7 June - The Aspern Papers

Having had a break from the group for one month, I hope that you will enjoy reuniting and discovering a play based on a novella by Henry James.  This was originally published in a magazine in 1888 and is one of James's best known works.

The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. 

Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James's ability to generate suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters.

James (a very private man) examines the conflicts involved when a biographer seeks to pry into the intimate life of his subject. In the novel James paints the nameless narrator of The Aspern Papers as "publishing scoundrel", but also generates sympathy for the narrator as he tries to work the papers loose from Juliana, who is presented as greedy, domineering and unappealing.  

In 1959 Michael Redgrave adapted the book for the stage.  In the original the narrator was nameless, but in this adaptation he is Henry Jarvis: can there be any doubt that the initials are intended. Redgrave played Jarvis in his adaptation.

Characters

Henry Jarvis (HJ)	The narrator, an American writer and biographer of Jeffrey Aspern
Mrs Prest	HJ's old friend in Venice
Miss Juliana Bordereau	Aspern’s former lover, an American living in seclusion in Venice
Miss Tina Bordereau	Miss Bordereau's niece
Pasquale	HJ's manservant
Assunta	Juliana Bordereau’s maid

James, painted by John Singer Sargent

Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson in 1953

The Redgraves in 1959. From left: Vanessa, Rachel, Micahel, Corin, Lynn

Henry James OM (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916)

James was an American-born British writer and is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. 

He is best known for a number of novels showing Americans encountering Europe and Europeans. He claimed that a text must first and foremost be realistic and contain a representation of life that is recognisable to its readers. Good novels, to James, show life in action and are, most importantly, interesting.

In addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays. James alternated between America and Europe for the first twenty years of his life; eventually he settled in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916.

Sir Michael  Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) 

Redgrave is perhaps best known as an English stage and film actor, but he was also a director, manager and author.

Redgrave was married to the actress Rachel Kempson for 50 years from 1935 until his death, and they headed a theatrical family.  Their children Vanessa (b. 1937), Corin (1939–2010) and Lynn Redgrave (1943–2010), and their grandchildren: Natasha (1963–2009), Joely Richardson (b. 1965) and Jemma (b. 1965) are also involved in theatre or film as actors. Their grandson Carlo Gabriel Nero is a screenwriter and film director; only Luke Redgrave has taken a path outside the theatre.

Lynn wrote a one-woman play for herself called Shakespeare for My Father. She was nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for this role. She traced her love for Shakespeare as a way of following and finding her often absent father.

5 April - Hedda Gabler

REMINDER:  NO MEETING IN MAY

In April we are going to read Hedda Gabler, inspired by it's current successful run at the National Theatre in London, and our enjoyment of A Doll's House.

Hedda Gabler was premiered in 1891, and its title character is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theatre.

Hedda's married name is Hedda Tesman; Gabler is her maiden name. On the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: "My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife."

Characters:

• Hedda Tesman née Gabler — The main character, newly married and bored with both her marriage and life, seeking to influence a human fate for the first time. She is the daughter of General Gabler.

• George (Jørgen) Tesman — Hedda's husband, an academic who is as interested in research and travel as he is in his wife. Despite George's presumed rivalry with Eilert over Hedda, he remains a congenial and compassionate host, and even plans to return Eilert's manuscript after Eilert loses it in a drunken stupor.

• Juliana (Juliane) Tesman — George's loving aunt who has raised him since early childhood. She is also called Aunt Julle in the play, and Aunt Ju-Ju by George.

• Thea Elvsted — A younger schoolmate of Hedda and a former acquaintance of George. Nervous and shy, Thea is in an unhappy marriage.

• Judge Brack — An unscrupulous family friend.

• Eilert Lövborg (Ejlert Løvborg) — George's former colleague, who now competes with George to achieve publication and a teaching position. Eilert was once in love with Hedda.

• Bertha (Berte) — A servant of the Tesmans.

Hedda, the daughter of an aristocratic and enigmatic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is George Tesman, a young, aspiring, and reliable (but not brilliant) academic who continued his research during their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she has never loved him but married him because she thinks her years of youthful abandon are over. It is also suggested that she may be pregnant.

