Two sisters and a piano

This play was pretty good. I read a play by Nilo Cruz last week and decided to read another one. It's even better. This is about two sisters on house arrest during tough political times in Cuba. The lieutenant overseeing them falls for the writer Maria. He's been reading the love letters she's been writing her husband during the arrest. The lieutenant is pretty unlikable. The other sister loves to play piano and there's a subplot about a piano tuner. I need to read the play Cruz read the Pulitzer prize for.

Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams

This was an ok play written by a Pulitzer prize winning author. It deals with a brother and sister Luca and Luciana who got separated from childhood. There's also a subplot about Luciana's friend Hortensia and her troubles with her museum of dreams where she collects miracles. The incest I felt was more for shock value. I would have liked this play more without it although the play did have a poetic beauty to it. 3/5

Man and Superman

This is the third play I've read by George Bernard Shaw and my least favorite. It was interesting but it felt like more of an experiment. It's about a woman Ann whose father's will leaves her in care of two men. One of them is a young man with daring ideas. Ann ends up dumping the guy who has pursued her for this man. This play is based on Nietzsche ideas and has the Don Juan theme. The third act also called Don Juan in Hell is sometimes cut from productions. It drifts from the plot. It's about Don Juan and the devil and while intriguing it feels like a separate play on its own. There's a subplot about a rich woman Violet marrying a poor man and keeping it a secret that I liked as well.

Six Characters in search of an author

This play shows that a good translation can make all the difference. I put this 1920's Italian play on interlibrary loan and received a wretched translation job that included modern pop cultural references. I didn't like the play at all but then I realized it was probably just the translation. I wasn't giving it a fair chance. So I bought the translation job done by Eric Bentley on Amazon and he did a good job. It's an unique play, kind of avant=garde. It received mixed reviews at first but went on to become a classic. It's about six characters, a family who want their life stories to be done by the cast at the theatre. Gradually family secrets come out as the play enfolds resulting in tragedy. The playwright Luigi Pirandello later won the Nobel Prize.