elisanolasco's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
ianbanks's review
4.0
Hilarious collection of plays. I've seen a lot less of Mr Simon's plays than I should have but what we get here is a range of his work mostly from the 1970s. What's interesting is that, although they are mostly common in theme, they tell a wide variety of stories in a blend of genres and settings. And, most interestingly, many of his plays only have a few characters, which narrows (though not hinders) his focus a lot to the benefit of the story and is probably great for thrifty producers.
There are 8 plays in this collection. I enjoyed all of them but some were far superior to others. I'd probably watch all of them if they were being shown and there were a couple that I was directing in my head. My favourites were God's Favourite, Chapter Two and The Sunshine Boys as they made me laugh out loud and read out scenes in different voices to make them even funnier than they appeared on stage. They were also great stories. I didn't enjoy Little Me as much because of its sketch-like scenes that didn't feel very much like the parody it clearly was (it felt a lot smarter than it wanted to be, which is no bad thing). Prisoner Of Second Avenue felt like a retread of ideas from his script for The Out-of-Towners, while The Gingerbread Lady felt too focused on its message rather than the story it was telling. California Suite was full of great ideas and made me want to know more about the characters, except for the third play which I found overly silly and farcical. Finally, Th Good Doctor had me scratching my head quite a lot and felt more like a collection of ideas rather than a proper story.
But they're all funny and clever with Simon's trademark smartarse characters and hilarious dialogue. However, I was very disappointed with the publisher not printing a dramatis personae before each play - it did not take away from my enjoyment of the plays but it was jarring to not see a list of characters before each script. It's a convention of script-reading that I find helps with my perception of the characters and its omission here was irritating but probably bothers nobody else but me.