theater

Book Review: Shakespeare’s Avengers

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William Shakespeare's Avengers by Ian Doescher

William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works
by Ian Doescher (Goodreads Author)
5 out of 5 stars

The Avengers movies are retold in this Shakespearean format as if they were theater plays, complete with stage directions and Elizabethan language.

I got inspired to rewatch the movies, and watched each one right after reading the play! It was so fun to see how the book follows the movie scenes closely, but with little additions in the dialogue and aside comments to the audience. There is even a chorus that introduces scenes and explains the plot like Shakespeare’s plays would have.

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Play Review: The Mousetrap

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The Mousetrap and Other Plays by Agatha Christie

The Mousetrap and Other Plays
by Agatha Christie, Ira Levin (Introduction)
3 out of 5 stars
This is such a great collection of Agatha Christie’s plays! Some I liked more than others, but they were all interesting and mysterious.

There were a couple of the plays where I found it easy to guess who the murderer was. I wonder if I saw the play actually being acted on stage, it might not be so easy to tell. So much depends on the tone of voice and the atmosphere of a scene. Reading a play just isn’t the same.

I love the complex characters, and all the red herrings and wild clues! Each play has a certain charm and fascination that kept my attention.

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Shakespeare Review: Pericles

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Pericles
Pericles by William Shakespeare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

King Antiochus declares that any suitor for his daughter’s hand in marriage must first answer a riddle, and if the suitor answers incorrectly, he forfeits his life. Everyone has failed to answer the riddle, until Prince Pericles comes along, and figures out that the riddle means that Antiochus is committing incest with his daughter.

Enraged at being found out, Antiochus tries to have Pericles assassinated, and Pericles flees to the sea. A storm wrecks his ship and he is cast ashore with only his armor at Pentapolis, where King Simonedes is holding a tournament for his daughter’s birthday. Pericles wins the tournament and weds Thaisa. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Joys of Love

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The Joys of Love
The Joys of Love by Madeleine L’Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

During the summer of 1946, twenty-year-old Elizabeth is doing what she has dreamed of since she was a little girl: working in the theatre company on the sea where she is an apprentice actress. She’s never felt so alive. And soon she finds another passion: Kurt Canitz, the dashing young director of the company. Then Elizabeth’s perfect summer is profoundly shaken when Kurt turns out not to be the kind of man she thought he was.

Moving and romantic, this coming-of-age story was written during the 1940s. As revealed in an introduction by the author’s granddaughter Léna Roy, the protagonist Elizabeth is close to an autobiographical portrait of L’Engle herself as a young woman—“vibrant, vulnerable, and yearning for love and all that life has to offer.”  -GoodReads

 

I enjoyed reading this book! L’Engle has such a unique writing style; she can take a side-character with a toothache, and make their toothache be a philosophical commentary on the fantasy vs. reality of emotional entanglements, weaving it so perfectly into the storyline that you barely realize she’s doing it. As always, brilliant writing! Continue reading →