straightplayshowdown
the straight play showdown
May the best play win!
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Header: The cast of Peter and the Starcatcher
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As I am currently very sick, Round 4 will be delayed until I recover.
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A Raisin in the Sun: We meet the Younger family the day before they are getting a $10,000 insurance check from the death of the father, Walter Younger. Different members of the family have different ideas of how to use the money. Tensions increase as each member of the family tries to get their own way, eventually threatening to break apart their foundation completely. The stakes continue to climb as questions about identity, class, value, race, and love become forefront issues, and outsiders to the family make it impossible to forget the world that the Younger family cannot seem to escape.
Peter and the Starcatcher: A young orphan named Boy and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island. They know nothing of the trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains an otherworldly cargo. Aboard the Neverland, the boys are discovered by a young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own – the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure. As they head for a faraway land, Molly and Boy learn about love & friendship and forge an unbreakable bond.
Propaganda under the cut!
A Raisin in the Sun:
"i had to read this for school" well yeah and it went hard. so.
I just aughghhh oughhhhhh aaaaauuuuuuufhfh the talk of dreams and how the characters match up to certain lines of the Langston Hughes poem,,,,, and the interesting family dynamics that arise from the Younger family’s situation,,,,,,,
It’s a classic for a reason! A truly groundbreaking play
Peter and the Starcatcher:
hands down best adaptation of the peter pan stories ever
this is literally the most heartwarming and heartbreaking play i have ever witnessed. its about the origins of peter pan. its insanely funny. its so sad. its about friendship and family and maturity and growing up. i cried so hard. the line "it has to hurt - thats how you know it meant something" has really stuck with me.
play of all time forever. silly goofy for like 90% of it and then goes and makes you cry in the last scene. the protagonists are all thirteen and it fucking shows (positive). the villain is captain hook minus the hook and one million times more queercoded. the other "villain" is a small italian man living on an island nowhere near italy. the other other villain fails to flirt with a girl and then dies because he gets a cat thrown in his face. the word "dyke" is in the script. christian borle was in it can we get the christian borle girlies in on this please. i still have a worm in my bag from the production i did. this show is my best friend forever
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The Play That Goes Wrong: The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society prepare to stage their new production – the 1920s murder mystery 'Murder at Haversham Manor'. However the set is not yet complete and there is no time to finish it off…..the show must go on! With a murder (and a moving corpse) established from the beginning, the murder mystery gets into full flow. However, the props start to disappear, actors go missing and the set begins to collapse around, and often on, the cast. Mayhem ensues, the acting gets worse, and the set becomes increasingly dangerous, but the company struggle on regardless.
A Doll's House: Nora and Torvald Helmer have a seemingly traditional nineteenth-century marriage. Torvald adores his wife, although he belittles her comprehension of the world. However, Nora has lived with a secret for years. She forged her father’s signature in order to borrow money to take her husband to Italy for recuperation after an illness. Her husband, Torvald, is now in a senior position working at the bank and Nora has been paying off the loan in installments. Yet her secret is about to be revealed when Torvald threatens to fire Nils Krogstad, the man Nora borrowed the money from.
Propaganda under the cut!
The Play That Goes Wrong:
Goofy, silly, I love these characters your honor. A second floor of a set falls down.
Silly! Energetic! Disastrous!
It was fun and I had a good time :)
It's the most incredible straight play of modern time. It's the stereotypical murder mystery, but with Murphy's law applied to the actual production- everything that can go wrong, does. We don't simply have the characters on the stage, we also have the actors playing them, who are all so well developed with their own foibles. From "I'm Chris Bean, the Die-rector" until the set literally falls apart, it's the funniest thing in the world, and you won't stop laughing even after you've left the theatre. More than the humor, though, it makes the theatre, and all its quirks, accessible. It demonstrates how much work goes into making a show happen, both onstage and behind the scenes. That appreciation is something very rarely shown let alone celebrated- and celebrated is the right word here. For even when everything goes wrong, and everything DOES in fact go wrong, they keep going. The show must go on, and it does, and it's wonderful. Also the three guys who star in it wrote it, and they're actually the sweetest guys ever, which is a rarity in the world of the arts.
