“What day is it?" "It's today," squeaked Piglet. "My favorite day," said Pooh. It's also A.A. Milne's birthday which makes him our playwright of the day. Milne was an accomplished playwright long before he created Winnie the Pooh. His roots in satirical writing grounded him in a quaint comedic style. If you know and love the characters of The Hundred Acres Woods, you might also enjoy exploring the fanciful and fantastic characters of Milne's dramatic works. His first play, "Wurzel-Flummery" was produced in 1917.
I managed to find an audio recording of this piece here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv_j6NCO0Aw . It's actually really funny. It's a one act but it was originally written in three acts which seems impossible considering that the humour in this show is more valuable than the plot. He wrote it, however, when he was twenty-five. The rest of us young playwrights can absolutely relate to being so amused with ourselves that we elongate a play unnecessarily. Even Milne was not immune to that. Milne wrote just under thirty plays in his lifetime. He focoused, it seems, on comedies and fairy tales. He is, however, also known for penning mysteries such as "The Fourth Wall". On top of that, his dramatic work, "The Lucky One", though apparently lagging in dialogue,features a choice monologue for auditions: http://www.monologuearchive.com/m/milne_002.html. Milne's last work, before the flood, was written in 1951. It's a "biblical play". Except...not really. Milne writes about Noah's domestic life and the way in which they doubted the destructive capabilities of God's prophetic flood. Pretty dark and hilarious, I think. Milne is an excellent example of a writer who embraced his creativity with no bounds. If he was alive today he would be 130 years old. Happy birthday, Milne. And thanks for all the fun.
1 Comment
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
|