From jfgannon@cloud9.net Sun Apr 1 16:10:01 2001 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.03) with ESMTP id f31NA1294582 for ; Sun, 1 Apr 2001 16:10:01 -0700 Received: from russian-caravan.cloud9.net (russian-caravan.cloud9.net [168.100.1.4]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.03) with ESMTP id f31NA0705229 for ; Sun, 1 Apr 2001 16:10:00 -0700 Received: from jfgannon (203-180.dialup.cloud9.net [168.100.203.180]) by russian-caravan.cloud9.net (Postfix) with SMTP id 98A9D28B37 for ; Sun, 1 Apr 2001 19:09:42 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <000601c0bb01$c8cb4520$b4cb64a8@jfgannon> From: "J.F. Gannon" To: References: Subject: Re: The Invention of Love in New York City Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 19:16:29 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 I only reported what I had read. I also have a copy of the play published in 1998 (Faber and Faber) and 102 pages in length. The author notes that he has made slight alterations in the text to conform to the Royal National Theatre production. If our reviewer is correct that would be the version lasting almost four hours And he was quite clear that a certain Jack O'Brien had rescued poor Stoppard from prolixity and pedantry by reducing it to its present length. It is possible that he is merely mistaken. I would prefer to think so. I plan to see the NYC version next Saturday with text in pocket. JFG ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Butrica" To: Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 2:10 PM Subject: Re: The Invention of Love in New York City > The original version in London, our reviewer confides, was "heavy going > under Richard Eyre's direction, bathing the audience in tides of croquet, > Oxonian politics, the power of the press, and the minutiae of classical > scholarship. At close to four hours, it dealt with all kinds of issues > with no particular focus. We know the Czech-born Stoppard (author of > "Travesties," "The Real Thing," "Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and > the film "Shakespeare in Love") is some kind of genius who occasionally > writes plays for himself first, and occasionally his intelligence tips > into pedantry. Well, this one definitely tipped." It seems the play has > now been given a focus by director Jack O'Brien. "It helps," our reviewer > reassures us, "that the play has been discreetly trimmed, to come > in--quite effortlessly on the audience's part, believe me--at a manageable > two hours and 40 minutes." How good to know that that the audience had to > make no effort to trim the play! But those Czech-born writers will go on, > won't they, unless they are checked by the O'Briens of this world? How > sad that the audiences in London did not have the benefit of Mr. O'Brien's > improvements! How pleased I am that I have the advantage of them! J.F. > Gannon > > Excising 1 hour and 20 minutes of material ** discreetly ** from a 4-hour > original must be quite a challenge; and could there really have been 80 > completely dispensible and disposable minutes of material here? I want > more, not less, when I read it. > But surely the reviewer means that Stoppard himself trimmed those 80 > minutes -- though I have to say that I had never heard that the versions in > Philadelphia and San Francisco and Chicago and now N.Y. (or even one of the > early remontings in London) were significantly shorter than the very first > production. If Stoppard did trim it, I hope that someone will publish that > original version -- partly out of curiosity, partly in the hope that > there's just that much more to enjoy -- like having Verdi's original French > "Don Carlos" instead of the standard Italian abbreviation (just to work in > a little "Operatic Content").. > But the version published is only 102 pages, not very dense ones at that; > how does that stretch into 2 hours and 40 minutes -- or does this include > the intermission? > > James Lawrence Peter Butrica > Department of Classics > Memorial University of Newfoundland > St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 > (709) 737-7914 > > .