Art by Felicien Rops
Round One
Description
Eric Bentley’s adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s classic LA RONDE.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“This seems to be Arthur Schnitzler’s year in the English-speaking world. In THE BLUE ROOM, we saw all of Nicole Kidman … in a daring adaptation of one of his most dazzling works for the stage, REIGEN (LA RONDE, ROUND ONE). Ten couples pair up for the ultimate pleasure. One of each continuing with a different partner until in the last scene the prostitute, who has appeared in the first sketch, appears once more.” —Peter Gay, The New York Times Book Review
“The original play, REIGEN, was kept from the general public by Schnitzler. First, he printed it only privately. Second … he withheld it from production. In 1920–21 he did allow it to be performed but when the Vienna production resulted in anti-semitic outbursts against the author, he withdrew it once again. He died in 1931 but when I translated REIGEN in the fifties, his son and heir Heinrich still wanted the play withheld, to protect his father’s good name and avoid the ugly protests against the show that he thought would inevitably accrue. However, the play was not protected by U S copyright, and I allowed Circle in the Square to produce it. José Quintero, as director, had no difficulty showing that this play has little to do with an actress’s nudity but much more to do with the Western world’s mores and morality, not forgetting that the story is shot through with irony and humor.” —Eric Bentley, The New York Times Book Review
Author
Arthur SchnitzlerArthur Schnitzler (1862 – 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. His most celebrated plays are ANATOL and REIGEN (LA RONDE). Much of his work was sexually frank about turn-of-the-century Viennese bourgeois life and provoked controversy.
Eric BentleyEric Bentley was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, in 1998 was inducted into the (American) Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2011 won a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Scholar, critic, teacher, performer, translator, and, finally, playwright , he has had many books published and many plays and adaptations performed. Several of his critical works have become classics, notably The Playwright as Thinker, Thinking about the Playwright, and The Life of the Drama. Today, nine of his plays are published by Northwestern University Press in three volumes entitled RALLYING CRIES, MONSTROUS MARTYRDOMS, and THE KLEIST VARIATIONS. Four more Bentley titles have recently been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc: ROUND ONE, ROUND TWO, A TIME TO DIE AND A TIME TO LIVE, and THE STERNHEIM TRILOGY. He died in August 2020.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 12/1/2008 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881454093 |
Special Notes
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
