Better than Shakespeare

Andy and Danny discuss the fall of Communism in Romania through Caryl Churchill's play Mad Forest.

On this episode Danny and Andy discuss Caryl Churchill's Soft Cops, why police reform is a pro-police position, and why All Cops are Bastards includes doctors, gym teachers, your boss, and the village executioner.

Andy and Danny finish off their read of Césaire's decolonization trilogy with a discussion of Gayatri Spivak's incredible translation of A Season in the Congo! Check it out!

If you e-mail me at [email protected] I will obviously not send you a pdf because that would be copyright infringement, buddy!

On this episode of BTS, Andy and Danny discuss Lorraine Hansberry's great play Les Blancs! It's about a mission field hospital run by well-meaning white people during an African independence struggle and how that hospital ultimately upholds the white power structure, and you may be surprised to learn the Wall Street Journal didn't like it! But we do. And we think the Wall Street Journal can go to hell.

Andy and Danny discuss racism, colonialism, and representation in the context of The Blacks by Jean Genet.

Lorraine Hansberry's essay on the play can be found here:

https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/06/30/genet-mailer-the-new-paternalism/

And join us next time for a discussion of Hansberry's Les Blancs!

Andy and Danny talk about Andy's play Occupy Prescott, now playing at Jalopy Tavern in a production by Theater in Asylum!

Andy and Danny discuss the new play Randy's Dandy Coaster Castle with playwright Alexander Perez and director Toney Brown!

Tickets available for free at the link below!

http://irttheater.org/3b-development-series/randys-dandy-coaster-castle/

On this episode of Better than Shakespeare, Andy and Danny take a break from reading plays and read some of Bertolt Brecht's wonderful poetry! His poetry includes the same humor, bitter critique, and utopian hope as his plays, but with a somewhat surprising lyrical tenderness. We hope you enjoy!

Andy and Danny discuss post-colonial transition in The Tragedy of King Christophe by the great playwright and poet Aimé Césaire!

E-mail Andy at [email protected] for a scan of the play. It's not easy to find but well worth the effort!

Andy, Danny, and special guest Fainan Lakha discuss Aimé Césaire's classic play A Tempest, based on a much inferior play by some English guy.

This is a rebroadcast of an episode originally published in 2019.