I'm *definitely* more partial to contemporary drama, rather than "the classics".
For the longest time, I've been dying to watch a performance of
Kenneth Lonegran's This Is Our Youth. Is anybody else here familiar with it? Maybe one of you has actually seen a version of it. I'm so intrigued.
The summary, from Wikipedia:
The play takes place in Dennis Ziegler's apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in March 1982. Dennis's friend Warren Straub, a dejected 19-year-old, has just been kicked out of his house and stolen $15,000 from his abusive lingerie-tycoon father. Dennis, the more wily and domineering of the two, spends some of the money on cocaine, hoping to sell it to a friend of his for much more. Jessica Goldman, an "anxiously insightful" fashion student, comes over and Warren hopes that he can use the money to entice her into bed.
The play explores timeless issues of adolescence and maturity, as well as the Reagan Era in which it takes place: the characters feel adrift in a country that now rejects the 1960s-style liberalism that they were brought up to believe in.
It's been staged in both the UK and the US with a fairly high profile cast of actors, most of whom are better known for their movie work.
I'd happily pay regular price for a published copy of the script (meaning no import taxes, etc.) but I've never seen it available here.
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A recent favorite was a local college production of
Bat Boy: The Musical, which is adapted from a series of tabloid articles(!) about a the eponymous protagonist terrorizing a rural town. It's a black comedy, satirizing bourgeois ideals and religious fundamentalism. Precisely the kind of drama that would appeal to fans of Mark Millar's
Chosen, I guess, or Monty Python's
The Life of Brian.
Even without the dramatic visuals and fun acting, the script alone is a funny, and genuinely thought provoking read.
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Of course,
Rocky Horror Show remains an essential piece of modern drama. Sadly, one that I've never seen in play form before, though I've enjoyed the film several times.
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I'll post more in this thread, as other plays come to mind.