Get Into Reading Plays
Plays are literature designed to be performed... But they're still literature.
Reading plays has been a part of my literature intake since school. Back then, this consumption was predominantly in the form of Shakespeare or Alan Bennett - writers that are still embedded into today’s curriculum. I do believe however - and no disrespect to Bennett - that the landscape of playwriting and theatre in general has transformed significantly in recent years, and the material taught in education settings should reflect this. Although Shakespeare’s legacy cannot be argued and despite the fact I enjoy Alan Bennett’s work, I think the seminal authors of playwriting that remain on the syllabus cause many learners to leave the art of script reading behind upon the completion of their English-based exams.
This reminder was brought upon me recently when having a conversation with my dad. As an avid theatre goer, I often ask my dad if he wants to go with me and most of the time, he agrees to. After every play, we discuss at length what we thought about it, and our reasonings always go beyond surface level; we always seem to be very much invested in what we’ve watched, even if our feelings towards it aren’t always completely favourable. In light of this, I have asked my dad on numerous occasions to read a play I’ve enjoyed but, more often than not, he refrains, stating the difficulty and how complicated they can be to follow.
I don’t necessarily disagree with him in all cases; there are some playwrights who approach the craft with abstract, absurd, and unclear creativity. Still, a part of me holds onto a belief that if - in school - we were introduced to plays that reflect who we are, contain topics of vital knowledge and/or evoke genuine emotion, many people would maintain a voluntary willingness to explore such texts long after their school days conclude.
For that reason, I have taken it upon myself to collate a short list of some of the best plays I have read. Whilst I have watched some brilliant plays which are some of my favourites, this post is an attempt to get people engaging with the literature more so than their physical incarnations. (That being said, support the theatre please. It’s the best art form and criminally underfunded as an industry).
You will also notice that several of the plays I have listed are written for one actor to perform; this is just a personal preference and they are probably easier to read as a starting point. However, there are many great texts that have full ensembles and are equally as good.
As a final note, I haven’t listed my choices in any sort of chronology - I would find that quite literally impossible.
*All synopsis’ are snippets from the back of the physical versions of each play.
Fleabag by Pheobe Waller-Bridge
“‘I sit on the loo and think about all the people I can have sex with now. I’m not obsessed with sex. I just can’t stop thinking about it.’
The Fleabag bites back. A rip-roaring account of some sort of female living her sort of life.”
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If playwriting was a religion, I would say Fleabag is the closest thing to being the bible. It’s a play I have read countless times and each time I find something new without fail. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ability to create such nuanced stories should be taught in creative writing; for such a laugh-out-loud play, the level of depth is genuinely mind-blowing.
Misty by Arinze Kene
“An epic, lyrical journey through the pulsating heart and underground soul of inner-city London.
Misty is an inventive blend of gig theatre, spoken word, live art and direct address, confronting the assumptions and expectations underpinning the act of telling a story.”
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Surprisingly, there are many plays about putting on a play which can feel very redundant and boring; Misty is one of the few brilliant exceptions. I read this when I was on the YEP Writers course at the Everyman Theatre a few years ago. I had been toying with embedding poetry into my own script and this play allowed me to realise the freedom and relevance of incorporating rhyme. Misty was a constant reference I would go back to throughout my own creative process and I probably owe a lot to Arinzé Kene when it comes to sticking to my guns and taking a risk.
Good Girl by Naomi Sheldon
“‘The problem is when I feel too much in here, the edges of me can’t contain whatever this is inside, this ball of feeling. It’s violent and it’s ugly and it’s embarrassing and it grows until it’s pressing up against the inside of my skin and I feel like I’m going to tear open, and I guess I, yeah, I feel like I’m going to… disappear.’
GG’s girlhood is unfolding as an inquisitive game but a mysterious tingling sensation heralds her sexual awakening. Good Girl is a bold and provocative look at the darker side of being a good girl. Welcome to the ‘90s. Where the only sex education is from Madonna.”
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One of the best things about the pandemic was the Soho Theatre website uploading videos of plays that had been previously performed at the venue. I sat one night scrolling through the website as I’d probably ran out of every other pass time. Good Girl was on their and after watching a small preview clip, I couldn’t put it on fast enough. I loved it so much that I felt the need to buy it so that I could analyse the text just as much as I had the performance.
