Comedy and tragedy in Antigone and Lysistrata Horace Warpole wrote "The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who think, a comedy to those who feel." This quote holds much truth behind its meaning. It can also be translated to mean that comedy evokes though...

Problem of Genre in Drama When a reader thinks of a play that has been labeled a comedy he thinks of light-hearted and happy plots. The reader would not think of family tension, arguments or even perversion. The genre of comedy takes on the responsibility of making the audience laugh and walk awa...

In 500 B.C., Greek theatre was the most popular form of entertainment. It is important to understand that drama began in the Greek world as a form of religious ritual, but it was good entertainment especially if it contained a lot of blood or gore. Greek drama was not only performed in the theatre b...

Romantic Comedies Most women are hopeless romantics, it's just that some do a much better job at hiding it than others. I'm sure that everyone has known someone in their lifetime who complains constantly about their significant other and simply wishes to find the perfect guy/girl. But ...

Have you ever watched a film and found yourself laughing at something grotesque? Many films try to make things comical that are typically frowned upon. It is important that a film does not make the audience uncomfortable but to use enough black comedy to make a film comical. What's Eating Gi...

A Midsummer Night's Dream is an excellent, humorous play written by Shakespeare. It is highly characteristic of Shakespeare, bringing several subplots into one masterful story. I have seen this play presented in a classical format and I found it thoroughly entertaining. Directed by Robin McKee, ...

Sunddenly, Bob dashes out into the audience and jokingly asks one of the audience members if she would like to catch a movie after the play. This type of thig was typical at The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in Samuel Park in Dallas. It was an entertaining comedy with many themes and ma...

Who the Heck is Neil Simon? Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners, The Sunshine Boys – are just a few of Neil Simon's most successful plays which have kept millions of people amused for many years now. His success in the playwriting business has earned him resp...

"To what extent can 'Under Milk Wood' be considered a 'play for voices'?" Under Milk Wood When most people think of a play, they think of dressing up and going to the theatre; costumes; romance and comedy; ice cream at the interval and, of course, pantomimes. D...

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Much like the great comedies of our time, the play, "Tartuffe," is founded on serious issues. The 17th-century comedy, written by Moliere, achieves a representation of human nature through farce and satire. Moliere had a method of portraying life that could not be matched, not even by the likes of...

"Lobby Hero" is a comedy/romance about a young security guard named Jeff, who has had a rough time after being dishonorably discharged from the Navy for smoking marijuana. The setting of the play is in a high rise apartment building in Manhattan, New York. The only demanding element of J...

The production I critiqued is "Fairy Tale Follies" by A. J. Jacobs, done by the high school students of Foothills Academy. Despite the fact that they had a small cast and crew, the production was quite enjoyable. The play itself did not really follow Aristotle's components of drama,...

No Exit No Exit was a dark play about the afterlife and what it may be like. The play actually seemed to have some dark comedy to it, when it was preformed on stage. The pay is about three souls of recently deceased people, with three very different personalities. Each one is added at a t...

American Buffalo is a funny play. It doesn't overflow with jokes, but develops sustained humour from the rhythm of the dialogue, a rolling punch line that builds for an hour and a half. It's hard to nail down. Imagine someone who doesn't understand English listening to Lenny Bruce on a riff. The...

Scene Eleven from the play "Mother Courage and Her Children" and Act One, Scene Four from "Summer of the Aliens" are scenes that are performed very differently, according to their theatrical styles and using conventions relating to those styles. The context in each scene is diverse, too, however...

Aphra Behn's play "The Rover" takes place in Venice, Italy during the Carnevale. Carnevale was one of the more important celebrations in Venice. It was a time of goodwill, dedicated to happiness and laughter much like the Mardi Gras we are familiar with today. The origins of Carnevale trace to...

Modern drama began by turning toward realism and away from the fantasy of nineteenth-century melodrama and farce. Realism gave rise to various innovations that served to express the dramatist's vision of what reality is. These attempts to be " more real than real" can be called expressionism. ...

When you go to the theater you may never see your name in lights but your role as an audience member is just as important as the star of the show. A play never really exists until it is performed in front of an audience. That makes an audience what the art of playwriting is all about, it's th...

Greek Theatre There have been many artistic achievements that have had a substantial role in shaping outlooks and tastes for cultures and generations for 1000's of years. Of all the different kinds of productions the Greeks have established, the tragedy is the most extraordinary of t...

A critique on Thirty Three Swoons In the play Thirty Three Swoons, which is a collection of four farces written by Anton Palovish Chekhov. The play consists of these short productions in order, Swan Song, The Bear, The Proposal, and The Wedding. Each of them their own unique plays that pokes...

"Drama and Theatre in their content and style reflect the society from which they spring" The issues and happenings of contemporary Australia are reflected in contemporary Australian Theatre, the same way as Shakespeare was reflected in Elizabethan Theatre in the 18th Century. The idea ...

Very early in history, the Greeks began to collect poems that had been written in honor of their brave ancestors. These poems were often recited in public and almost everyone in the city would come to listen. Many people think that Greek entertainment evolved from these poems, but actually it did ...

Imagine this following scene: You are sitting in a dark, fairly crowded large room. There are hundreds of other people, in hundreds of other seats surrounding you. In front of you, there is a large stage, with people acting out a play. Lights, music, and different sound effects set the mood of t...

Although not the talk of the university, "Moon Over Buffalo" was definitely the talk of those who saw it; from one comedic act to another. Whether it was Paul trying to get George's pants on or just random humorous lines when George realizes he did not quite "dress for the part," it left ever...