All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays [Paperback]

David Ives (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 8, 1994

The world according to David Ives is a very add place, and his plays constitute a virtual stress test of the English language -- and of the audience's capacity for disorientation and delight. Ives's characters plunge into black holes called "Philadelphias," where the simplest desires are hilariously thwarted. Chimps named Milton, Swift, and Kafka are locked in a room and made to re-create Hamlet. And a con man peddles courses in a dubious language in which "hello" translates as "velcro" and "fraud" comes out as "freud."

At once enchanting and perplexing, incisively intelligent and side-splittingly funny, this original paperback edition of Ives's plays includes "Sure Thing," "Words, Words, Words," "The Universal Language," "Variations on the Death of Trotsky," "The Philadelphia," "Long Ago and Far Away," "Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue," "Seven Menus," "Mere Mortals," "English Made Simple," "A Singular Kinda Guy," "Speed-the-Play," "Ancient History," and "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Theater that aerobicizes the brain and tickles the heart...Ives is a mordant comic who has put the play back in playwright." -- Time

From the Inside Flap

The world according to David Ives is a very add place, and his plays constitute a virtual stress test of the English language -- and of the audience's capacity for disorientation and delight. Ives's characters plunge into black holes called "Philadelphias," where the simplest desires are hilariously thwarted. Chimps named Milton, Swift, and Kafka are locked in a room and made to re-create Hamlet. And a con man peddles courses in a dubious language in which "hello" translates as "velcro" and "fraud" comes out as "freud."

At once enchanting and perplexing, incisively intelligent and side-splittingly funny, this original paperback edition of Ives's plays includes "Sure Thing," "Words, Words, Words," "The Universal Language," "Variations on the Death of Trotsky," "The Philadelphia," "Long Ago and Far Away," "Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue," "Seven Menus," "Mere Mortals," "English Made Simple," "A Singular Kinda Guy," "Speed-the-Play," "Ancient History," and "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (November 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067975928X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679759287
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Anthologies & Literary Collections > Drama

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars this is a wonderful collection of quirky plays September 30, 2003

By Portia

Format: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!

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

Format: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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars David Ives is a comical genius! April 6, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This collection of plays has opened my mind to different ways of writing and reading. As a high-schooler, I was looking for a one-act play to direct, and I was certainly given a wonderful choice by Ives. He is especially innovative, considering that he manages to connect music to his writing : "Foreplay, or the Art of the Fugue" was written in the style of a fugue, and "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" is written similarly to variations on a theme of music. "Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread" has incredible rhythmic qualities, and overall, I think that "All in the Timing" is a first-rate set of plays, worth anybody's time.