In your opinion who is the greatest playwright of the 20th century?- Page 3

[Heddy2]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 7:16am

I really wouldn't consider Ibsen to be a 20th century writer, just because he lived until 1906. He wasn't writing until his deathbed.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 9:20am

Greatest American playwright is TENNESSEE WILLIAMS...no doubt!

Greatest playwright of the 20th Century...CHEKHOV...come on...THREE SISTERS/THE CHERRY ORCHARD/THE SEAGULL/UNCLE VANYA...

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 10:43am

Has no one even hon mentioned Brecht?

[The Other One]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 11:01am

You can make a case for anyone based on your own preferences.  Some are undeniably "important" but you might not like their plays or think they hold up.  Others have written a great play or two but a greater number of misfires.  

I love so many of the people put forth in this post.  I could never pick one greatest.

Albee is my favorite.  No, not just because of his recent passing.  Even the plays of his I did not like upon first reading or seeing have usually stuck with me for longer than most plays that grabbed me right off the bat.  

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 11:01 AM

[broadwayguy91]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 11:13am

JB Priestley

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 11:52am

Are we really considering Ibsen and Chekhov as twentieth century playwrights? 

 

A playwright I personally would add that hasn't been mentioned above (unless I missed it?) is Ionesco. 

 

My list would be: 

Albee

Williams

Miller

Ionesco

McDonaugh

Churchhill 

Hellman 

Wilson

Brecht 

O'Neil 

 

Honorable Mentions:

Inge

Odets

Rivera

Lorca

Simon

Wilder

 

 

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 2:12pm

The "great playwright" has more or less disappeared as a professional identity and it might be wiser to rethink theater history so it can catch up to meet us in the here and now as "great plays" rather than "great playwrights". 

[wonkit]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 2:25pm

It is difficult for me to define "greatest" in terms of legacy because tastes change and what we think of as "good" theater may seem irrelevant at some point. If you had asked people in 1610, they would have probably chosen Ben Jonson over Will Shakespeare. 

 

But in terms of my opinion of experts in the craft of playwriting, I think Shaw, O'Neill, Pinter, Ackbourne and Stoppard. I am not and will never be a fan of Williams, Albee or Miller, simply because I think they had one excellent play in them and then could not reach that level again. IMHO, of course.

[yfs]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 3:59pm

Part of the question is, of course, quantity versus quality. Dismissing playwrights because they wrote a single great play is ok if you want to play it that way, but a lot of folks would dismiss both Wilder and Kushner on that basis, while rewarding Wilson for writing 10 remarkable plays. But you could argue that none of those 10, good as they are, is the equal of Angles in America or Our Town. On the other hand, the totality of Wilson's work is of an amazingly high quality, and seen sequentially (not such an easy thing to do), maybe they're more powerful than Angels or Our Town. And while Williams seems clearly, to me at least, to have written two of the greatest American plays (Glass Menagerie and Streetcar) he probably wrote more really bad plays than almost any great playwright. So the question is fun to debate, but impossible to answer, IMHO. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 4:26pm

@wonkit "one excellent play in them." Wow, opinion or not, that's a pretty astonishing one. 

@yfs, yes, meaningless fun. Re quantity, I think part of greatness is in an ongoing evolving conversation (often with oneself perhaps), and regrettably we don't have that with Kushner even though as I said before he wrote a play that sits at the top of my pedestal. 

 

 

[wonkit]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 8:35pm

Astonishing but mine own.

I think CRUCIBLE is great, but AFTER THE FALL?

Albee's stuff is ok but nothing touches WHO'S AFRAID....  

GLASS MENAGERIE and ok, STREETCAR, so that's two, but SUMMER AND SMOKE? 

 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 8:49pm

Arthur Miller

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 9:07pm

Yes, Summer and Smoke! I find it gorgeous and moving - especially the denouncement. I'm surprised you'd pick Summer and Smoke when Williams had his 20 year experimental period where he wrote flop after flop. To me, Summer and Smoke (and the last scenes of the rewrite, The Eccentricities of the Nightengale) is Williams in his prime and element.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/24/16 at 10:52pm

wonkit said: "Astonishing but mine own.

I think CRUCIBLE is great, but AFTER THE FALL?