In my introduction, I spoke about the importance of including plays on the national curriculum that explore vital topics that people should have knowledge of - Good Girl is absolutely one of those plays. Naomi Sheldon talks about the lack of resources in the ‘90s when it came to sex education, the female body, and the mental and physical changes that come with this without any concrete information or forewarning. It’s a source of refuge and empathy for girls, an awareness-raiser and ignorance-decreaser for boys. Why wouldn’t you put this in classrooms for young people to critically evaluate?
BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer by Brian Lobel
“Unexpected, quirky and provocative, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer is a unique collection of performances about illness and the changing body over time.
…this collection challenges the inspirational stories of survivors and martyrs that have come before, infusing the ‘cancer story’ with an urgency and humour which is sometimes inappropriate, often salacious and always, above all else, honest and open.”
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When I started taking my own writing seriously, a friend introduced me to this play and it was instrumental in crafting my creative voice. BALL is so easy to read as it goes against some of the ‘rules’ of scriptwriting with elements even replicating that of a (hysterical) lecture or TED Talk. As a cancer survivor himself, Brian Lobel offers a fresh perspective on the illness and allows you to recognise that even in the scariest of conditions, there are still so many reasons to laugh.
Grenfell: in the words of survivors by Gillian Slovo
“The early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017. The north-west corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A twenty-four-storey residential tower. The scene of a national tragedy.
Startling, urgent and deeply moving, Grenfell: in the words of survivors explores the courage and resilience of an ill-treated community and their continued campaign for justice.”
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Regardless of whether you love or hate theatre/reading/watching the news/politics, this play should be read by everyone. As a verbatim play - a play that basically uses real wordage from interviews, recorded transcripts, courtroom dialogue, etc. - this may be slightly harder to read than some of the other texts I’ve listed. However, it is the most vital play I have ever read and it filled me with a huge amount of fury and empathy that doesn’t necessarily bounce from every page of every book.
The title of the play says everything you need to know in relation to subject content. The pages, on the other hand, go far beyond the images and information we all saw and heard on the news. Told through the words of those who survived - and lived in - Grenfell Tower, every reader of this play will have a newfound awareness and sense of disgust concerning the level of neglect, ignorance, racism, xenophobia and corruption these people received from government, businesses and institutions that had every single ounce of power to prevent such a disaster.
An anger-inducing but absolutely compulsory read.
Iphigenia in Splott by Gary Owen
“Stumbling down the street drunk at 11:30am, Effie is the kind of girl you would avoid making eye contact with. You think you know her, but maybe you don’t know half of it.
Effie’s life is a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day - ‘til one night gives her the chance to be something more.”
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I was initially unsure of what the title of this play even meant and, wrongly, I probably wouldn’t have ever picked it up had it not been on the reading list for the current playwriting programme I am attending. Basically, the title derives from that of a Greek Tragedy called Iphigenia in Aulis written by Euripides. Iphigenia is a mythological character, whilst Aulis an Ancient Greek town. Gary Owen utilises the title somewhat symbolically through the parallels his story shares with Euripides and Greek mythology; Splott is simply a town in South Wales.
I feel like this play along with Fleabag and Good Girl could make a sort of trinity in relation to female-led plays. Iphigenia in Splott is a great example of not taking things at face value and learning to understand a situation or person before making quick judgements of no substance. I also appreciate that this script is written by a male author as it evidences men’s growing awareness of female perspectives and, better still, proves that men can produce female-oriented work that does not adhere to the male gaze but rather reflects the true perspectives of women.
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller
“Tessa is a young, brilliant barrister. She has worked her way up from working-class origins to the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and winning.
But an unexpected event forces her to confront the patriarchal power of the law, where the burden of proof and morality diverge.”
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Schools: sack off Shakespeare and get Suzie Miller on the curriculum imminently. What a brilliant play Prima Facie is. An important story of inequality within the justice system when it comes to cases of sexual assault. I don’t want to give any further contextual information about this play because I’d end up telling the whole story, spoilers and all. Put simply, this is genuinely one of the most interesting plays out there. I recently saw that Suzie Miller has transformed the play into a novel and I will absolutely be reading it even though I know what’s coming.
My list could go on and on so to wrap things up, here are some Other Notable Plays:
Plastic Figurines by Ella Carmen Greenhill
I, Daniel Blake adapted for the stage by Dave Johns (Originally written by Paul Laverty)
random by Debbie Tucker Green
Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel
Dance Nation by Clare Barron
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
If you ever find that you’ve completed your reading list or have a spare hour or two, I urge you to pick up one of these plays. Vast majority can be completed in one sitting and I am confident it will open you up to a whole new sphere of literature.
Are there any plays I’ve missed that you would recommend? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated (and read)!