Saturday, March 26, 2011
Lanford Wilson, a Playwright With Compassion for His Characters
NYTimes.com: "Lanford Wilson liked losers. This is not to say that he gloried, masochistically, in defeat. But as a playwright, he knew that the most poignant drama often radiates from people’s failure to connect with one another, with their aspirations and with their own feelings. In this sense, you could say he was an heir to Tennessee Williams, another dramatist who saw the poetry in withered hopes and ideals tenuously sustained against a world of denial. If his characters lacked the complexity of Williams’s greatest creations, they possessed some of the same vital glow, that of a self-consuming bonfire in a chilly twilight.
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2 comments:
What a smart piece. I was saddened to hear of Mr. Wilson's death, and though he may not have been one of the Great American Playwrights, I feel his work remains important because it sheds a lot of light on the "little people" of society and how they interact with each other. "The Hot L Baltimore" was the last show I SM'd before coming here, and I had such a great time working with the cast, really attacking each of his complex nuanced characters, because each one thinks the show is all about them, but at no point does it ever make one of them the star. it, and many of his other works, are some really top-notch ensemble pieces that deserve to be put on and noticed.
Although I have some issues with the shock value inherent in a lot of Wilson's work, I still respected the fact that he was a huge proponent of character-driven work in a market where spectacle can often mean so much. I got to see a production of "Balm in Gilead" in a very small theatre in NY over break that my cousin was in, and after the show I found out I had been sitting a few chairs over from Lanford Wilson the entire time. He didn't appear to be sick, which is why this news is so shocking to me. I hope playwrights and screenwriters will look at the memorable characters he created as a sign of what it takes to make a play or film great.
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