What Do I Read Next?
John Ford's Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633) is a fervent play from the seventeenth century, regarded as the pinnacle of Caroline theater. Its central theme remains as provocative today as it was then: the incestuous relationship between siblings Giovanni and Arabella. Ford revels in examining the ethical dilemmas this love presents.
August Strindberg’s naturalistic drama Miss Julie (1888) has become a cornerstone of mainstream theater, although it was originally banned by the Danish censor. The play delves into the theme of love crossing class boundaries.
Stoppard’s Arcadia (1993) is a captivating play centered on the mysterious disappearance of the Romantic poet Byron from Britain in 1809, along with other unresolved mysteries of Romanticism. The narrative spans two distinct time periods. Arcadia was praised as Stoppard’s most intellectually challenging work to date.
Yasmina Reza’s Art (1997) is an immensely successful French play, translated into English, focusing on three friends' varied responses to a newly acquired painting (a black canvas) by one of them.
Shakespeare in Love, created by Stoppard and Marc Norman (1998), is an Oscar-winning film that offers insights into Stoppard’s work and Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night.
American novelist and essayist Norman Mailer authored the naturalist novel The Naked and the Dead (1948), chronicling the lives of thirteen infantrymen who survive the assault on a Japanese-occupied island during World War II. He also penned the Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book, The Armies of the Night (1968), which recounts a pacifist march on the Pentagon in 1967.
Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval (1984) is an excellent play to compare with Stoppard’s The Real Thing, as both were written within a few years of each other and employ the play-within-a-play technique. Ayckbourn’s work is set in a small provincial town and revolves around the antics of an amateur musical society.
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