# Could any of Plato's Dialogues be produced as commercially successful plays/movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462 "2016-01-28T03:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/1 "2016-01-28T03:50:13Z")
They’re **written** as plays, after all. Maybe not what Plato would have recognized as a play – no chorus – but certainly what we would recognize as a play. But, would a play or movie where the characters just sit or stand around and discuss philosophy sell enough tickets to break even – even with the low production costs that implies? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/2 "2016-01-28T03:54:45Z")
**My Dinner with Andre** managed. But I don’t think modern audiences would want to sit still for it. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/3 "2016-01-28T04:01:04Z")
Maybe The Apology if you make it a courtroom drama with his trial and sentencing and death ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/4 "2016-01-28T04:10:55Z")
Parts of the play Socrates on Trial are, IIRC taken from the dialogues. I suspect thats as closr as youd get though. Just having a few actors plow through an entire dialogue verbatim would be pretty dry ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/5 "2016-01-28T04:19:04Z")
I of course, am still waiting for a rousing six-hour epic to be made from _Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems_ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/6 "2016-01-28T19:41:42Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Maybe The Apology if you make it a courtroom drama with his trial and sentencing and death It’s been done: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/7 "2016-01-28T21:18:00Z")
At least the _Symposium_ has a funny bit of business with drunken Alkibiades. Maybe something could be done with that. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-any-of-platos-dialogues-be-produced-as-commercially-successful-plays-movies/744462/8 "2016-01-29T16:48:17Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I of course, am still waiting for a rousing six-hour epic to be made from _Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems_ I see what you did there. (Hoping to be cast in a leading role?)