William and I are in essential agreement here. I'd never write a play to b sayb something, and, guaranteed: Except for a few passing rants, Shakespeare didn't write Hamlet to say something. He hoped the act of seeing it would DO something -- to those who saw.
Not long before he died, Miller, who came out of the b problem playb school of theater, wrote a piece for the Times in which he pronounced on b what the theater ought to be doing these days.b He said theater should present b big, world-challenging playsb that b grapple with the great themes that affect us all.b Plays ought to be b social commentaryb , indeed, b social criticismb . They ought to be devoted to b global issuesb , b our public fateb . Now, who can argue against so respectable a position as that? I can. Both as a theater-goer and as a playwright, the plays that appeal to me most are regularly about particular people with particular predicaments, motivations, strengths and foibles. These are not public fates, but private ones. Take b Long Day's Journeyb , b Streetcarb , and b Glass Menagerieb . I claim Miller would have to stretch his phrases to the tearing point to find these are plays b imbued with ideasb , b broader commentaryb , b global issuesb . Miller may have found Michael Frayn's b Copenhagenb to his liking, but I think the Frayn play that will still be staged a hundred years from now isn't b Copenhagenb - it's the farce, b Noises Offb . Moreover, I claim that a close inspection of the sorts of things some playwrights are gravely bent on b sayingb , are, in every single instance, clichC)s -- shop-worn, near-vacuous platitudes. One critic cited this as the b deep, universal truthb in Shanley's b Doubtb : b to be in doubt is not comfortableb&and you want to scratch your way to certainty.b I'm reminded of my schooldays when we were foolishly told the reason Shakespeare wrote b Othellob was to illustrate his profound b themeb : Jealousy is bad. In ten pages of David Hume's centuries-old b Treatise of Human Natureb , you'll find as many b deep thematic truthsb as in all the plays written since then. Consider comedies. They last, and the b seriousb , b larger meaningsb plays don't. You doubt me? Name one b seriousb play and its playwright written in English between 1630 and 1920. But the comedies of Congreve, Sheridan, and Wilde are still mounted in hundreds of regional theaters around the world every year. Why is that? In sum, I support Miller's right to create what he felt he ought to, but I reject his oughts for me. ************** Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut000500000000 17 )
