In English · @houshuang · 2024–2025 · ~400 words
How to read a play
Until last year, I hadn't read a single play in my life (apart from "A doll's house" in high school). Last year, I must have read 20+, and I really enjoy it.
Tweets from @houshuang, in date order · links and handles removed, nothing else changed
15 April 2024
These days Norwegian school children learn nothing about the Roman empire. So how can they properly interpret plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen etc. Luckily, they don't read much literature either, so problem averted I guess? 😢
Talking about plays, they are such an important part of world literature, but I find it very hard to read and enjoy a play in a literary sense. I'll never have a chance to see most of these performed, any good pointers on how to enjoy/appreciate reading a play?
28 May 2024 · reply
This is so useful, these are exactly the kind of things I've been wondering - how to "read" a play. I tried reading a play by Ibsen that I've never seen, and I found myself getting lost in the characters early on - they are never much described, and I couldn't picture them.
But I think I will enjoy reading Shakespeare after having seen the plays (even different stagings) to really revel in the rich language, once I have a sense of the story, the personages, the emotions.
10 January 2025
Until last year, I hadn't read a single play in my life (apart from "A doll's house" in high school). Last year, I must have read 20+, and I really enjoy it. Shakespeare of course, but Greek tragedy, Ibsen, Holberg, Racine/Corneille/Voltaire, Pirandello...
There are so many layers - from all the references to classic tragedies, the different periods, the national and political contexts, stories and material being reworked over and over again in different ways. And the reception history...
The idea that I can read something, see a performance of something that people hundreds of years ago read/saw (of course the performance would have been very different) is magical. (I also love watching theatre, have been mining various countries' TV archives for recordings).
A key resource when getting started was this short booklet on "how to read drama". The most useful advice was being patient in the beginning - it takes a while "get" the characters, the location, the plot etc without seeing actors on a stage.
2 April 2025 · reply
Much harder when reading plays... this is what put me off it initially. Then read the useful "How to read a play", which basically just told me to be patient, keep on reading, and it will "come together". And now I've read lots of plays and really enjoy it.