Nora Ephron’s adage, “Every little thing is copy,” is perhaps price contemplating whereas having fun with the pair of one-act performs that make up “Poetic Justice,” a present on the Marsh San Francisco in January. Each performs by Lynne Kaufman take a look at what occurs when well-known writers use revealing, personal moments and interactions with others to create transcendent literature.
Within the first one-act, “You Should Change Your Life,” the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke begins a correspondence with a younger army faculty cadet, Franz Kappus, who’s scuffling with whether or not to pursue a profession within the military or dedicate his life to poetry. In a collection of letters, which fashioned the idea of considered one of Rilke’s most acclaimed works, “Letters to a Younger Poet,” he supplied inspiring recommendation on how a poet ought to really feel, love, expertise the phrase and interact in artwork.
The literary world’s response wasn’t so glowing when Robert Lowell integrated personal letters from his ex-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, into poems for his Pulitizer Prize-winning 1973 e-book, “The Dolphin.” Adrienne Wealthy publicly blasted Lowell for cruelty – he had left Hardwick for an additional girl – whereas his different poet pal, Elizabeth Bishop, privately wrote him, “One can use one’s life as materials — one does anyway — however these letters — aren’t you violating a belief?” “Divine Insanity,” Kaufman’s second one-act of the present, dramatizes Lowell’s makes an attempt to reconcile with Hardwick following this betrayal, as he additionally struggles with bipolar dysfunction.
Particulars: Jan. 7-29 on the Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St. Tickets are $25-$35, themarsh.org.