12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
this is a wonderful collection of quirky plays, September 30, 2003
This review is from: All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (Paperback)
So what if Christopher Durang, Dorothy Parker and David Sedaris combined DNA? You just might get David Ives.
Witty and cerebral, Ives comments on relationships, language and mortality in some of the cleverest one-acts to ever find their way into print. All the works have a Tom Stoppardian-esque command of the English language. Especially in "Foreplay, Or The Art of the Fugue" and "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread" is his impeccable command of ordering words into almost symphonic patterns best displayed.(Hey, it also helps to know a little about Philip Glass, who was a postmodern musical innovator and it is his musical phrasing Ives mimics in "...Buys A Loaf...")
Some of these plays deal with modern relationships. "Sure Thing" continually backtracks the forming of its 2 characters' relationship with each other by allowing them unlimited "re-dos" when they make a social or relational faux pas, until the "perfect" pattern for falling in love is found.
"Ancient History" is perhaps my favorite out of all the plays. It has two very real, very funny, very sympathetic romantic characters that will constantly remind you of yourself. Jack and Ruth argue, banter and raise issues we're all familiar with in a way that makes you laugh until you realize how sad it really is.
Ives has no trouble taking fellow playwrights down a peg or two as well. "Speed-The-Play" requires an elementary knowledge of David Mamet to really appreciate how hilarious (and accurate) it is.
All of the other pieces are wonderful and hilarious. "English Made Simple" and "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" were probably meant to be read anyway. "Mere Mortals" is a witty commentary on man's ego and inner thought life. "Words, Words, Words" is an exestential little work where Ives explores the actual possiblity of chimps, left alone with typewriters long enough, cranking out 'Hamlet'.
Think of it as excersize for your mind. Do a few yoga stretches and enjoy!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must have for all theater people, August 3, 2004
This review is from: All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (Paperback)
Actors, directors and playwrights alike must all read this book. This is possibly the wittiest and greatest examples of modern comedic theater in a long, long time.
Ives is a must-have. I mean, *everyone* needs to read or see this collection performed. "Words, words, words", "Sure thing" and "Variations on the death of Trotsky" are clever but at the same time contain a valuable bit of truth to them all. But not too much truth, just enough to make the play fun and interesting and never preachy.
Ives is a treasure of American theater- if you haven't seen or read any of these plays, you simply don't know what you're missing.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Taking the English Language to an Art Form, March 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (Paperback)
In these days of cookie-cutter plays, where an intellectual evening is watching David Copperfield making his career disappear, it is refreshing to read anything that challenges one to think. All In The Timing succeeds, with Ives mastery of the English language and timing being the key to the cleverness of the play. These series of plays are not slap-stick, nor are they Checkov, but an intellectual medium for one who has apparently a bit ahead of his time. While some will find the read of some of the plays difficult (The Universal Language and Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread). These plays, in particular, are for enjoying on stage, rather than read. But for the most part, this collection is an enjoyable evening of intellectual theater.
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