Romulus Linney: Nine Adaptations for the American Stage [Hardcover]

Romulus Linney (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary Playwrights Series | Publication Date: July 2001

Goodbye Oscar,, from the life of Oscar Wilde

Gint, from Ibsen's Peer Gynt

True Crimes, from Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness

Strindberg, from Strindberg's Miss Julie and The Ghost Sonata

Unchanging Love, from Chekhov's story "In the Ditch"

The Unwritten Song from the anthology of primitive poetry by Willard R. Trask

Lark from Willa Cather's novel The Song of the Lark

A Woman without a Name from Romulus Linney's novel Slowly, by thy Hand Unfurled

A Lesson Before Dying from the novel by Ernest J. Gaines

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The plays'] reinterpretation and presentation here should prove workable and inviting to new audiences." -- The Bookwatch, December 2000 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Romulus Linney is the author of three novels, thirteen long and twenty-two short plays which have been seen over the past twenty-five years in resident theatres across the United States as well as in London and Vienna. He is the recipient of many national awards, grants, and prizes and lives in New York City. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575252600
• ISBN-13: 978-1575252605
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,722,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent source for 9 'hard to perform' plays, May 7, 2007

By 

B. T. Denyer "Web designer" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 9 Adaptations for the American Stage (Paperback)

Linney states in his preface that he "tried to look at these plays from a more natural American point of view." He goes on to say, "At times I have added some theatrical material of my own."

The plays included are:
1) "Gint" (yes, with an "i") from Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt", freely adapted from the 1906 Ricahrd Mansfield acting edition.
2) "Oscar Over Here", a play about Oscar Wilde.
3) "True Crimes", taken from an old translation introduced by Arthur Hopkins around 1920 and from an event in Tula, Russia, as used by Leo Tolstoy in his play, "The Power of Darkness."
4) "Unchanging Love", from Anton Chekhov's story "In the Ravine." This play has sheet music to the songs "Unchanging Love" (arranged by E. Morgan), "He Never Came Back" by William Jerome 1891), "Shady Grove" (arranged by E. Morgan), Loathly Worm (by R. Linney), "Turtle Dove" (trad.), "Springfield Mountain" (trad.), and "A Baby is the End of Time" (tard.)
5) "A Woman Without A Name", an adaptation of Linney's own novel, "Slowly, By Thy Hand Unfurled" (1965). This play has sheet music to the songs "I Am Not Worthy, Holy Lord", "Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise", and "Slowly By The Hand Unfurled."
6) "The Unwritten Song", from the poems by the primitive people of the world.
7) "Lark", from the novel "The Song of the Lark", by Willa Carter. This play has hand-written sheet music to the song "The Swedish Hymn" (arranged by Joyce Coffey).
8) "A Lesson Before Dying", based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines.
9) "Strindberg", Miss Julie & The Ghost Sonata from translations by Edwin Bjorkman.

There is a short personal introduction to each play; some with history or further explanation. A couple of the sheet music plates have hand written notes/marks. One is completely hand-written. (There are even a couple typos in the first edition.)

Great book for fans and professionals of the stage.