A Play a Day in May

What started out as a silly joke almost a year ago became an overly dramatic reading project for the lockdown month of May. Something appealed about spending a short amount of time each day immersed in a different theatrical world. I had been enjoying discussions of the National Theatre at Home weekly broadcasts with friends, and wanted to explore the genre in more depth, even if that meant reading a script without seeing it fully staged. Crucially, I had discovered that the University subscribes to the Drama Online site, where almost all of the plays I would read could be accessed for free.

I deliberately didn’t think too long and hard about the list I put together, beyond determining some basic principles: they had to be plays I hadn’t read before; to be a mix of some classic and some more recent works; to be by a diverse range of authors; and to include no Shakespeare… A few minutes’ sleuthing around the internet threw up some interesting-sounding suggestions, to add to others that I had always been meaning to get around to reading.

To the astonishment of no-one more than myself, 31 days later, I have read 31 plays. I had to be flexible, of course: I re-ordered my original list when delivery dates for the few books I did buy were delayed; on some days I had time to read more than one play, to compensate for the days when I couldn’t read any at all. But by the end of the month, I'd made it to the end of the list, from Lucy Prebble's well-crafted analysis of experiment and experience in The Effect to Liz Loughhead's brutal updating of Medea.

Along the way, I think I learned some general lessons for our current situation. First, that in the midst of uncertainty, it can be helpful to pick an achievable, and time-limited project. Second, that a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances is required, even within a strict plan. Third, it is not a case of all or nothing, and much can be gained from encountering something in a different form when it can’t be experienced in person.

Almost every play will remain with me, in whole or in part: a remembered phrase, a character trait, a plot twist, or a stage direction. Although I had selected and listed the plays almost at random, themes and patterns seemed to constantly emerge: contrasting pairs, frustrated ambitions, intergenerational conflicts, questions of faith and fate, science and art, violence and love.

But what to recommend? Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, for the compelling character study at its heart. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, for its claustrophobic evocation of familial tensions and aspirations. Martin Sherman’s Bent, for tragic hope and human connection in the dark. And if you’ve only seen the TV adaptation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, then you are in for a treat.

So that was May, but what for June...?

Full list of 31 plays

(*Potentially of particular interest to Science and Literature Reading Group members!)

Date	Playwright	Play
1	Lucy Prebble	The Effect*
2	Noel Coward	Private Lives
3	Sophie Treadwell	Machinal*
4	Jessica Swale	Blue Stockings*
5	Timberlake Wertenbaker	Our Country's Good
6	Samuel Beckett	Happy Days
7	Henrik Ibsen	Hedda Gabler
8	Theresa Ikoko	Girls
9	Anton Chekhov	The Seagull
10	Yasmina Reza	'Art'
11	Lucy Kirkwood	Chimerica
12	Phoebe Waller-Bridge	Fleabag
13	Eugene O'Neill	Long Day's Journey into Night
14	Pierre de Marivaux	La dispute*
15	Pedro Calderon de la Barca	Life Is a Dream
16	Caryl Churchill	Far Away
17	Lorraine Hansberry	A Raisin in the Sun
18	August Wilson	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
19	Athol Fugard	Sizwe Bansi is Dead
20	Janice Okoh	Three Birds
21	Martin Sherman	Bent
22	Iman Qureshi	The Funeral Director
23	John Osborne	Look Back in Anger
24	Tony Kushner	Angels in America*
25	Tim Crouch	An Oak Tree
26	A. Al-Azraki	The Takeover
27	James Graham	Sketching
28	Jean Racine	Phedra
29	Aphra Behn	The Rover
30	Federico Garcia Lorca	The House of Bernada Alba
31	Liz Lochhead	Medea