The reappearance of George's academic rival, Eilert Løvborg, throws their lives into disarray. Eilert, a writer, is also a recovered alcoholic who has wasted his talent until now. Thanks to a relationship with Hedda's old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted (who has left her husband for him), Eilert shows signs of rehabilitation and has just published a bestseller in the same field as George. When Hedda and Eilert talk privately together, it becomes apparent that they are former lovers ... creating a devastating cocktail of emotions.

Ruth Wilson in the lead role of London's National Theatre's current production

To Doodle that you will be joining us, please CLICK HERE

REMINDER:  NO MEETING IN MAY

1 March: Suddenly at Home

I am glad that so many of you enjoyed Accidental Death of an Anachist: a very political, funny and finely crafted piece by the late Dario Fo.

In March we will go to the opposite extreme -  a murder mystery by Francis Durbridge.

Suddenly at Home

In this 1971 play (and the setting is very much of that era) a man murders his wife with the help of his mistress - but then there's a twist!

Characters

Glenn Howard - The Husband

Maggie Howard - His Wife

Helen Tenby - Maggie's Sister

Ruth Belcher - The Howard's Au Pair (but where are the children ...?)

Sam Blaine - Former lover of Maggie

Sheila Wallis - Friend of Maggie

Appleton - A Police Inspector

Reimick - A Police Inspector

Francis Durbridge (1912-1985)

Durbridge is most well known for his Paul Temple books and plays which have been turned into radio plays, television series and films.  Apart from fame as the Paul Temple author, Durbridge seems to have lived a quiet and happy life!

You can Doodle that you are coming here: http://doodle.com/poll/n5nvb67ha8s2tn6e

1 February: Accidental Death of an Anachist

Firstly, many thanks to Rina for the lovely Fève Tiramisu! And congratulations to Daniele on becoming our Queen!

I think we all found last month's play, Death and the Maiden, a 'good read', leaving us with plenty of things to think about.

This month's play, Accidental Death of an Anachist, should also provide food for thought - although perhaps in a more light-hearted vein.

To sign up that  you are coming, please click here:  http://doodle.com/poll/6w9qau4syrbe9qv2

The play is a farce based on the real-life events surrounding Italian railwayman and anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who fell – or was thrown – to his death from the fourth floor window of a Milan police station in 1969. Pinelli was accused of bombing a bank but was cleared of the charge. The events of the play, however, are fiction.

I will leave the play to unfold ... but there is an interesting factoid:  An actor Mark Blanco, who was cast in the lead role at a London fringe theatre, died in unexplained circumstances himself in December 2006 shortly before the production was about to open. Blanco fell to the ground from a balcony in Whitechapel, East London. His family said: "We absolutely do not believe that Mark committed suicide, or that his death was a simple accident." They continue to press for information on Blanco's last hours at the party from those who were present, including  former Libertines singer Pete Doherty.

I chose this play when the death of Fo, aged 90, was announced last October, and I thought you would all enjoy reading one by this Italian author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997.

The ECC did a very funny production of the play some years ago, and I hope we will be able to recapture the humour!

11 January - Death and the Maiden

Firstly, many thanks for the very kind gift you gave me in December, and my thanks to for the contributions made by Margaret and Isobel towards the edibles!

I hope you all had a very happy Christmas and that 2017 has started well for you.

My plans for being prepared for January have been thwarted, as I decided that the play I had proposed, Present Laughter, by Noel Coward, was actually not great shakes! Indeed, it was a wee bit dull!

And so I have chosen a play that is quite the other extreme of Coward!

Death and the Maiden is a dark 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Dorfman was exiled for many years when Chile was under the dictatorship of General Pinochet, whose regime and the subsequent move towards democracy strongly influence this work - although the country in the play is never named.  This play has been performed world-wide, including in Chile, and adapted into a film by Roman Polanski.

When Dr. Roberto Miranda enters the lives of lawyer, Gerardo Escobar, and his wife, Paulina Salas, he raises memories that Paulina has hidden for many years.                                          

This is not a fun start to the year!  But I  believe it is a good play which, despite its sometimes forthright language, will get us all thinking and talking.  The themes of the play are many:

• Justice v Peace
• Civilisation v Depravity
• Past v Future
• Cycle of Violence
• Lies or Truth?
• Forgiveness
• Guilt or Innocence?

