Terry Pratchett! Terry Pratchett!
My all-time favorite author (especially if you go by sheer number of books read), Sir Terry Pratchett, may not be well known to readers of this blog. He's a contemporary English fantasy satirist (or satirical fantasist?), sort of a 20th/21st century Jonathan Swift (although it might be fairer to make that comparison if I'd actually read any of Swift's work -- but it's much easier this way). He died too young in 2015, after a few years of living with Alzheimer's.
Although the bulk of his novels are set in Discworld, an alternate universe that strongly parallels our own -- while also paying homage to Middle-Earth, the themes and topics are decidedly relevant to this world, not to mention much of the geography and culture. It just might be easier to write about racism and ethnic conflicts (and to read about them) when the "races" are trolls and dwarves, or the oppressed "people" are goblins. Politics, war, and religion are all frequent topics, portrayed with humour, insight, and plenty of footnotes. Magic is a common overt plot element in Pratchett's books, but it's his ability to find and describe the magic in things we now take for granted -- rock music, movies, newspapers, banking, trains -- that makes him truly brilliant.
After reading through most of Pratchett's Discworld series twice (out loud, almost every night), we are finally one Tiffany Aching book away from finishing the canon. I'm a little worried that once we finish it, I might finally realize he's dead and get awfully sad.
Anyway, a number of years ago an English playwright and fan of Discworld started adapting Pratchett's books into plays. Majestic Theatre, led by local fan/actor/director John Carone, has now put on at least three of these plays. "Guards! Guards!" is the first book of the "Ankh Morpork City Watch" series, featuring the so-down-to-earth-he's-basically-in-the-gutter Captain Vimes, the strapping young 6'6" "dwarf" Lance Constable Carrot (he's adopted), Lord Vetinari, the Patrician and self-described tyrant who makes the chaotic city work, and a number of dragons. (Discworld has a number of "series within the series" -- the magicians of Unseen University, including the hapless Rincewind; the witches; including the young Tiffany Aching; the entrepreneurial scoundrel, Moist von Lipwig; and that ol' lovable anthropomorphic personification himself, Death).
Majestic did an admirable job with this show and its "cast of thousands," including many well-known local actors such as Laurie Mason as the Patrician, Johanna Spencer as Sgt. Colon, Rus Roberts as The Librarian (DON'T call him a monkey!), Nancy Homan as Lady Ramkin (or, more familiarly, Lady Sybil), and Rachel Kohler as the Footnote (yes, an anthropomorphic personification of a footnote).
Although no one knew it at the time, this was Majestic's last in-person play before the Covid-19 shutdown. C was actually in rehearsals for the next Majestic show on the schedule, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, when society as we know it came to a screeching halt.