A Doll's House:
The ending really got me! I wasn't expecting it.
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Angels in America: In the first part, we meet Louis and Prior and Harper and Joe, two couples whose relationships are on the rocks: the former because of Prior’s AIDS diagnosis and Louis’s inability to cope with illness, the latter because of Joe’s closeted homosexuality and Harper’s incessant fears and hallucinations, as well as her addiction to pain-killers. The second part focuses on the story of Prior Walter, a gay man living with AIDS who has recently been left by his partner, Louis, after he could not cope with the physical and personal impact of the disease.
The Importance of Being Earnest: Two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff, create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure.
Propaganda under the cut!
Angels in America:
painful funny surreal and down to earth all at the same time somehow, even without being a landmark piece for me personally w/ regard to queer literature
The Great American Play. The definitive exploration of how AIDS affected an entire generation of queer Americans in the '80s, and what it left behind in its wake. Those more eloquent than I am will be better at doing this play justice, but my sincerest hope is that the sheer significance of this work is clear enough to carry it all the way through to the highest end of this showdown.
honestly the peak of modern theater 2 me. everything i write and create is in the hopes that i might someday make something that lives up to the bar that angels set. it treats every one of its characters with such depth and compassion and the world it creates is so vivid and fantastic. and the context in which it was created will always be beyond important to me like i don't know how to describe how important it is that a play widely considered an american classic is about the aids crisis. she's the blueprint she's perfect she's everything
genuinely changed my life when i first read it. andrew garfield played prior walter in the 2018 national theatre version and he fucking kills it. it's 6 whole hours of joy and heartbreak and, most of all, hope. stan harper pitt!!!
This epic stageplay has become more accessible since its HBO miniseries adaptation in 2003. It is epic, intersectional, commemorative of a collective trauma that had been silenced for too long at the time of writing. (also Harper deserves to be as much a Tumblr Sad Girl icon as Lana del Rey or Sylvia Plath.)
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Queercoded love interest and Victorian dandies, what’s not to love?
Quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever read.
It's very funny.
there is a HANDBAG and it is a MAJOR PLOT POINT. jack pretends to be ernest because he's been doing it for ages and why not am i right? algernon pretends to be ernest to get a girl and also so screw stuff up. as one does. gwendolen and cecily have a REALLY passive aggressive tea party. this play slaps. it is so good. go read it and/or see it
“Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.”
Lady Bracknell: “I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
Lady Bracknell: “My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality.”
Jack: “On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: The show examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive an unwitting younger couple, Nick and Honey, as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: The play follows seven nameless woman through a world of racism, oppression, and sexism. These women of color are named after the colors of the rainbow: Lady in Red, Lady in Blue, Lady in Purple, Lady in Yellow, Lady in Brown, Lady in Green, and Lady in Orange. They tell their stories and the stories of other women they know through poetry, music, and dance. It is a piece that flows effortlessly from one story into the next, never really taking a moment to breathe. The women often help each other tell their stories by acting as a chorus or stepping into the shoes of another character.
Propaganda under the cut!
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?:
the only play ive read that really made me feel anything tbh. the tension all throughout it. the ending!!! the confusion and the sudden realisation.... the reality & illusion thing. Aughhhh
It's like eavesdropping on a couple fighting at a restaurant, but you're in their living room and they also invited over people they met for the first time that night
watching this feels like you've been invited to a dinner party and the couple hosting start bickering and you're feeling kind of awkward and then they start going straight for each other's metaphorical throats and acting like it's a game. every time you try to speak up or say "oh wow it's late we should be going" they make another excuse or they turn it on you. such chaos, such fun
it's straight people in a very toxic relationship who has out their drama in front of everyone and also it was written by a gay man and it is very funny
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf:
A groundbreaking play/choreopoem about the lives of black women
#who's afraid of virginia woolf#for colored girls who have considered suicide#when the rainbow is enuf#for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf#round 3#polls#the straight play showdown
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The rest will be posted at 8:30 PM CST!
