taking a total month to read something which, if seen in the theatre, would have played out in two hours. I must conclude that atte
On pg 38, Tonto meets Snoop-Dogg (please mentally add together every bit many [sic]s every bit grammatically necessary): "You-- You a love. Y'all-- You are merely that. Only. You don' know. Only love. Expert. You. Mother. You lot. Always beloved. Always. Simply he lies to me. Like I'm gone. Not here. Lies and tellz me iz for love. Iz not for dear! Iz pride!"It is dialogue like this which contributed to me taking a full month to read something which, if seen in the theatre, would have played out in two hours. I must conclude that attending a performance of this play would have felt like spending a full calendar month in an uncomfortable seat.
You know those times in a movie where something is supposed to be sooper-serious and you lot can tell they wanted you to exist really moved past something an actor says, but instead it makes yous burst out laughing in disbelief of its corny melodrama? This is that line, copied exactly as it appears on pg 21: "HEEZ MY HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!!!" Yes, ii capital East's, a capital Z, and no less than xvi capital A's (I counted-- twice). I wonder how long the author agonised over the potential dramatic differences between 15, 16, or 17 majuscule A'southward (or, hey, can we become some consistency hither? Shouldn't "ever" and "lies" in the passage above be spelled with Z's too?).
And finally, during what is no doubt expected to be a significant symbolic gesture/issue (I can tell, since it was lifted right out of Chekhov's The Seagull), the author counts heavily on his audience being every bit dain bramaged as his sexy-sexy, oh-but-she'south-a-slut-likewise-so-let'due south-take-her-beaten-most-to-expiry-by-her-suffering-husband character Beth, when her blood brother Mike comes in and dumps a full dorsum half of a buck on the living room flooring-- an creature he shot merely minutes before-- and says he doesn't demand to chop it up into dinner any time before long considering, "It's frozen solid. Won't thaw out for hours yet" (pg 61). Well dang, if it's cold enough outside to freeze a large living beast solid within minutes after its expiry, ya gotta wonder how whatsoever function of Mike himself made it dorsum to the house intact plenty to tell united states of america about it. (And good luck to the props people who take work on this play. I imagine the full back one-half of a solidly frozen cadet is mighty heavy and papier-mâché isn't going to cut information technology whatever more than Mike wants to.)
Awful, stupid, and insulting to any caste of intelligence. Sam Shepard'due south two-time Oscar-winning married woman, Jessica Lange, must have been giving Oscar-worthy performances the residual of usa could non run into every fourth dimension she told him, "It's adept, honey!" (or should that be, "IZ Adept. HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNEE!!!"?)
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Reading what so always written past Shepard ways going through a shortened social history of America later ww II, and upwards till the terminate of xx.century. Plots are then elementary and dialogues are non very much sophisticated. Maybe some of works by Shepard are non every bit interesting every bit the others, but for those whom are interested in sociology, and drama as writing-fine art, volition enjoy reading or watching works by Shepard. Reading simple and evidently plays past Shep Love, honesty and pain, just not hollywood cliché at all!
Reading what so ever written by Shepard ways going through a shortened social history of America after ww II, and up till the end of xx.century. Plots are so elementary and dialogues are not very much sophisticated. Maybe some of works past Shepard are not as interesting as the others, but for those whom are interested in sociology, and drama as writing-art, will enjoy reading or watching works by Shepard. Reading simple and plain plays past Shepard gives you dare to sit and write most whatsoever plot you take in your mind. Many of his plays are and then easy, only honest, fluent and great as well. Subsequently watching Paris, Texas by Wenders, I believe Wenders shots matches with Shepard'south atmosphere and dialogues. "Few American playwrights have exerted as much influence on the contemporary phase as Sam Shepard. His plays are performed on and off Broadway and in all the major regional American theatres. They are also widely performed and studied in Europe, finding both a popular and a scholarly audience" .
با وجودی که سام شپارد، موضوعاتی گاه پیش پا افتاده را با زبانی ساده و در عین حال بصورتی حیرت انگیز طرح می کند، نمی دانم چرا تا کنون به فارسی برگردانده نشده اند، یا احتمالن من ندیده ام. خواندن شپارد اگر هیچ نباشد، دست کم درس بزرگی ست برای آنها که می خواهند بنویسند، و آنها که سال هاست می نویسند اما آن چنان سنگین که انگار "وزنه برداری" می کنند! آثار سام شپارد به نمایش نامه ها و داستان های کوتاهش محدود نمی شوند. او در زمینه ی موسیقی جاز و پاپ هم کار کرده و برخی از سروده هایش برای خوانندگان صاحب نام، مشهور است. سام شپارد بازیگر سینما و تیاتر هم هست و در برخی از فیلم ها همچون "فرانسیس" یا "دیگه نیا دم در" (ویم وندرس) با همسرش "جسیکا لنگ" همبازی بوده است. سام شپارد هم چنین نقد تیاتر و سینما هم می نویسد و برخی از نقدهایش در مجلات مشهور انگلیسی زبان منتشر می شوند. "وقفه در فکر" از نمایش نامه های معروف سام شپارد است که تقریبن همه جای جهان به روی صحنه رفته است
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Aside from the exceptionally strong second act, Shepard'southward writing remains strong and realistic, crisp with its diction and characterization. But in that location are one time again events meant to exist comedic that are then absurd and out in that location that I didn't enjoy. The first act was a long climb to a great peak, and and so the decline was curvy and lost in snow flurries. But this was still a good play despite its set-up. I'm non sure if it was as smooth equally Curse of the Starving Class when information technology came to thematic evolution and consequent characterization, but this was still off-white in its own right.
