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Post by theatresellers on Feb 2, 2024 2:32:55 GMT
There’s a play called The Belle of Amherst about the American poet Emily Dickinson. Has anyone seen it? It’s widely produced in the U.S. The dramatist play service lists three upcoming productions of it.
The play is a one person show with Emily talking about her life and performing poems. It presents a very sentimental view of her. Americans seem to like it, as she’s widely studied in American high schools. There was a BBC In Our Time episode about Dickinson. If I remember correctly I think the panel of “experts” on that podcast were critical of that play because it was so sentimental/ unrealistic.
I’d be curious to hear an English persons perspective on the play and/or poet.
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Post by Jan on Feb 2, 2024 7:37:49 GMT
There’s a play called The Belle of Amherst about the American poet Emily Dickinson. Has anyone seen it? It’s widely produced in the U.S. The dramatist play service lists three upcoming productions of it. The play is a one person show with Emily talking about her life and performing poems. It presents a very sentimental view of her. Americans seem to like it, as she’s widely studied in American high schools. There was a BBC In Our Time episode about Dickinson. If I remember correctly I think the panel of “experts” on that podcast were critical of that play because it was so sentimental/ unrealistic. I’d be curious to hear an English persons perspective on the play and/or poet. I have never heard of this play. It sounds like a version of the "Our Town" situation where a play is massively lauded in USA but gets very few productions in UK and it's generally puzzling to a UK audience why it is quite so popular. |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Feb 2, 2024 8:40:09 GMT
I would say Emily Dickinson is fairly popular in the UK, although clearly not as popular as in the States. Probably in the UK Virginia Woolf tends to occupy more than ED the niche of "brilliant female writer with mental health issues", even on stage (eg, Eileen Atkins' Vita & Virginia, O'Brien's Virginia etc)
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Post by theatresellers on Feb 2, 2024 13:35:39 GMT
There’s a play called The Belle of Amherst about the American poet Emily Dickinson. Has anyone seen it? It’s widely produced in the U.S. The dramatist play service lists three upcoming productions of it. The play is a one person show with Emily talking about her life and performing poems. It presents a very sentimental view of her. Americans seem to like it, as she’s widely studied in American high schools. There was a BBC In Our Time episode about Dickinson. If I remember correctly I think the panel of “experts” on that podcast were critical of that play because it was so sentimental/ unrealistic. I’d be curious to hear an English persons perspective on the play and/or poet. I have never heard of this play. It sounds like a version of the "Our Town" situation where a play is massively lauded in USA but gets very few productions in UK and it's generally puzzling to a UK audience why it is quite so popular. According to Concord Theatricals, there are about 40 productions of Our Town happening in the near future in the United States, but there are also two coming up in England, one at the The comparison to Our Town is a good one. I'm sure a lot of people in America imagine Emily Dickinson's Amherst, Massachusetts to have been similar to Grover's Corners (the fictional town in Our Town). |
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Post by alicechallice on Feb 2, 2024 16:30:08 GMT
Didn't Julie Harris come over to London with it in the 70's after she won the Tony? I'm sure I saw her plugging it on one of those Thames TV throwback interviews recently...
It made me wonder whether there'd be demand for a starry revival.
Re: Emily D - I LOVED Terrence Davies's film 'A Quiet Passion' about her.
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Post by lynette on Feb 2, 2024 16:55:24 GMT
I’ve been to her house, a very moving experience. I love her work. I would be interested in seeing a play about her or a one woman thing. Interesting.
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Post by theatresellers on Feb 4, 2024 21:51:17 GMT
I’ve been to her house, a very moving experience. I love her work. I would be interested in seeing a play about her or a one woman thing. Interesting. Visiting her house is the mark of a true fan. There's an interesting book about Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life by a woman who visited the house in Amherst in a free moment during work travel in MA and then decided to abandon her corporate career to become a writer about literary gardens (Beatrix Potter being another author she's done). |
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Post by Jan on Feb 11, 2024 13:50:18 GMT
According to Concord Theatricals, there are about 40 productions of Our Town happening in the near future in the United States, but there are also two coming up in England, Yes it gets done in UK occasionally. I saw a production at the Almeida which was effectively a transfer of a highly-praised USA production. I was aware in advance of the reputation of the play in USA. It was OK but my first reaction having seen it was "Is that it ?". Some plays don't really work outside their own cultural context - I'd put Spanish Golden Age plays and Lorca in that category. |
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Post by Ranger on Mar 25, 2024 16:48:34 GMT
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