Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
#1Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 3:30pm
Call me odd but recently I've gotten very much into dark, disturbing plays that leave an audience unsettled whether it be the plot or staging. Anyone have any suggestions? I would rank The Beauty Queen of Lenaane pretty high followed by Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh.
Another very disturbing play is by an Irish writer, Mark O'Rowe called "Our Few and Evil Days"
Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content
The plot is a sorta "meeting the parents" approach with lots of suspected secrets and hidden knowledge. A lot of this centres around the character of the son who has ran away when he was I believe nine or ten years old and hasn't been since apparently. As the play progresses we realise the reason the son ran away was because he raped his mother which of course, led to a huge confrontation and he ran away in fear. Pretty twisted but it progresses to get even darker; the mother wants to know her son is still alive despite everything that happened. Every night she sleeps downstairs and allows her son to "break into" the house and rape her again, a way of her knowing that as long as he continues to come back, he's still alive. Pretty twisted.
#3Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 3:39pm
I thought Bug by Tracy Letts was pretty disturbing. I only saw the movie version though.
#5Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 4:01pm
Saved, by Edward Bond
But most critics, it seemed, were damning and vituperative. They despised Bond's characters, his "slavishly literal bawdry", the lack of artistry in his writing. In particular, the baby stoning scene, which filled the Telegraph's WA Darlington with "cold disgust", was condemned as the "ugliest", "nastiest", "most sickening and revolting" exercise in "brutality" ever seen on the modern stage.
Further reading (The Guardian)
Beyoncé is not an ally. Actions speak louder than words, Mrs. Carter. #Dubai #$$$
#6Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 4:33pm
Second vote for Pillowman.
Beauty Queen is up there, too (hmm, what do these shows have in common?)
I haven't seen Bug, but Tracy's other show "Killer Joe" is pretty rough.
#7Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 4:36pm
TotallyEffed said: "Blasted by Sarah Kane."
That was my first thought, too.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#8Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 4:39pm
Pillowman
Mercury Fur
Doubt (Not in a frightening/scary way)
Just give the world Love.
The Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#9Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 6:19pm
You are odd. Well, you asked.
Extremities, by William Mastrosimone
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#10Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 6:32pm
TITUS ANDRONICUS
MISS JULIE
THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
GHOSTS
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
KING LEAR
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
Up In One
Broadway Star Joined: 5/27/04
#11Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 6:33pm
Matilda and sections of Finding Neverland
Up In One
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#12Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 6:34pm
4:48 Psychosis
The Power of Darkness (Leo Tolstoy)
#14Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 8:23pm
Would Equus count? I feel like that should have been mentioned by now. Did I miss it?
#15Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 8:34pm
All right, I'd never heard of Blasted, so I bit the bullet and checked Wikipedia. I only have three words (letters?) of reaction: W. T. F?!
Who in their right mind writes that kind of s***? I don't care if you're trying to be "edgy" or write some kind of "provocative art," you do NOT need to go to extremes like that. No one will ever change my mind about this: there IS such a thing as limits, even in the theatre.
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
vegas2
Featured Actor Joined: 12/5/09
#18Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 9:51pm
Blasted would make a great musical.
#19Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 10:12pm
Mysterious Skin, my company produced an award nominated production of it and the show was a hit but with the act 1 and act 2 finale and the subject matter it affected a lot of people.
Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna
#20Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 10:36pm
Mysterious Skin is another one where I've only seen the movie. I wasn't particularly disturbed by the movie but I bet it would be an entirely different experience in a theatre with live actors.
#21Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 10:43pm
The play is beautifully constructed to maximise the impact of the horror the 2 boys went through. The rape (we did full frontal and brutal as it's very much needed) is incredibly upsetting but powerful.
Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna
#22Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 10:43pm
Yet another vote for The Pillowman. Defnitely the most disturbing play I've ever read/or seen. Some other notable ones for me:
Equus
Oedipus (an obvious yet easy-to-forget one)
Dog Sees God
Hand to God
#23Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/1/16 at 11:48pm
Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman
We read it in our Script Analysis class after first moving to New York. Everyone was terrified.
#24Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/2/16 at 12:33am
I saw Blasted in the 2008 production at Soho Rep. It was the first time I ever saw Reed Birney on stage.
SPOILERS FOR BLASTED
Over the course of the play, Birney had to say homophobic, racist, and misogynist things; strip and have an extended nude scene; drink water dripping from the ceiling (and who knows how clean that water was); and simulate getting anally raped, having his eyes gouged out, and eating a dead baby. Birney did an excellent job, as you would expect, but it was the craziest set of stuff to make an actor go through every night. As I was applauding at the curtain call, I was thinking, "Well, it's a living..."
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
Ranger Tom
Leading Actor Joined: 7/6/14
#25Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/2/16 at 1:11am
Marat/Sade
Quills
Corpus Christi
Pillowman
Equus
Mr Kelly
Chorus Member Joined: 2/28/15
#26Call me odd... most disturbing plays?
Posted: 3/2/16 at 3:08am
Up In One said: "Matilda and sections of Finding Neverland
"
I agree. throughout Finding Neverland I was thinking of the odd relationship between Barrie and those boys and how two would end up committing suicide.
