Although Lord Byron wrote Manfred for the theatre of the mind rather than for the theatre of the English stage, it is not unreasonable to consider performing the dramatic poem because the theatre of Byron's mind may be much more like the modern theatre than was the theatre of his time. This is not to say that Manfred will ever become a Broadway hit or that community theatres will add the production to their season but only to propose that Manfred could certainly be performed today, especially in an academic setting.
The play's most positive and modern attributes are that it provides poetry and action. Poetic theatre is on the rise in many ways, due possibly in part to the recent (within the last fifteen years) successes in the African American theatre (i.e. Ntozake Shange, Rita Dove, Dael Orlandersmith, etc). Remember, of course, that Western theatre probably began as poetry, and while many playwrights are not poets, the list of great Western playwrights includes the great poets. Sense dictates that a theatre revival will begin with poetry and evolve into poetic drama, as Greek and Elizabethan theatre did also. Furthermore, the play does have action. While Manfred doesn't offer a fight scene, it is not simply a dramatic monologue. The spirits, the Witch of the Alps, Manfred standing on the precipice, and the character's demise all offer a spectacle, albeit an intelligent one. The play is a poetic tragedy, and it is a strong tragedy, avoiding both the Greek wailing and the Shakespearean verbosity.
The play also lends itself to classroom use, as well as production. Dr. Jack Voller has included a user-friendly e-text of Manfred on his Literary Gothic page, and while he is correctly adamant about not having his work lifted and included on other websites, he does stipulate that copies can be made for classroom use. If you copy the text directly to a word processor, you'll be dealing with about thirty-five pages, but the reproduction cost is probably less than the cost of a book or script depending on your duplicating resources. Of course, the play is past royalty concerns, as well, and the set, as I imagine it anyway, should be representative. This doesn't mean that no set or a minimal set is necessary, but I see creating some stock scenery and turning it into the different scenes.
The play's most positive and modern attributes are that it provides poetry and action. Poetic theatre is on the rise in many ways, due possibly in part to the recent (within the last fifteen years) successes in the African American theatre (i.e. Ntozake Shange, Rita Dove, Dael Orlandersmith, etc). Remember, of course, that Western theatre probably began as poetry, and while many playwrights are not poets, the list of great Western playwrights includes the great poets. Sense dictates that a theatre revival will begin with poetry and evolve into poetic drama, as Greek and Elizabethan theatre did also. Furthermore, the play does have action. While Manfred doesn't offer a fight scene, it is not simply a dramatic monologue. The spirits, the Witch of the Alps, Manfred standing on the precipice, and the character's demise all offer a spectacle, albeit an intelligent one. The play is a poetic tragedy, and it is a strong tragedy, avoiding both the Greek wailing and the Shakespearean verbosity.
The play also lends itself to classroom use, as well as production. Dr. Jack Voller has included a user-friendly e-text of Manfred on his Literary Gothic page, and while he is correctly adamant about not having his work lifted and included on other websites, he does stipulate that copies can be made for classroom use. If you copy the text directly to a word processor, you'll be dealing with about thirty-five pages, but the reproduction cost is probably less than the cost of a book or script depending on your duplicating resources. Of course, the play is past royalty concerns, as well, and the set, as I imagine it anyway, should be representative. This doesn't mean that no set or a minimal set is necessary, but I see creating some stock scenery and turning it into the different scenes.
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