I skipped a lot of the back half of this because I'm really only interested in early Italian theatre: Ariosto, Ruzante, Aretino. But this was very useI skipped a lot of the back half of this because I'm really only interested in early Italian theatre: Ariosto, Ruzante, Aretino. But this was very useful, took a ton of notes. And makes a point of going beyond the literary examination of the surviving scripts to ask questions and propose scenarios for how these plays were staged. Commedia dell'arte sounds interesting but I caught myself skimming and realized it was time to move on....more
Only read the intro and the Ariosto play. Might come back later and read the Aretino play. We'll see. I Suppositi/The Pretends wasn't nearly as funny Only read the intro and the Ariosto play. Might come back later and read the Aretino play. We'll see. I Suppositi/The Pretends wasn't nearly as funny as his La Cassaria, what gives?...more
Thought to myself ‘damn, there really is something to this distancing effect, this Brechtian alienation. I am completely alienated from this play. It'Thought to myself ‘damn, there really is something to this distancing effect, this Brechtian alienation. I am completely alienated from this play. It's actually very disorienting and confusing. What's the use of this?’ Then realized I had navigated to the wrong part of the ebook, skipping completely over the play itself to an appendix that consisted only of lines that had been significantly altered between productions of the play.
Didn't particularly care for the play but maybe it's one of those things that's better seen than read....more
Really interesting. Not without its own flaws but it could have redeemed the failed trilogy, and at the very least was lightyears better than that awfReally interesting. Not without its own flaws but it could have redeemed the failed trilogy, and at the very least was lightyears better than that awful third film. But I guess Disney got cold feet when Solo was a disappointment, which is actually kinda funny because Solo was one of the better Disney Star wars products....more
Not as funny as Feydeau's Dindon but still a great farce. I learned about Feydeau from a title card in an episode of Frasier, of all places, and you cNot as funny as Feydeau's Dindon but still a great farce. I learned about Feydeau from a title card in an episode of Frasier, of all places, and you can see how they're part of the same tradition. Will read more of his plays, eventually.
Great biographical note: (view spoiler)[Feydeau’s father, Ernest Feydeau, was a stockbroker and novelist, a friend of Baudelaire, Flaubert and the Goncourt brothers – who mocked him in their Journals for an interest in ancient Egypt so passionate that it was ‘a form of adultery with him’. .... Feydeau’s public success was offset by private misery. He spent each afternoon writing or directing, each evening at the show and then at Maxim’s (where he had a table permanently reserved); he returned home at three or four in the morning, and began again at noon the next day. His wife shared none of his interests, and eventually asked him to leave. He gambled on the stock exchange, and lost not only the fortune his plays earned but also his valuable art collection. In 1909 he moved to a suite in the Hôtel Terminus (near the Gare St Lazare), and spent ten years there, dividing his time between the theatre, Maxim’s and a succession of whores, from one of whom he contracted syphilis. He stopped writing in 1916; in 1919 he announced that he was Napoleon III, and was committed to an asylum; he died in 1921. (hide spoiler)]...more
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