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nyalvr's review
4.0
most interesting and bizarre piece of literature i have ever read. despite that, i loved the self-awareness in certain parts, the meta moments, and how none of it made sense at all yet did make sense at the same time. the racial animosity being one i could relate to on a personal level as a young jamaican and puerto rican woman.
: ̗̀➛ “i wish i could be in love. that is what i wish. and it is all so sad, it is all so sad and i can’t access the feeling. i can’t access the deep sad feeling that will enable me to say what i must say to you…”
: ̗̀➛ “i wish i could be in love. that is what i wish. and it is all so sad, it is all so sad and i can’t access the feeling. i can’t access the deep sad feeling that will enable me to say what i must say to you…”
bennought's review
2.0
I don't quite know what to think after reading 'Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven.' It was the only one of the plays in the collection I read, since that was the one required for the dramaturgy class I'm taking. The play is highly abstract, extremely violent, and utterly random and confusing. Judging the stage directions for the opening of house, she is definitely trying to make the audience feel uncomfortable and unsure of themselves. Mostly, I was just confused and not a little bit disgusted by what was going on in the play. This is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing. I just felt like I was missing the point, and that I wasn't getting much out of the play.
dkrane's review
4.0
Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven is a raucous and excruciatingly cutthroat comedy skewering race on the page—in person, could really fly to heaven, I imagine.
jackieeh's review
4.0
Of this collection, I've only read The Appeal, which is a joyful skewering homage to William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron.
You would be forgiven, after seeing the list of characters, in assuming that this is a Tom Stoppard play. However, you couldn't be more wrong.
Reading this play was absolutely hilarious, given that one of the courses I'm taking this semester is one on Romantic poetry, and the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge in particular. So I enjoyed The Appeal on two levels. First, I appreciate its clever moments of parody: when Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Coleridge would reference their written (or to-be-written) work in oversimplified and humorous ways (such as Coleridge's section musing about the "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; Dorothy spanking herself with her famous diary; Wordsworth being "obsessed with nature").
Most of all, though, I enjoyed exchanges between Dorothy and William such as the one:
Dorothy: You're a total and complete fucking moron.
Wordsworth: What?
Dorothy: What.
Wordsworth: You just said I was a total and complete fucking moron.
Dorothy: Oh. I was talking to myself.
Wordsworth: Oh.
The above exchange has a lot in common with the dynamic between the real Wordsworths--and, in fact, the dynamic between the real Wordsworth and the real Coleridge--who were both poets, but Dorothy often compared herself unfavorably to William--just as Coleridge often compared himself unfavorably to William. The thing I loved about the Dorothy who appears in The Appeal as opposed to the Dorothy presented to my Romantic poetry class is that when she says "You're a total and complete fucking moron," and then claims to have been talking to herself, you don't quite believe her. Young Jean Lee gives a historically overshadowed woman a new lease on life, as well as some bite.
Also it was funny to see Byron (who is my favorite Romantic poet for a variety of reasons) presented not as someone "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" but as a man who seems comparatively sane when presented beside the antics of the other three and who has an irrational (rational, to hear him tell it) fear of his eyes turning into telescopes. Great stuff.
You would be forgiven, after seeing the list of characters, in assuming that this is a Tom Stoppard play. However, you couldn't be more wrong.
Reading this play was absolutely hilarious, given that one of the courses I'm taking this semester is one on Romantic poetry, and the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge in particular. So I enjoyed The Appeal on two levels. First, I appreciate its clever moments of parody: when Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Coleridge would reference their written (or to-be-written) work in oversimplified and humorous ways (such as Coleridge's section musing about the "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; Dorothy spanking herself with her famous diary; Wordsworth being "obsessed with nature").
Most of all, though, I enjoyed exchanges between Dorothy and William such as the one:
Dorothy: You're a total and complete fucking moron.
Wordsworth: What?
Dorothy: What.
Wordsworth: You just said I was a total and complete fucking moron.
Dorothy: Oh. I was talking to myself.
Wordsworth: Oh.
The above exchange has a lot in common with the dynamic between the real Wordsworths--and, in fact, the dynamic between the real Wordsworth and the real Coleridge--who were both poets, but Dorothy often compared herself unfavorably to William--just as Coleridge often compared himself unfavorably to William. The thing I loved about the Dorothy who appears in The Appeal as opposed to the Dorothy presented to my Romantic poetry class is that when she says "You're a total and complete fucking moron," and then claims to have been talking to herself, you don't quite believe her. Young Jean Lee gives a historically overshadowed woman a new lease on life, as well as some bite.
Also it was funny to see Byron (who is my favorite Romantic poet for a variety of reasons) presented not as someone "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" but as a man who seems comparatively sane when presented beside the antics of the other three and who has an irrational (rational, to hear him tell it) fear of his eyes turning into telescopes. Great stuff.
rustle_sprouts's review
3.0
lee has some VERY sharp commentary about asian american identity and anti-asian racism but lots of these plays were way over my head.
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