THEA 142: Development of Dramatic Art I

A discussion of the origins and transformations of primarily Western theatre from its origins to the late 18th century, through texts, artists, and theorists.

Monday, April 30, 2007

School for Scandal postage

reading this play, i can certainly see the ties to other comdies of manners like missanthroppe and oscar wilde. However, I noticed something different durring this read. as you may have noticed, most of the characters are horrible people, hippocrites, gossips, and liars. Sheridan's wit and humour make the play very readable and entertaining, but i kept thinking that with the characters and content contained in the text, the play could just as easily be written much darker. Take Becket's Godot, for instance, the words and characters can have us as an audience laughing hysterically all the way up to the point we realize the bleak dark world that the play is conveying.

2 Comments:

At 11:27 AM, Blogger Paul said...

I agree with you here that the play could have been written darker. But how specifically? Are there any scenes you personally would have changed or added something? If so, then what?

And just because the play could have been written darker, doesn't neccesarily mean that it should have been. Why do you think that Sheridan wrote it the way he did?

 
At 1:53 PM, Blogger Layne said...

I agree with you that there are similarites with this play and other works that we've read like The Misanthrope. It seems like everyone's secretly betraying their friends in order to achieve a higher goal (like Lady Sneerwell for example). However, I'm not quite sure I understand why you say the play could be written darker. In what ways particularly do you mean? Personally, I thought that School for Scandal was written with an appropriate balance between humor and backstabbing or "darkness," as you put it. The gossiping and lies seemed to be counterbalanced by the wit and word-plays. I think that if Sheridan wrote the play too much heavier it would lose some of the simple humor that I enjoyed.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home