I forgot to set up the rest of the polls 😭 They'll go live later tonight, I promise
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I forgot to set up the rest of the polls 😭 They'll go live later tonight, I promise
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Fences: Set in 1957 in what is assumed to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the play follows Troy Maxson, a 53-year-old man who struggles to provide for his wife and son in a time when slavery is over but the civil rights movement has still not come to fruition. Troy used to be an amazing baseball player, but was not able to make it to the Major Leagues due to the color of his skin. Troy has had to settle into the life of being a trash collector and barely scraping by, and this causes a lot of turmoil and frustration, especially in his relationships.
No Exit: As an exploration of human nature and relationships, the play follows three people to a room in hell, where their torture is revealed to be each other’s company. Three damned souls, Garcin, Inez, and Estelle, are brought to a lavish room to await their punishment. While they expected some sort of torture chamber to punish them in the afterlife, they instead begin to realize where the true torment really lies.
Propaganda under the cut!
Fences:
Not sure what to say, so I’ll let the play speak for itself. Here’s James Earl Jones doing a scene from it: https://youtu.be/K_kGtQmvrVI and here’s a totally different interpretation of that scene from Denzel Washington: https://youtu.be/UBTXS42dj40
No Exit:
No Exit is a funny and gross examination of the way we interact with other people and how they affect who we are and how we feel, and also why we lie to each other. It’s such a fun exploration of character dynamics
it's good
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Medea: The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering his new wife as well as her own two sons, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself standing beside the pond of the old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play. He's transported to his 12th birthday when his remarkable friend Lettie claimed it wasn't a pond, but an ocean–a place where everything is possible… Plunged into a magical world, their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them.
Propaganda under the cut!
Medea:
Imagine you are an Athenian man at the Dionysia circa. 431 BC. You are drunk. Your little Athenian wife is at home weaving or giving birth or talking to the slaves about vegetables or something. On stage, you watch a man dressed as a woman give one of the greatest monologues of all time about how hard it is to be a woman. Maybe you are moved, maybe not. Then you watch her KILL HER CHILDREN with a sword and FLY off into the sky in a chariot pulled by DRAGONS. Wyd?
I do love me a greek play. Chorus is all 'oh no, murder is happening, someone stop it. We can't, obvs '
It’s MEDEA by EURIPIDES.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane:
It is adapted from a Neil Gaiman book, and is an excellent play both in terms of story and staging. The set is beautiful and scene transitions never feel awkward, as the stage hands are incorporated into the story as forces of nature. It has amazing practical effects, especially the giant spider-like monster puppet. All the lighting and sound cues have significance to the story and reflect the emotions of the character's. The story itself centres around the idea of adults not believing children even when what they say is true, and the strength of childhood friendship. Also there's a family of entirely female asexual witches.
This play is gorgeous. It's about rediscovering a childhood long forgotten, in all its beauty and all its nightmares. It has absolutely fabulous puppetry sequences of the like I've never seen before, and some parts had me genuinely cowering in my seat. It was terrifying. It was beautiful. It made me cry. I'm still thinking about it months later. Go see it.
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Much Ado About Nothing: Count Claudio falls in love with Hero, the daughter of his host. Hero's cousin, Beatrice, and Benedict are each duped into believing the other is in love with them. Claudio is deceived by a malicious plot and denounces Hero as unchaste before they marry. Benedict wins Beatrice’s love defending her cousin’s honor, and to his surprise, Claudio is reunited with Hero, who he believed to be dead.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead: When his beloved beagle is destroyed after a rabid rampage, CB is plunged into such a depression that a literal raincloud starts to follow him around. Suddenly introspective, he is no longer satisfied with his high school status as a good-looking bully. Writing to a childhood pen pal who has never written back, CB describes his daily interactions with his community: his angst-ridden sister, aggressive Matt, mean girls Marcy and Tricia, and stoned philosopher Van. When he unexpectedly connects with Beethoven, a childhood friend, CB thinks he’s found both a relationship and a means to rebel against his predictable, doormat persona… but he may have to lose everything to gain peace of mind.