Schubert: Death and the Maiden

Schubert's 1817 quartet is referenced in the play and this piece, based on a poem by Matthias Claudius, is strongly linked with death.   The theme is a death knell that accompanies the song about the terror and comfort of death.

The Maiden:

"Oh! leave me! Prithee, leave me! thou grisly man of bone!

For life is sweet, is pleasant.

Go! leave me now alone!

Go! leave me now alone!"

Death:

"Give me thy hand, oh! maiden fair to see,

For I'm a friend, hath ne'er distress'd thee.

Take courage now, and very soon

Within mine arms shalt softly rest thee!"

You can listen to it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXYjSmR6Bw

7 December: Arms & The Man

Thank you to Sheila for suggesting this play which she assures us has her and Keith chuckling away every time they read it!  So I'm looking forward to it!

The opening words of this 1894 play, are Arma virumque cano (Of arms and the man I sing), and, dealing with the subjects of the futility of war and the hypocrisies of human nature, it was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. 

Shaw was called onto stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. Amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?"

The Plot

I don't want to give it all away! But it is helpful to know that the play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. 

Characters:

Raina Petkoff: Heroine.  Young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff.

Sergius Saranoff: Bulgarian war hero

Captain Bluntschli:  Swiss mercenary in the Serbian army

Catherine Petkoff:  Raina's mother

Major Petkoff:  Raina's father

Louka:  Petkoff servant girl, engaged to Nicola

Nicola: Petkoff man servant

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950)

Bernard Shaw, as he preferred to be called,  was an Anglo-Irish playwright, critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including many major works (eg Pygmalion and Saint Joan).

Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic as well as a member of the Fabian Society.

Influenced by Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. 

Since Shaw's death, scholarly and critical opinion has varied about his works, but he has regularly been rated as second only to Shakespeare among English-language dramatists; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of playwrights. The word "Shavian" has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.

2 November - Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov

It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899.

The play portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yeléna, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle - an estate from which they receive but take no part in maintaining. 

Two friends, Vanya, brother of the Professor's late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local Doctor, both fall under Yelena's spell, while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. 

Sonya, the Professor's daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, meanwhile suffers from the awareness of her own lack of beauty and from her unrequited feelings for Dr. Astrov. Matters are brought to a crisis when the Professor announces his intention to sell the estate: Vanya and Sonya's home and raison d'être, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.

The version we will be reading however is an adaptation by Brian Friel,  who has been described as 'Ireland's greatest playwright' and an 'Irish Chekhov'.  You may find the occasional word or expression that is unfamiliar - and it is possible that I will not be able to translate for you!  

Characters

• Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov – a retired university professor, who has lived for years in the city on the earnings of his late first wife's rural estate, managed for him by Vanya and Sonya.
• Helena Andreyevna Serebryakov (Yelena) – Professor Serebryakov's young and beautiful second wife. She is 27 years old.
• Sofia Alexandrovna Serebryakov (Sonya) – Professor Serebryakov's daughter from his first marriage. She is of a marriageable age but is considered plain.
• Maria Vasilyevna Voynitsky  – the widow of a privy councilor and mother of Vanya (and of Vanya's late sister, the Professor's first wife).
• Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky ("Uncle Vanya") – Maria's son and Sonya's uncle, the title character of the play. He is 47 years old.
• Mikhail Lvovich Astrov – a middle aged country doctor.
• Ilya Ilych Telegin (nicknamed "Waffles" for his pockmarked skin) – an impoverished landowner, who now lives on the estate as a dependent of the family.
• Marina Timofeevna – an old nurse.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Cheknov is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. 

Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."^[7]

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays,Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text".

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story.^[10] He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

 Brian Friel (1929-2015)

Brian Friel was considered to be one of the greatest living English-language dramatists, and referred to as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland".

Recognised for early works, Friel had 24 plays published in a more than half-century spanning career that culminated in his election to the position of Saoi of Aosdána (Head of the Irish Arts Foundation). His plays were commonly featured on Broadway and won many awards.