#early modern theatre

[ink-and-pages]

[tylercircuit]

The Curtain Call: performance and ‘reality’ on the Renaissance English stage and in the cinematic works of David Lynch

Attached is a link to my most recent blog post on the works of David Lynch, including Twin Peaks.

The Curtain Call: performance and ‘reality’ on the Renaissance English stage and in the cinematic works of David Lynch

The News Circuit

The Elizabethan (1558-1603) English theatre had a tradition called a 'jig' or an 'aftergame' in which, after the performance of a full-length play of any genre (but especially tragedy), a clown would perform. It's not considered an epilogue in that these plays usually don't contain any of the characters from the play spectators came to see, it's its own comic drama, like a palate cleanser. Some playwrights like Ben Jonson referenced these comic dramas in a metanarrative way.

Jonson's Volpone features a performing group of 'freaks' including a dwarf named Nano, who is asked (not seriously) to perform a jig for the protagonist. This reminds me of the Arm's jig in the Black Lodge and the metanarrative nature of the setting, the fact he's surrounded by red curtains and observed by a spectator (Coop).

This article is about stage performance and its parallels with reality, about Bakhtin and the carnivalesque, and the relationship between those concepts and the works of David Lynch.

Here's an excerpt:

Like Shakespeare’s Tempest, the works of David Lynch seem, whether through the actions or dialogue or the setting in which they take place or both, to be conscious of their performative nature. As a writer-director he appears interested in the concept of performance-within-performance, a metanarrative indication that the film is aware of its own performance, its fiction. Performance and spectatorship are principal to Lynch. In Twin Peaks, the Black Lodge is shrouded by tall red drapes identical to stage curtains. The only respite for Eraserhead’s protagonist is observing or being on stage with the Lady in the Radiator. Frank Booth’s victim in Blue Velvet is a professional singer at a nightclub; it’s her fame and stage presence which leads to her trouble with Frank in the first place. Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, to different ends, are commentaries on the Hollywood filmmaking industry, and heavily feature scenes of sets and performance. Laura Palmer’s perfect schoolgirl life is performative. She performs to convince her family and friends she does not take drugs; she does not lead a second life in which she has fetishistic orgies with grown adults and know of a ring of groomed and trafficked teenage girls in and around Eastern Washington.

[...]

The world of Twin Peaks is upside-down, a mirror world. In it, Lynch and Frost have created an inverse world typical of the early modern era of English theatre. Shakespeare and his contemporaries created satirical worlds in their comedies in which their contemporary Elizabethan/Jacobean value system is reversed or altered. Social order is deconstructed by the early modern satirist and reorganised, offering spectators a mirror reality. In a Mark Fisher-esque, capitalist realist way, this type of spectatorship is purgative. It gives spectators a chance to revel in activities considered immoral and live vicariously through characters who might, for example, fool other characters that they are the opposite sex by dressing as such, or flirt with characters of the same sex, or decry God and Christianity, or party too hard and sin too much. It’s a Bacchanalian tradition, evocative of the Roman festival Saturnalia in which, for a single day, slaves pretended to be masters and masters slaves. It’s a catharsis and, almost paradoxically, reinforces ‘the rules’. In abandoning the rules on stage or in carnival, revellers can return to the real world cleansed of their antisocial desires, like Fisher suggests returning to the real world after observing a performance of revolution satisfies the urge to revolt. Bakhtin calls the literary equivalent of this, your Shakespeares and your Lynches, the carnival mode.

[...]

Bakhtin’s carnival symbolises the dismantling of structure and control. Normative order is replaced by strange and arguably immoral phenomena, contrary to the moral foundations of real contemporary society. Performance in Lynch’s work is symbolic of the abandonment of social order. Laura Palmer’s homecoming queen performance is offset by her other performance, the drug-abusing femme fatale type – in reality, she is neither.

Laura rejects order. She rejects the moral value system imposed on her. For Laura, so long as she is in control, even (or especially) if the act she is in control of is self-destructive, she is comfortable. Performance is her strength. Manipulation of both sides is her strength. She can manipulate her mother and her teachers and the pretty boys at school, and she can manipulate Jacques and Leo and the statutory rapists and child sex traffickers and paedophile truck drivers, and she can exercise some form of control over Bob.

Performance in the Black Lodge is the visual representation that this spiritual world exists outside of the rules of reality, it is through the looking glass, forget what you thought you knew.

[...]

For Lynch, all realities are performative, all performance is reality. What is real and what is performed roll into one. Social order is rejected and no one thing is truth: there are multiple truths, multiple realities, multiple potential reorganisations of the dismantled concept of contemporary social order.

[culpepers-wife]

Defining what is popular culture in early modern England is actually proving to be difficult.