Albee's stuff is ok but nothing touches WHO'S AFRAID....  

GLASS MENAGERIE and ok, STREETCAR, so that's two, but SUMMER AND SMOKE? "

not sure why you willfully ignore other major plays in your explanation. Kinda takes the wind out of your sails, don't ya think? I mean Miller also wrote a lot of other heralded plays, but to not mention Salesman just strikes me as childish. Ditto Albee, a man who won 3 Pulitzers and was nominated for 2 more, not one of which you seem worth mentioning. OK no problem. you are entitled to whatever. And yeah I guess you think Williams stopped after his 3rd play. I'd rank 10 of them in the top 100 but again you don't seem to feel they deserve typing the names of one of them. But that's fine. "To each his own," said the lady as she kissed the cow's [behind]. 

[PepperedShepherd]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 1:58am

It's hard to see how Martin McDonagh can be considered a "great playwright" when no one can seem to actually spell his name correctly!  :P

Personally, I think he's terrific -- but since his first play, Beauty Queen of Leenane, was 1996, calling him a "20th Century playwright" is a bit of a stretch.

[On topic]  Tennessee gets my vote as the greatest 20th Century playwright. And is Shaw still held in high esteem? (I ask as someone who actually played a part in my college's production of Caesar & Cleopatra.)

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 01:58 AM

[hork]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 2:06am

^ You think calling McDonagh a "20th Century playwright" is a stretch, but not Chekhov?

[devonian.t]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 4:48am

I am swayed by how much influence a playwright has had.  As a result, like henrikegerman, I opt for Brecht, (as a figurehead for the Expressionists), who utterly revolutionized theatre in the 20th Century.

Though I'm not fond of the oeuvre, I'd also acknowledge the Angry Young Men of the 1960s, such as John Osborne, who again completely altered the face of 20th Century drama.

My personal favourite is the recently deceased and much-missed Edward Albee.

[Steve C.]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 5:19am

I don't know if any of these have been mentioned but as for contemporary playwrights we should include Neil Simon, Wendy Wasserstein, Uhry, Foote, Eve Ensler, A.R. Gurney, even Jane Wagner and Lilly Tomlin, Holland Taylor. They have written more "modern" adaptations and stories that include some staggeringly original pieces. Their lesser produced works fare very well when read; it's the fact that a "commercial" presentation would not blow up the box office and run for months or years. Hard to argue with Noel Coward or Wilson though.   

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 05:19 AM

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 8:32am

While I totally admire the greatness of Chekhov and Ibsen, I have an American sensibility and it grabs me the most through American plays.

When I was a kid I spent hours in the library inhaling play anthologies and was totally blown away by The Little Foxes and The Children's Hour. Their messages stay with me still. So, my list would be Albee, Miller, Williams and Hellman.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 08:32 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 8:48am

"I am swayed by how much influence a playwright has had.  As a result, like henrikegerman, I opt for Brecht, (as a figurehead for the Expressionists), who utterly revolutionized theatre in the 20th Century."

Actually I didn't opt for Brecht.  My point was that I was surprised no one had yet mentioned Brecht.  

Where we fully agree is that the influence a playwright had on 20th century drama is guiding our choices, which is a) why a case can be made for Ibsen (though he was exclusively - or all but - a 19th century playwright) and b) just part of the reason why my first choice - if one has to have one - remains Strindberg.

For his undeniable impact on 20th century dramatic realism, expressionism, and the avant garde; his proclivity, the great impact he had on just about everyone especially Miller, Albee and, perhaps above all, O'Neill, and, of course, the quality of his masterpieces.

Updated On: 9/25/16 at 08:48 AM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 10:50am

though this thread has been fun, in the end it is indistinguishable from the garden variety "who's your fav playwright?" thread. We must have 50 people listed here, some so trivial it's mind-boggling.

[Bell0708]

Posted: 9/25/16 at 1:01pm

Neil Simon happens to be my favorite playwright, along with Wiliams, O'Neill, Albee and Christopher Durang.

Posted: 9/25/16 at 1:41pm

Christopher Durang.  Special mention to Paul Rudnick.  (I'm a comedy fan.  Though I'm sure all the above-mentioned serious playwrights are noteworthy.)