Playwrights That Are Acquired Tastes

All playwrights have different writing styles. Some write fast paced dialogue that is fit for the lyrical souls. Some write very complex plays that are mostly fit for the intellectuals. I can go on and on about different styles but in the end most plays can be enjoyed by a diverse range of people. But there are some playwrights who have a certain style that can be loved by some and hated by others. They are acquired tastes.

Which playwrights do you think are acquired tastes?

I think Ionesco, Beckett and all absurdist writers fall under that category.

Also Neil Labute is probably one too since he is a provocateur and his plays take on a misanthropic tone.

And judging from the discussion going on in the Singing Forest thread Craig Lucas seems to be too.

Your thoughts?

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Will Eno and his absurdist, misanthropic optimism.

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I've never found an English-writing playwright's work to be an "acquired taste." You might have a playwright, like August Wilson, who writes one play a lot better than he has another, and that is typical for playwrights though there have been a few that couldn't write a bad play.

I have, however, found different forms of theatre to be "acquired tastes." Different kinds of Asian theatre such as Noh or Beijing Opera are so remote to Western daily life, theatre and musical traditions that there is a period of becoming familiar to be able to fully comprehend and appreciate them.

The absurdist playwrights who are good require two things for the play to be received. Actors who understand the absurd/satire and an audience who understands it likewise. Satire is the most difficult type of comedy to write, and generally a playwright's either got it or not. If the playwright doesn't internally possess a satirical life outlook it doesn't work. Absurdism and satire I believe only can be written by the personality that lives life with that view by its nature, in the same way it is said that a poet is born, not made.

I do not believe you can teach someone or that someone can learn how to write satire. If you don't automatically look at the world in that way, the writing will be "off" or stilted. And poorly crafted satire is awful, just falls flat. Satire is not a string of one-liners. It is the artist looking at some aspect of life from the outside view and seeing how ridiculous/absurd/hypocritical it is and them communicating that in a very individual style.

A good satirical playwright is rare. We are very lucky to have one in Durang. He seems to me to be our top U.S. playwright though we have some other fine ones.

Caryl Churchill also has a very original style mixing the absurd with the fantastical as in Skriker or Far Away.

I just don't think the term "acquired taste" applies well to the work of playwrights except when that expression is used as a sarcasm to imply the playwright's work was lousy.

Damn, I'm first to mention Shakespeare? I thought *I* was slow in learning to love him, but I guess you guys are slower. ;D

I haven't yet acquired the taste for Ayckbourn. I've enjoyed some particularly well-choreographed productions of some of his plays, but I don't really like the plays themselves.

I can see how Mamet is an acquired taste. He's a devil to read out of a book. O_O

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Mamet, for sure. I really hated him before I had seen any of his work on stage; I still wouldn't ostensibly call myself a "fan," but I definitely have a new appreciation for his talent.

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Tom Stoppard heads my list. God knows, I have tried to like him and spent tons of money, not to mention time, trying to like him. I make a point of reading the play, if possible, before seeing it, deny myself any pre-show cocktails, make sure I have lots of rest and basically do nothing else that day in preparation. But I end up not caring less about the Russian intelligentsia, the radical politics of post-war Czechoslovakia, the niceties of Huysman's poetics, the meanderings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and artists on staircases. This has been going on since 1967 and I think I have come to the conclusion that I just don't like him. And he's a crashing bore, while we're at it.

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ARTHUR MILLER! I love him... But, I know many people who want to slit their wrists when readin him...