Dark Comedy

Dark Comedy

Painful laughter

If you are a fan of shows like Little Britain you’ll be familiar with the fact that, amongst sublimely funny situations of punctured pride and physical slapstick, lurk darker elements that make us laugh. The Fat Club sketches are essentially about bullying and racism, the W.I. ladies are grotesque snobs, the breast-feeding adult is disturbing.

Twelfth Night

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is defined as a comedy and regularly performed today. It includes the comic pathos in Sir Andrew Aguecheek’s aspirations to valour, the broad comedy of mistaken identities, the witty repartee of Maria etc. But in the taunting of Malvolio, and the perpetrators’ obvious enjoyment of his torture, we encounter that darker seam of what makes people laugh.

How Shakespeare’s audience understood the play

Through the antagonism between Sir Toby Belch and Malvolio on stage, Shakespeare was reflecting a cultural sea change. Elements of society, influenced by extreme reformed Protestantism in Europe and Scotland, were challenging the laissé-faire attitudes of the nobility and established church in England.

Malvolio represents the aspiring middle classes who wanted their own share of social influence and prestige – a share that others were reluctant to allow. It was a conflict that would ultimately erupt in the mid seventeenth century with the English Civil War.

Helpful links

You don’t need to know all this to enjoy the comic plot, but if you end up studying Twelfth Night for A Level, marks are awarded for your understanding of how the play was originally received and understood. The newly launched Context links: Twelfth Night will fill you in with all you need to know if you visit Crossref-it.info.

If you can get to see the forthcoming production of the play, part of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, at Robinson College Gardens, 2-28 August (www.cambridgeshakespeare.com), even better!

Passionate Poetry

Passionate poetry

Reading poetry requires some mental space. We need to be able to resist the demands of a hectic lifestyle and allow the words to penetrate our minds and hearts. So what better time to pick up a volume during the less pressured days of the summer holidays!

The brevity of much poetry means that we encounter ideas and emotions distilled into their purest form. It is powerful stuff, particularly when it speaks of the strongest human feelings.

The poetry of the Brontës

The Brontë sisters are famous for their vivid and tumultuous novels, such as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. But many of the themes and passions we come across in these stories exist in condensed form in the sisters’ surviving poems. It is hard to read, for example, Cold In The Earth and not think of Cathy’s love for Heathcliff which endures beyond the grave.

Another level of interest is added when we find out about the actual lives and loves of the three sisters, and see how they translated the stuff of their daily environment into these moving poems. An ideal way of discovering what they knew and what motivated the Brontës is launched this week at Crossref-it.info. Go to Context links: Selected poetry of the Brontës.

But best of all, find a quiet place on a lazy summer’s day and read these distillations of passion for yourself!

Chaucer for today

Chaucer for today

The General Prologue and The Nun's Priest's Tale

Sections of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales frequently feature on A Level syllabuses. The Tales and the descriptions of their tellers are funny and inventive, particularly coming to life when read aloud as they were originally intended. Because Chaucer was portraying the jobs and personality types familiar to his medieval hearers it helps to get a window into the world that they knew.

• How much of a say did women have in that society?
• Why were people in the Middle Ages so fussed about death and judgement?
• Why did they accept that some were superior to because of their birth?
• Why was the Church so influential in people’s day to day lives?

Quick solutions to the questions

The latest helpful student resources from Crossref-it.info this week are focused on The General Prologue and The Nun's Priest's Tale and link you to all the most helpful sections of the website. If you are studying or teaching either work look out for:

Context links: The General Prologue

Context links: The Nun's Priest's Tale

The pointlessness of tragedy

The pointlessness of tragedy

Productions of Othello

Whenever I see Shakespeare’s Othello I am always struck by how such trivial incidents – like the dropping of a hanky, the repetition of apparently innocent phrases – can result in such a momentous downfall of the protagonist and those around him. Played well, it can be almost unbearable to watch.

Yet there is an appeal to this agony, which is why the play endures and takes new generations of theatre go-ers down its tortuous paths. It is never performed as regularly as Hamlet or King Lear for example, so, if you are studying Othello in the coming year do watch out for these productions:

• Currently running until 21 August is a (semi) open air performance by Stamford Shakespeare at the Rutland Open Air Theatre, Tolethorpe Hall, Stamford, 15 June – 21 August (01780 756 133 / 763 203). www.stamfordshakespeare.co.uk
• An interesting adaptation of the Othello story is being done by the Veni Vidi Theatre Company at Lauderdale House, London, between the 10 – 13 August (020 8348 8716).

Getting a fix on the play

Unlike some of Shakespeare’s other plays, which can exist within a world of their own, Othello is set in a specific political situation. Racial and class resentment festers amidst the fears and upheaval generated by armed conflict.

To help you understand this world, Crossref-it.info has this week launched a handy guide tailored to the play, which takes you to all the most helpful sections of the website. Look out for Context links: Othello. If you find yourself studying the play in the coming academic year, this one stop resource will really help you to understand the reactions Shakespeare’s original audience might have had to the tragedy.