Cynthia Ozick recommended Collected Stories: A Play (1998) in her New York Times Book Review interview in “By the Book.” I had never heard of Donal Margulies, the author of Collected Stories, but I learned Margulies taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.
Collected Stories is a two-character play. Ruth, an established writer, is teaching a fiction writing course. Ruth states that she doesn’t think writing can be taught, but she does her best anyway. Lisa is a graduate student who dreams of being a writer like Ruth. Lisa idolizes Ruth. And with some luck and skill, Lisa becomes Ruth’s assistant.
This two-act play extends over six years. The nature of the relationship between Ruth and Lisa changes. The professor-student relationship changes. Their “friendship” changes. I found Collected Stories smart and clever and surprising. GRADE: B+
I’ll seek it out
Dan, I’d never heard of Donald Margulies before so this play was a surprise.
Is the dark haired woman Linda Lavin? The blonde looks a bit like the woman who starred as the daughter in Light in the Piazza.
Maggie, good eyes! Yes, the 2010 Broadway production starred Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson.
I have always found reading contemporary plays difficult. But I ill seek this one out. I am enjoying the plays from NATIONAL THEATER LIVE that are playing at our local art theater on Sundays. This week they are showing THE DEEP BLUE SEA byt Terrence Rattigan.
Patti, I’m an August Wilson fan. I can’t wait to see the movie based on his play cycle.
We saw this! Yes, it was Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulsen. It was a great set (as you can see), the older woman’s small, cramped, but book-filled Greenwich Village apartment. We liked it a lot. It was the second Margulies play we saw that year (2010). The first was TIME STANDS STILL. In that one, Laura Linney played a photo journalist who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq after her reporter boyfriend (Brian D’Arcy James) left her to go home. Needless to say, he is now racked with guilt. They are visited at their Brooklyn apartment by their editor friend, played by Eric Bogosian, with his much younger girlfriend (Alicia Silverstone).
Back in the 1970’s I read a TON of plays, including not only Shakespeare but all of two very different writers, Eugene O’Neill and Noel Coward. I haven’t read many in recent years, largely because I used to browse the play aisle at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and take whatever looked interesting, and I no longer go to that branch.
Jeff, I read a few plays each year. Most contemporary plays don’t interest me but this one did!
I’ll be watching for this as well, George.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Beth, I was pleasantly surprised by COLLECTED STORIES. The evolution of the relationship between the two women is cunning.
I’ll say it looks interesting, but I’d rather see it than read it.
Rick, I intend to do both!