Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Jason Shatz
Chorus Member Joined: 6/24/13
#1Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 3:54pm
A lot of threads on this chat board are, justifiably, about the effects of the current pandemic on the theatre. Meanwhile, I'm sure that there are several plays about an outbreak of disease and its consequences - be it a local outbreak, a pandemic, or anything in between. In fact, I've thought of ideas for potential plays about the current pandemic (i.e. a journalist trying to gather facts about the outbreak by conducting remote interviews from an apartment).
What are some classic plays that you can think of that involve outbreaks?
#2Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 3:57pm
Angels in America is about AIDS, both directly and indirectly. The Normal Heart. Was there ever a stage version of And The Band Plays On?
(EDIT: perhaps AIDS falls into the epidemic vs. pandemic category)
Jason Shatz
Chorus Member Joined: 6/24/13
#3Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:03pm
An AIDS outbreak would definitely count.
#4Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:05pm
It seems a lot of companies are putting on a virtual reading of Lonely Planet which is about HIV/AIDS.
#5Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:05pm
I realize that this doesn't quite fit the bill of what you're asking for, but the first play I thought of was "The Children" by Lucy Kirkwood. It's not about a disease outbreak, per se, but it's about a small town with a nuclear reactor meltdown. All of the "essential employees" working there are risking their lives by exposing themselves to radiation. The play follows 3 older people who were former employees, who have to decide if they want to sacrifice their remaining years of health by taking over the skeleton crew, and saving the younger employees from an early death. In a way it's sort of the inverse of what's happening now, where younger employees are putting their health at risk to protect the lives of the elderly.
JVJ93
Featured Actor Joined: 3/27/16
#6Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 4:22pmAn Enemy of the People
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#7Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/15/20 at 7:02pm
Oedipus Rex.
Various tales in The Decameron have been on stage - but I don't know about the framing for the Black Death.
There is a stage version of The Night of the Living Dead - kind of a pandemic....
Would you consider Rhinoceros as fitting? A different kind of pandemic.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#8Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/16/20 at 8:03am
In addition to the many plays about AIDS:
Ibsen's Ghosts
Beirut, which was recently socially distanced performed and streamed, with Oscar Isaac and its original star, Marisa Tomei
The Plague, an adaptation of the Camus novel
While there have been few if any plays written during or in the aftermath of the 1918 flu, there was a play about it, Unity 18, which was well received
Jason Shatz
Chorus Member Joined: 6/24/13
#9Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/18/20 at 11:24pm
On THE CHILDREN: Well, the themes would be similar, yes.
Updated On: 5/18/20 at 11:24 PM
singerunlimited
Stand-by Joined: 3/19/06
#10Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/19/20 at 10:44amA cholera outbreak is referenced heavily throughout THE SECRET GARDEN.
LarryD2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/1/14
#11Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/19/20 at 10:48am
Bruce Norris' A PARALLELOGRAM takes place in the wake of a global pandemic.
#12Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/19/20 at 12:45pm
Not quite on the mark I realize, but I’ll mention the wonderful contemporary opera Florencia en el Amazonas.
Jason Shatz
Chorus Member Joined: 6/24/13
#13Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/27/20 at 9:51pm
jpbran said: "Angels in America is about AIDS, both directly and indirectly. The Normal Heart. Was there ever a stage version of And The Band Plays On?
(EDIT: perhaps AIDS falls into the epidemicvs. pandemic category)"
And now we've lost Larry Kramer. He was working on another play about another pandemic, only to breathe his last before he could express his final thoughts. RIP
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#14Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/27/20 at 10:06pm
Jeffrey by Paul Rudnick is a play about a gay man trying to find love during the AIDS epidemic.
#15Best Plays ABOUT Pandemics (Or Smaller Outbreaks)
Posted: 5/27/20 at 11:37pm
One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace is set in plague-ravaged 17th Century London.
Synopsis: A wealthy couple is preparing to flee their home when a mysterious sailor and a young girl appear sneaking into their boarded-up house. Now, quarantined together for 28 days, the only thing these strangers fear more than the Plague is each other.
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