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This is a three act play near people in two dysfunctional families joined past the marriage of the son of one family with the girl of another. Jake is a troubled human who nearly shell his estranged wife, an extra unfaithful to him at to the lowest degree emotionally, to death out of jealousy. His married woman, Beth, is not entirely of sound listen and confuses her blood brother-in-law for her hubby, the brother-in-law himself being stuck at the family'due south firm because he is shot past Beth's father who mistakes him for a buck. Meanwhile, Mike, Beth's blood brother, is threatening harm to anyone in Jake'southward family. It's not every bit if Jake's family is whatever less dysfunctional, with a possessive female parent who turns arsonist and a less favored daughter who Jake's female parent blames for his divergence to go dorsum to his wife, which ends in failure in Act 3. While this is the sort of play that gives actors the gamble to be emotionally expressive, there is very piffling that is redeeming almost the play every bit a whole. The virtually sympathetic characters here are a brain-damaged adulteress and her kind adulterous brother-in-law. Almost everyone else here is portrayed in the most repellent way possible for a play like this.
Ultimately, this is a play that has contempt for Middle America and people of family values and rural backgrounds. It portrays families as fostering co-dependency, and has almost 100 pages of dialogue in which hardly anyone is listening to what anyone else is saying. There is yelling and screaming, a house is burned downwardly, people are shot and trounce up and treated like horses, simply there is precious trivial in the way of genuine communication. The people in this play don't care what anyone else thinks or feels. They are acting out of their own neuroses, their own drives, their own longings, their own frustrations, and just don't care nigh anyone else. The author gives very little reasons why whatsoever of u.s. should care about the people in this play, particularly when he seems to exist insulting anyone who is from a background in rural America betwixt the ii coasts with the poor option of quotes he makes about farmers and people in the country by H.L. Mencken. If there is a prevarication in the mind, it is in the mind of the playwright, in this libelous portrayal of American life.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.weblog/2017...
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Jake'southward wife, Beth, is not dead, simply hospitalized with astringent brain damage. She is joined by her brother, Mike, and later past their parents. Jake and Frankie ar
A Lie of the Mind opens on both side of a phone chat between Jake and Frankie. During the course of their telephone conversation, we acquire that Jake and Frankie are brothers, that Frankie has beaten his wife to death (or so he thinks), and that Frankie is trying to locate Jake before he does whatsoever more impairment (to himself or someone else).Jake's married woman, Beth, is not dead, merely hospitalized with severe brain harm. She is joined by her brother, Mike, and later past their parents. Jake and Frankie are joined by their sister, Sally, and their mother.
In fact, the assault has left both Jake and Beth helpless in their intendance of their families. Beth is brain damaged, reduced to varying states of coherence/incoherence. Jake is despondent, assertive he has killed his married woman. Absolutely, I take consequence with the delineation of both Jake and Beth.
I believe Jake the calumniating husband, his over-the-acme demeanor suiting his character, just I don't believe Jake the victim, acting erratically. What redeems his character is the suggestion that we're not supposed to believe Jake the victim. Sally, his sister, suggests that he is pretending, having seen it all before.
With Beth, Shepard'south depiction of a woman with brain impairment is constantly skirting bad gustatory modality. Her varying coherence/incoherence, that sometimes descends into "savage" screaming, is evocative of a tired stereotype, the hysterical adult female. This is corroborated by her family history: her grandmother was mentally sick, and later her mother shows signs of mental illness. There may be conceivable aspects to her character, specifically during her recovery. But overall, Shepard'south portrayal of Beth's mental illness is problematic.
The best argument in favour of Shepard's portrayal of Beth (and her mental illness) is that Shepard is less concerned with plausibility, and more concerned with an archetypal approach to Beth's grapheme. Simply every bit she has been stripped down to her base/raw attributes, so as well she is able to strip downwardly other characters.
"This - this is my father. He's given upwardly love. Love is dead for him. My female parent is dead for him. Things alive for him to be killed. Only death counts for him. Nothing else. This - This - This is me. This is me now. The way I am. At present. This. All. Unlike. I- I live inside this. Remember. Remembering. Yous. You - were i. I know you. I know - honey. I know what love is. I can never forget. That. Never." (Act 2, Scene 1)
The play is usually criticized (on Goodreads) for its abject characters. Indeed, they are abject. But I consider this to exist one of the play's strengths. Readers familiar with Sam Shepard will recognize these characters. Having read a number of Shepard'southward plays, it occurs to me that his characters are fatigued from the same source. They are derivative not of cliche/charicateur, but of archetype.
