The Buzz...About Books

The lights go down, the curtains go up and then magic begins…

Who hasn't attended a play or movie and found themselves at the end savouring particularly juicy moments of taut dialogue, hilarious one-liners or the majesty of a memorable speech? The great news is that we don't have to buy a second (or third) ticket to the show; we can read the play or screenplay and revisit the words, characters and settings of these impressive encounters.

As many of our Facebook friends commented, perhaps you are planning a trip to the theatre and you want to (re)read the play first. 

Some readers take great pleasure in reading plays for their own sake or reading them aloud with others in play-reading groups. Both the Pleasant View branch and the Arts department at Toronto Reference Library host play reading programs.

If you are interested in starting your own play reading (or performance) group, the Yorkville branch in downtown Toronto has an extensive Theatre Play Sets collection, with multiple copies of almost 300 different plays — both classic and contemporary.

In addition to print and ebook versions of many plays in our catalogue, there are numerous other resources available if you want to experience more drama:

• Audio Drama: L.A. Theatre Works Collection: Over 300 important dramatic works in streaming audio from the curated archive of L.A. Theatre Works
• National Theatre Collection: 28 video performances and 30 plays along with scripts, costume designs and behind-the-scenes background information never previously seen outside of the National Theatre's archive
• Royal Shakespeare Company Collection: Over 40 videos of Shakespeare's works including Richard ll, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest
• Theatre in Video: Performances of major plays from world theatre from the 1950s to the present

Here is my pick for this category:

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

This is a two-hander about two Black brothers gruesomely named Lincoln and Booth as a joke by their father. In a surreal twist, Lincoln works at an amusement park dressed in whiteface as Abraham Lincoln, where customers can pretend to assassinate him. Meanwhile, Booth competes with his brother to replace him as a star hustler of Three-card Monte. Darkly funny, threatenin, and Mamet-esque in its style of dialogue, this play brilliantly evokes the racist legacy of white supremacy and the terrible portents for the brothers' future. The play won'the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Other Reading Challenge categories

• A book about survival

Staff recommendations

Salt-Water Moon by David French

This play is set in 1926 in Coley's Point, Newfoundland. The play follows Jacob, who has just returned after a year in Toronto, as he tries to woo his ex-girlfriend Mary, who has become engaged to another in his absence. It's the third play French wrote about the Mercer family, but it takes place before Leaving Home and Of the Fields, Lately, which are about Jacob and Mary's family life after they've married. These plays are wonderful looks at the lives of Newfoundlanders in the first half of the 20th century and the relationship between the island and the rest of Canada. Once upon a time, I studied theatre in Newfoundland, and "Salt-Water Moon" was studied extensively in my classes for the great dialogue and complicated characters.

Other Reading Challenge categories

• A book set in Atlantic Canada

—Grace, Librarian

I fell in love with Arcadia by Tom Stoppard long before I ever had the chance to see a production of the play. Set across two time periods at an English country house and with a major subplot about mathematics and physics, I think reading this play first helps a lot with understanding Stoppard's clever dialogue.

Other Reading Challenge categories

• A book with multiple timelines

—Myrna, Librarian

Body So Fluorescent by Amanda Cordner and David Di Giovanni

This is a dynamic solo show with multiple viewpoints that asks important questions about the line between appreciation and appropriation. I found myself drawn to the characters and their struggles to find themselves and communicate with each other.

Other Reading Challenge categories

• A book about friendship
• A book by a 2SLGBTQ+ author who is also part of another marginalized group

—Katelyn, Librarian

Late Company by Jordan Tannahill

As far as most plays go, the setting is simple: a dinner party. However, the plot is anything but simple! A mother and father are looking for answers to their son's suicide. They are sitting down across the table from their son's bully and the boy's paren'ts. Tannahill's dialogue is hands down my favourite; the words are supercharged with emotion. I helped rehearse this play for Toronto Reference Library's Play Reading Circle and even with us amateur "thespians," it made for a gripping read-through.

Other Reading Challenge categories

• A book told from a child's point of view
• A book about survival (surviving high school)

—Reagan, Librarian

Recommendations from the Facebook group

• Nathan, the Wise by Gotthold Lessing
• Noises Off by Michael Frayn
• The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
• Wife of Willesden by Zadie Smith
• Venus in Fur by David Ives
• Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
• The Rez Sisters by Thomson Highway
• Toronto at Dreamer's Rock; and, Education is Our Right: Two One-act Plays by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• The Sense and Sensibility screenplay and diaries by Emma Thompson
• Les Belles Soeurs by Michel Tremblay
• Da Kink in My Hair by Trey Anthony
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne
• Angels in America by Tony Kushner
• Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
• Every Day She Rose by Andrea Scott and Nick Green
• …and anything by Shakespeare

French recommendations

If you like to read in French, check out the list of recommended titles for Une pièce ou scénario : suggestions pour le Défi lecture.