Are plays /lit/? I feel like I know nothing about the medium

>>9720429
K listen up faggot.
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plautus, Terence, Seneca, Shakespeare, Calderon, Racine, Wilde, Moliere, Ibsen, T.S. Eliot, Shaw, Beckett and Strindberg are the main canon.

>>9720440
Perfect, thanks anon

>>9720449
Sorry forgot Goethe, Schiller, Tchekov and Pushkin.

>>9720463
I'd say add Marlowe and Carlo Goldoni too. Goldoni is underappreciated as fuck.

>>9720429
If you aren't specific to the West, traditional theater from China, Japan, India and other parts of Asia are pure /lit/. Noh and Kabuki use a lot of traditional stories, and many Indian plays are direct adaptations of sections from the Mahabharata or Ramayana.

Italy also has great dramatic works, Goldoni as I mentioned earlier and Gabriele d'Annunzio are two of my favourites.

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>>9720440
>>9720463
>>9720527
>these recs
/lit/ is finally patrish for once

Actually, here's a chart, op

>>9720440
i cant help but ntoice these are all dead white males anon...

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>>9720675
pt2
Should also include Ionesco, imo, he's fucking hilarious

>>9720429
il/lit/erate here.
Should you read a play before watching it? Or is watching a play a valid substitute?

>>9721334
If the play is performed well it does more than text ever could. A play is dialogue and action, dialogue is better when spoken by someone with great skill in speaking it, who can act in a contextually fitting manner. If a play is put on well it can transport you to another world. Back when Marlowe was running Doctor Faustus, the crowd would often run out of the theatre in horror because they truly believed Mephistofeles was being summoned right there in front of them.

Of course there are some plays that are supposed to be read introspectively like Closet Dramas. Lord Byron's Manfred is a prime example of the form and one of my absolute favourites. It blends dramatic poem with tragedy.

If you want to understand all of the nuance in a play I would highly suggest reading it before, but knowing that you will be spoiled (or teased) on plot points. For Shakespeare and other works with more archaic language I feel it is beneficial to read it beforehand so you are not trying to understand everything as you are watching. Albeit the large gestures used make up for that.

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>>9720440
>Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes
>Aristophanes
>No Euripides

mfw

>>9720429

The Importance of Being Earnest
Galileo
Our Town
Death of a Salesman
The Crucible
Waiting for Godot
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Arcadia
Wit

Also, you can't purchase a book version, but make sure to watch Anomalisa which is an adaptation of a play.

If you are interested at all in musical theater, there are plenty of movies to watch in that area (reading a musical is fucking retarded). But I'm probably the only person on 4chan gay enough to enjoy musical films/musical theater.

>>9720689

>guy asks for recommendations
>read EVERY SINGLE PLAY EVER WRITTEN BY THIS AUTHOR

wew lad

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>>9721353
>Tfw Euripides Orestes play's and Hippolytus are some of my favorite

>>9721350
Thanks for the advice. But here's a more pleb question.
Is it acceptable to watch plays on YouTube/TV, or is the environment of being at a theater too important?

>>9721380
If the quality is good it can be alright but it will never be the same as seeing it live, even in a small community theatre.