Propaganda under the cut!
Much Ado About Nothing:
if you have to pick one shakespeare play please let it be this one
Two idiots. Absolute morons. Neither of them like each other but get pranked so hard that they end up marrying. Also: Catherine Tate and David Tennant (of course). I love them. Any casting is brilliant, ALL the characters are fools.
A silly little play about a silly little group of people. Also it has enemies to lovers, some very extra people, and is a goldmine for good insults
if you watched this and didn't love Beatrice and Benedick I don't know what to say
The original enemies to lovers, “god that I were a man I would eat his heart in the marketplace” goes harder than any line ever, it’s also really funny
It's a very funny play about two people who do not wish to fall on love(Benedick and Beatrice) but during the seven days before the wedding of Hero and Claudio, the rest of the characters decide to make Benedick and Beatrice fall in love. In the end, they do end up falling in love with eachother.
Beatrice and Benedict are the blueprint for so many couples that came later
Enemies to lovers, but it's hijinks
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead:
i just think it would be really funny if it were in this tournament
#much ado about nothing#dog sees god#dog sees god: confessions of a teenage blockhead#round 3#the straight play showdown#polls
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been summoned to Elsinore by the king, Claudius. He and Queen Gertrude, wish for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to glean what sudden sway of madness has affected Hamlet. The duo sets out to achieve their task, meeting a ragged troupe of players along the way. Brief glimpses of scenes from Hamlet show the trials and tribulations of the royals; our two heroes are largely left in a state of waiting. They pass the time playing games, posing questions, and tossing coins, until they gradually realize that their fates have been taken out of their own hands. They are merely characters in a larger story in which they have no say.
Hamlet: Hamlet is home to mourn the death of his father. He is disgusted by the marriage of his mother to his uncle, Claudius, who now has the throne. The ghost of his father reveals to Hamlet that Claudius poisoned him in the ear. Hamlet vows to avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet’s sanity begins to be questioned by all. He accidentally kills Polonius, thinking it was Cladius. Ophelia has gone mad with grief over the death of her father. Claudius suggests that Laertes duel with Hamlet. From there, the play ends in tragedy.
Propaganda under the cut!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead:
what if we were both minor characters in Hamlet forced to die over and over again in a timeloop and we were both guys 😳. basically one of the only modern straight plays i know and its just so good!!!!!!!! Rosencratz's death monolouge gets me everytime
This play is for people that love Shakespeare, but also love weird shit. It somehow offers really insightful commentary on stories and fate and purpose while also feeling like a fever dream.
an existential and brilliant deconstruction of hamlet
it’s good
Hamlet fanfic involving the game of questions and frequently not being on boats.
No, I'm tired sorry
waiting for godot meets hamlet. best of both worlds
A heartbreaking examination of the archetype “tragedy” — the knowledge that, essentially, the characters are doomed from the beginning, and cannot escape their fates, the inescapable feeling that they’re simply characters in a story. RAGAD treats the genre with comedy and makes two seemingly meaningless characters into an everyone’s favorite duo.
what if we were doomed by the narrative and flipped coins and licked feet and hid in barrels and hung out with a suspicious actor troupe who eventually turns against us and also we have to figure out what's up with hamlet because claudius told us to? and we were both boys? just kidding! ....unless?
I know the whole thing off by heard and I’ve never been in it. Does that count. Also it deserves to win because of what the awful awful film did to it.
Hamlet:
its hamlet. do i need to say anything more?
i mean. it just is the best play of all time. like it almost sucks that we peaked 400 years ago but it is the best play ever written and there's nothing you or i can do about that
it’s THE play
ghosts! revenge! madness! murder most foul! how could you possibly ask for more?