The brothers Jake and Frankie resemble the brothers of True West , one hopelessly lost and the other with his anxiety seemingly on the footing (although his footing volition surely be tested).
The most prominent of Shepard's archetypes may exist the dysfunctional family. I uncertainty I've read a Shepard play with a functional family unit. (You may be inclined to enquire: "What is a functional family?" A valid question. Suffice to say that Shepard's families are far from functional.) Shepard's outlook on the family unit unit recalls the opening lines of
Tolstoy'due south Anna Karenina : "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Although nosotros encounter similar dynamics (rivalry, spite, abandonment, etc...), Shepard's unhappy families are uniquely unhappy. Particularly in the case of A Lie of the Mind, comparable to the families of Buried Child and Expletive of the Starving Class .
If y'all have that this is unapologetically American, Western, and White (that last
Some college friends and I take been reading scripts together over Zoom since COVID striking. (We all attended acting school together.) Even though I worshiped Sam Shepard and behave a lifelong crush on him (my life, plain, since he cutting out of the agreement), I really didn't think reading this. I know I saw information technology at Steppenwolf when I was a teenager, but the only lasting item was an image of a woman in bandages.If y'all accept that this is unapologetically American, Western, and White (that last role maybe more ignorant than arrogant), and accept those parameters every bit perfectly legitimate in a world where other voices are besides both elevated and heard (which I exercise, even if we're not there yet), Shepard totally holds up. And fifty-fifty though people emphasize the cowboy tinge nowadays in so much of his work, I don't observe him sexist. I'grand certain a lot of people would object that in that location must be sexism in a play where a adult female is browbeaten upwards, but that's not the style I encounter art. The mere presence of something is not an endorsement or apologia unless the writer makes information technology i. Only because Shepard writes by and large about the inner lives of men doesn't mean he doesn't respect the inner lives of women. I mean, he'south not Mamet.
I realize I've said precious little about the play itself, but information technology really doesn't take much longer to read a play than a review of information technology, so merely pick it up (off your stoop after you lot order information technology online) if you desire dark, fucked upwardly family dynamics between unhappy people in a harsh world. Probably in big part due to the talent of my friends, merely I loved it.
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It'southward fascinating to imagine seeing this with the original cast with whom it premiered. Harvey Keitel, Will Patton, and Amanda Plummer seem especially well cast, and James Gammon is about as perf
This one took a while to get its hooks in me, but one time it did I couldn't put it down. Starts off with the a prolonged set-up that's probably the weakest extended stretch of cloth Shepard'south produced during this period of his career, merely it all ends upwardly paying off exceptionally well as the play continues.It's fascinating to imagine seeing this with the original cast with whom it premiered. Harvey Keitel, Will Patton, and Amanda Plummer seem particularly well cast, and James Gammon is most as perfect a selection for Baylor as I could imagine. There'due south a reason this hasn't received quite the acclaim of many of the plays Shepard produced immediately prior - it's by turns more conventional and more dramatically abrasive (one plot evolution is downright Game of Thrones-ian in its shatteringly grim implications) - but information technology's as equally thought-provoking and fully-adult as, say, "Truthful West" in its own style. I likewise appreciate that Shepard is so patently trying to expand exterior of his condolement zone here.
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I read this in training to play the
I've seen select scenes from this play before and the full thing wasn't what I expected, just in a good mode. This play explores family dynamics, honey, heartbreak and mental illness amongst other things in a very blunt and human way. There is a lot of potential to bring out these ideas in different ways in a operation of this play. Even though the plot is ready in stone, at that place is plenty of room for movement in terms of staging and the style of the operation.I read this in training to play the character of Sally in a few months time. What I found interesting about the play is how much is open to interpretation in terms of personality. Aye nosotros encounter these people in their family homes, at their most honest and vulnerable, just in that location are always sides of yous that your family can't or won't meet. This is something that Sam Shepard leaves up to the actor and I'm very excited to explore this in rehearsal.
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If it weren't for my performing arts class, I wouldn't have even known this play exist let solitary have read it. I was assigned a scene with a partner (where I play Sally and he plays Jake) and in lodge to have better context, my professor suggested we read the whole play. Well, that was my intention simply the farther I got through it, the less I wanted to read it. Combined with unlikable characters and overwhelming melodramatic tone, the play's as well not that interesting
1.5/v stars; DNF'd at page 70If it weren't for my performing arts class, I wouldn't have even known this play exist allow alone take read it. I was assigned a scene with a partner (where I play Sally and he plays Jake) and in order to have better context, my professor suggested we read the whole play. Well, that was my intention merely the further I got through it, the less I wanted to read it. Combined with unlikable characters and overwhelming melodramatic tone, the play's also not that interesting and I don't know if seeing it performed would change that for me. February is not shaping upward to be a adept reading month for me.
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Star-studded in its original cast, but the WHY of this play is overshadowed past its extreme cast of characters.
Merely maybe I merely missed it...
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