Even the most pretentious, postmodern plays are fairly accessible, easy to understand...

>Why would I read something just because it's short?

How many people on Veeky Forums have actually finished Infinite Jest? How many people spend months asking Veeky Forums for the best translation of War and Peace only to give up part way through and use "shitty'" translation as an excuse to not continue reading it?

you're a brainlet who thinks simple language implies lack of depth

I would hardly call it accessible just because it's bleak and morose. I found Waiting For Godot to be the most obtuse play I've ever read. I still don't understand who Godot is supposed to be.

It's Absurdism. Godot is no one in particular.

Plays are better seen than read in most cases, especially with Godot.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a pretty good contemporary play.

This guy is better than Beckett and criminally underrated

It doesn't matter what Godot is
Godot isn't anything
The waiting is the thing

only pseuds write them or watch them

>criminally underrated
>won the nobel prize

Because, like poetry, theater is dead. Why bother?

Which authors?

Imagine actually being this retarded.

Betrayal was GOAT
I hope you die from cancer

>I still don't understand who Godot is supposed to be.
It doesn't matter who LE GODOT is because NOTHING LE MATTERS

BUT WE GOTTA KEEP GOIN ON ANYWAY :^) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [spoiler[In all honesty, I think Beckett was a genius, but he got kinda unrelatable and corny the more he wrote. I liked Molloy and Watt the most, and preferred Watt. [/spoiler]

I am sorry, user, I really am. And to be 100% I read two or three contemporary plays in the last 4 months, so I'm not totally out of the loop. But I'm speaking truthfully: theater is practically dead. It has practically no cultural value anymore, it's nothing but a living carcass. I wish it wasn't dead, I wish it still carried a lot of weight. It's time to let go. At some point we'll look at plays as we look at tapestry: boring old shit people from the past used to do.

They had a big tapestry at my local art museum a couple months back, it was really fucking interesting.

Theater museums when?

Relax with the posturing friendo. Theatre is definitely hitting a slump, but I think that's only because there's more money in cinema and TV. Wait until the screen industry stagnates and becomes formulaic and they find a better way to monetise the stage while also giving writers more creative freedom.

As for poetry, I agree with you though. The best we'll get is really good, literary songwriting

Theatre is for degenerates, I don't want to be anywhere near this shit. Anything that is built to set humans in motion is anti-ethical.

Dude won a fucking Noble prize… Stoppard is better, anyway.

Professional actor here. You shouldn't read plays, you should watch them.

you are insufferable I hope you know that.

I see that actors don't get a cut of the profits from print sales.

Why that cynicism?

(btw Beckett is generally seen as 'post-existentialist' rather than existentialist; i.e. a more Adorno view of the 'absurd';- imho not really right)

Please elaborate
Or just rec some books to come to this conclusion. I want to be a filmmaker, but I have also felt this a lot of times, although I couldn't actually explain the thought. Until this is resolved, I doubt I could make anything of merit.

me and beckett contemporaries now

Is it odd that I prefer to read plays because watching people act mentally disgusts me?
I can't look at 75% of actors in role, it makes me uncomfortable. Much rather just imagine the characters thank you very much.