What a heartbreaking exploration of grief…
#rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead#hamlet#hamlet prince of denmark#round 3#the straight play showdown#polls
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Best Shakespeare Adaptation
since the 1600s, people have been rewriting shakespeare and writing spinoffs in good, bad, and frankly just kind of insane ways. today, they will compete until only one is left standing!
during the poll craze i ran a lot of brackets and had fun, but ended up with a couple spare blogs i ended up having to delete, so i'm running this one off my main.
q. is this a tournament for productions or adaptations?
a. adaptations! stuff that changes dialogue or medium (beyond play -> movie) or takes a really new spin on it! west side story counts, romeo and juliet (1996) doesn't.
q. will there be a limit on contestants?
i'll cut it at 64 or 32 depending on how many submissions we get! if we get a lot of adaptations of a few plays and less of others, i won't cut any of them out, but i'll make some of them face off in round one
q. are you biased?
yes. fortinbras sweep. i've been reading 'these violent delights' too and it's pretty good. oh and can't forget haider, and requiem of the rose king is an all timer... basically, yes i really like rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead, but i have much room in my heart
q. is it most best portrayal/analysis, or best on its own merits?
a. a little of both, but mostly the latter
q. does [x thing] (that's pretty different than the original inspiration) count?
a. if it is common knowledge that it's shakespeare inspired
q. does the lion king count?
a. yea
signal boosting! if yall great bracket blogs will help out @gayest-classiclit @byronicherobracket (this one's still in qualifiers, it seems cool!) @straightplayshowdown (this one's getting going again!) @bestadaptationtournament @gayestshakespearecouples
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Round 3 Bracket
Thank you to every single person who submitted to the bracket! With each poll, there will be a synopsis of both shows (made to the best of my & the internet's ability) and propaganda (if submitted). The bracket will start on Friday February 9 at 6 PM CST.
Below the cut is the Round 3 Bracket!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Stoppard) v Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Medea (Euripedes) v The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Horwood)
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare) v Dog Sees God: The Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (Royal)
Fences (Wilson) v No Exit (Sartre)
Angels in America (Kushner) v The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)
The Play That Goes Wrong (Lewis, Sayer, Shields) v A Doll's House (Ibsen)
A Raisin in The Sun (Hansberry) v Peter and The Starcatcher (Elise)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Albee) v for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (Shange)
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Long time, no see! I am so sorry for the delay, but this bracket will be resuming this Friday. I've had a lot going on in my life (winter musical, surgery) but I can finally go back to running this :)
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I am so sorry... I have not had the time to set up polls for Round 3.... One more week 😔
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Hi!! Will there be a second season? Hope you have a swell day :^)
Possibly? I was thinking of a 10 minute play showdown after this one is finished! Though by the time this is done I'll be even more busy, so it might be the end of the year before that happens.
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Fences will move on to Round 3!
The Pillowman: Katurian, a writer of short stories that often depict violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of his stories resemble recent child murders. Although Katurian knows he himself is not guilty, someone else is.
Fences: Set in 1957 in what is assumed to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the play follows Troy Maxson, a 53-year-old man who struggles to provide for his wife and son in a time when slavery is over but the civil rights movement has still not come to fruition. Troy used to be an amazing baseball player, but was not able to make it to the Major Leagues due to the color of his skin. Troy has had to settle into the life of being a trash collector and barely scraping by, and this causes a lot of turmoil and frustration, especially in his relationships.
Propaganda under the cut!
The Pillowman:
A writer (Katurian) known for his gruesome works of literature - specifically about children dying - is locked up after two recent murders in his area have occurred in the exact same way two of his works of fiction has. He’s strongly believed to be the culprit, although he is not. He is interrogated by “good cop” (Tupolski) and “bad cop” (Ariel). Katurian is beyond clueless, until he finds out his brain-damaged brother (Michal) was the one who committed the crimes. Throughout the show, Katurian recites his stories, including: The Little Apple Men, The Three Gibbet Crossroads, The Tale of the Town on the River, The Pillowman, The Little Green Pig, The Little Jesus, and The Writer And The Writer’s Brother. It overall combines the fantasy from Katurian’s stories with the darkness of the reality of life and death.
Fences:
Not sure what to say, so I’ll let the play speak for itself. Here’s James Earl Jones doing a scene from it: https://youtu.be/K_kGtQmvrVI and here’s a totally different interpretation of that scene from Denzel Washington: https://youtu.be/UBTXS42dj40
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