Can a Playwright 'Write' Sexy?

[jennyanydots00]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 7:24pm

.. or is it all in the production/performances?

And to be clear I don't necessarily mean dirty. Anyone can write things that are graphic, but to write things that can arouse (whether or not they are graphic) is an art.

So.. what plays have gotten you all hot and bothered? Was it a certain performance that did it? Or a specific production? Or is there a play that does it for you anytime you have seen it?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 7:37pm

Is your line in the sand anything that turns you on is "art" but anything that's more graphic than what turns you on is "dirty" and therefore something "anyone" can write?

[jennyanydots00]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 8:41pm

The question is not about whether graphic work is or is not art. I say that writing to arouse is AN art. I.e. few writers can do it well.

I can be turned on by very graphic work or I can find it gratuitous- and that is something that will vary from person to person.



Updated On: 4/2/12 at 08:41 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 10:27pm

Scenes can be erotic because of the way they are written. What makes a scene sexy is, as with most questions of what's alluring, completely subjective.

I find scenes sexy when they sneak up on you with unanticipated candor and a sense of risk, danger, uncertainty. They don't necessarily have to be scenes of seduction, romance or sexual tension between characters. They can also be scenes where people simply express their sexual character. If this can be achieved with truth, it's very sexy. If, on the other hand, it rings false and contrived merely to titillate, it's a disaster.

Some examples where it works:

Frank Wedekind Spring Awakening
Lanford Wilson The Mound Builders
David Rabe Streamers
Aphra Behn The Rover
William Shakespeare Measure for Measure
Troilus and Cressida
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
Harvey Fierstein Torch Song Trilogy
John Webster The White Devil
Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire
Vieux Carre
Sweet Bird of Youth
Summer and Smoke
Jason Miller That Championship Season
Michael Cristofer The Shadow Box
Sholem Asch God of Vengeance
August Strindberg Miss Julie
William Inge Picnic
Terence Rattigan The Deep Blue Sea
Robert Anderson Tea and Sympathy

(not all of these are what I would call good plays by the way, that's a different story.




















Updated On: 4/11/12 at 10:27 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 11:59pm

The Joe/Louis scene in Angels in America is pretty damn sexy on the page. On stage, yeah, even moreso.

There is definitely a way to write a sensual, sexy scene that doesn't rely on performance. In fact, I would say that many productions manage to reduce the inherent sensuality of many works.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 12:05am

There are some incredibly erotic scenes in Bent. Mostly concerning the mere brush of a hand while standing at attention. It is written that way but also it has to be directed and performed that way.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 7:56am

"So.. what plays have gotten you all hot and bothered?"

Really, Jenny,

Is that what interets you about the theatre? Is that what you think its mission should be, to get one "all hot and bothered?"

I thought, reading the title of your thread, that you were asking about sex comedies like Pajama Tops or Under the Yum-Yum Tree.

But theatre as a turn-on? What a noisome notion. Let's leave strip joints or porn houses for that.

[jennyanydots00]

Posted: 4/4/12 at 4:36pm

Thank you for all your thoughts.

After Eight- Not sure why the attack, but sorry if I offended. Theatre does alot of things and yes, it can even arouse. (As a point of fact I am a theatre school graduade, a regular theate goer and a strong supporter of theatre both volunteering my time and donating financially to non-profits.)

The question came out of a conversation a friend and I had. In discussing exceptional performances, the conversation turned when I brought up a scene where the actors were on either side of the stage, talking about something mundane, yet you could cut the sexual tension with a knife. In the script, the characters talk of love, but we questioned whether you could write something so intense.

We went on to think about whether it is easier for a novelist to achieve since there is a direct connection to the 'end user' (which could be a whole other, broader, discussion)

[Taryn]

Posted: 4/4/12 at 6:01pm

But theatre as a turn-on? What a noisome notion. Let's leave strip joints or porn houses for that.

My word, yes. Sexuality is a dirty business. We certainly can't have any titillation in art. How COMMON.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/4/12 at 6:29pm

Hey, some people were getting it on behind me at Oh! Calcutta!.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/4/12 at 8:52pm

I think the erotic and the sensual have almost nothing to do with what is written or what someone looks like. The most erotic things to me on stage are usually the most banal on the page. Vice versa, the most scintillating plays are often duds.

The way Carla Gugino carried herself in Desire Under The Elms was one of the most erotic things I have ever seen. Her physicality was sensual.

Hugh Jackman is incredibly sensual when he is just being himself performing song and dance numbers. He's not doing anything erotic, but it's his energy.

Chita Rivera is incredibly sensual even when its not written. I'm ashamed to say I never saw her before "The Dancer's Life" and she was incredibly erotic in that show in a few of the numbers. It was in her DNA, not in the choreography.

I honestly don't think heat can often be manufactured. A performer has to radiate it.

People are the most alluring when they are not trying.

For example, I LOVED Venus in Fur but I didn't find it erotic. I found it psychologically complex and frightening, but not sexy. However, it is sold as a totally sexual play.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 8:52am

I didn't find Venus in Fur erotic either but it is one hell of a great play.

Of course performance can make text that is not sexy sexy. But I disagree that text can't be erotic. Stepping away from drama, I think the popularity of centuries of written erotica from Fanny Hill to Venus in Fur (the novel) to Tropic of Cancer to The Happy Hooker to Harold Robbins (my god Harold Robbins) to the hugely popular world of the romance novel make clear that many people find what's on the page hot. There is no reason to believe that what a playwright creates in terms of character action and dialogue is any less capable of arousing a reader, inspiring a sexually alive performance or, in the right creative teamj's hands, arousing an audience.