I actually wasn’t sure what to expect never being to a sound play / radio play before. I then heard it was only going to be an hour (sob sob). But for starters - 200m in front of me (roughly) were some of the best actors on stage and NOT ON A SILVER SCREEN. Real breathing people, like wow! and collectively you also have 2 plays written and produced by !Geniuses!

I would hazard a guess that this wasnt the first time this bunch of actors and writers had worked together either (aha! - hahaha) as it was the way the characters were matched to the actors and how the actors slipped in and out of their personas easily.

more again please !!!

It was the wit of the second play (Charlie Kaufman’s Hope Leaves the Theatre) which sucked me in more. Started subtly with the actors being people in the audience and ended with the unsubtle revelation of all characters and how they related to each other. Sometimes i missed these as i was to drawn into the story or just gazin at the actors faces.

But hey it was brilliant evening.

Carter Burwell, The Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufman : Theater Of The New Ear
Original Sound Plays by The Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufman set to music by Carter Burwell

Featuring:
John Goodman (YAY)
Steve Buscemi (YAY)
Hope Davis
Peter Dinklage
Philip Seymour Hoffman (good on him for Flawless)
Brooke Smith
Meryl Streep (way cool)

Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Big Lebowski) and Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Being John Malkovich) bring the quirky drama and savage wit of their award-winning movies to the stage in a live reading of two original sound plays set to music by their long time collaborator, composer Carter Burwell. The Coens’ Sawbones and Kaufman’s Hope Leaves the Theater come to life with eight extraordinary actors, scripts in hand, joined on stage by a sound-effects artist and a live band to create multiple characters and parallel realities, located somewhere between melodrama and comedy.

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Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.