Which came first, Midsummer Night’s Dream or Romeo and Juliet? Is the first a spoof on the second or the second a tragic expansion of the first? I look at both sides.
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Tag Archives: Much Ado about Nothing
Shakespeare’s Deep Dive into Explosive Sexual Desire
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charlie Chaplin, Comedy, Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, tragedy, William Shakespeare Leave a comment
Much Ado about Male Insecurities
The men in Much Ado about Nothing are obsessed with cuckoldry. Out of the play, however, arises a revolutionary vision of how male-female relationships could be.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cuckoldry, Marriage, Pete Hegseth, Relationships, Taming of the Shrew, toxic masculinity, William Shakespeare Leave a comment
Is Taming of the Shrew about Male Fragility?
Perhaps Taming of the Shrew is less about taming shrews and more about male fragility. That would restore some of Katharina’s dignity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Male fragility, Pete Hegseth, toxic masculinity, William Shakespeare Leave a comment
Who’s Afraid of a Feuding Couple?
Is Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” a feuding couples comedy? Perhaps yes if you add the adjective “dark.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, Edward Albee, feuding couples comedy, Rover, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Verbal Combat Trumps Soft Romance
Shaw contributed some great plays to the feuding couples comedy genre, including Man and Superman and Pygmalion.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, C. S. Lewis, feuding couples comedy, George Bernard Shaw, Horse and His Boy, Man and Superman, Marriage, Pygmalion, Rover, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Feuding Beats Shrew-Taming
“Taming of the Shrew” may have set the stage for the far more egalitarian “Much Ado about Nothing,” which launched the feuding couples comedy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, feuding couples comedy, John Fletcher, Rover, Tamer Tamed, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Feuding Couples Comedy
I have just begun teaching a “Feuding Couples Comedy” course. “Much Ado about Nothing” remains the quintessential example of the genre.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged couples comedy, feuding couples comedy, Romantic Comedy, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Couples Fighting: It Must Be Love
Tuesday I read plays all day yesterday with an eye toward an upcoming class on “Battling Couples in Theatre and Film (the Comic Version).” The September course is part of Sewanee’s “Lifelong Learning” series. As the course runs for four weeks, I will teach four plays and four movies, pairing a play with a film […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aphra Behn, couples comedy, Edward Albee, George Bernard Shaw, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Pillow Talk, Pygmalion, Romantic Comedy, Rover, screwball comedy, Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Comments closed