What is popular culture? How do we define it? How far does elitism and source survival affect how we define it? What does popular culture tell us about early modern society?

For what is essential a brief paragraph in my introduction it is taking a lot of my energy as it turns out the full thesis is dependent on me giving a good definition.

[youknowsureyya]

You know the shift is bad when people only make eye contact with you and the stage direction in your brain goes 'enter two clowns'

[letuswaltzforthedead]

i am thoroughly enjoying much ado about nothing. these people saw a man and a woman who hate each other so so much and went you know what you're both horrible. you're equally horrible. you know what you should do. you should kiss.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Y'all, it has been literal months and I'm still not over how Born With Teeth was simultaneously a vicious takedown of the myth of William Shakespeare the man and one of the greatest entries to that mythos.

That is some A+ playwrighting right there...

Spoilers below the break!

"Do you hate me now? I’m not who you thought I was? Oh, Will would never be so treacherous. Oh, that’s not the Will we know. Well, no. You don’t know me. You know a fairy tale of a country boy made good, the genius earnestly scribbling his way to glory. Christ, are you really that naïve? Do you think anyone ever got rich, got famous and beloved and violently admired by staining his hands with nothing worse than ink? Do you think a career like mine just happens? I would have knocked Saint Paul into the fire if he’d got in my way. From the day my father took me to see the players I knew what I wanted. I wanted money, I wanted glory, I wanted a name. I did not want failure, still less the small room with the sharp instruments. They broke Tom’s hands. (Slight pause) Yeah, no thanks. I loved Kit, but I have worlds to write, and if only one of us could have the brilliant future, it’s not an agonizing decision. Trust me. The man who wrote Iago knows what it is to betray a friend."

...I had to lie down for a minute after this monologue. Just stunning, stunning work by Liz Duffy Adams.

[frogshunnedshadows]

Meticulous archaeology of The Rose playhouse, circa 1590 to 1600, just outside London, used to make some very elaborate 3D modeled interiors, exteriors, and environs. With stills and a short movie.

[burningvelvet]

still continuing my shakespeare journey - got halfway thru love's labour's lost 1975 but have sadly comprehended none of it so may have to restart it in another format/version.

the thing with shakespeare is that its so much better to be able to see/listen to his works since they were meant to be performed, but if you come across a lesser performance then it can really negatively tinge a piece you would have otherwise liked. conversely a superb performance can really put you on to a play you otherwise would have been lukewarm about.

and for these reasons, along with my gen z attention span, genetic adhd, & struggling sometimes with older british dialects & EME (even though i've taken classes on historical english linguistics, shakespearean studies, and renaissance literature, & have immersed myself in classic anglo lit for years, & am a native english speaker albeit an american, etc.) — my shakespeare journey has been more bumpy than expected.

but i hope it will be worth it in the end, and that by studying his work i'll improve my overall writing/reading abilities, particularly when it comes to poetry & scriptwriting, but also storytelling in general. and this, not by mere passive absorption (which i have to combat the urge toward), but by active studying, & seeking to discover what it is that has given his works their legacies in the canon, for whatever it be worth. i think tradition has its place. i believe in learning from the greats, and i agree with that quote about how one must know the rules before they can successfully break them - & would add that too many attempt to break without knowing.

i've been casually watching the famous "working shakespeare" acting workshop series wherein they assess the language. there are exercises dor actors re: script analysis, understanding the diction, etc - & i've been practicing some of that to build my grasp on language in general. some actors like samuel l jackson, toby stephens, robert sean leonard, victor garber, claire danes, blyth danner, etc. are in it - its on youtube. i'm also going to look into playing shakespeare, acting shakespeare), shakespeare in italy, and looking for richard. these are all famous films/documentaries about understanding shakespeare & his works.

it can be so overhwelming to dive into shakespeare, as i previously mentioned - but the relieving part is the wealth of information which exists to aid in the experience. i knew an actress (we did a play partly about shakespeare, lol) who had said that she found a copy of shakespeare for dummies to be really helpful, undignified title aside lmao. there are so many databases & websites & books & all freely accessible online. the sad thing is that some of the live performances are really hard to find, but that's an issue with theatre overall.

but my university's digital library (even though i graduated, i still have access) has a lot of databases including some shakespearen-centric, national theatre, & royal shakespeare theatre stuff. so if any of you are uni students or alumni i recommend you to use your lib databases to find whatever learning resources you can - you already paid for it all with your tuition money anyway!

[whatislifebesidesrehearsal]

Writer: Actually nvm its not that long i just have half a page of stage directions lol

[shakespearenews]

But the legalistic opening scene reminds us that The Comedy of Errors received its first documented performance on 28 December 1594 at Gray’s Inn, one of London’s ancient law schools. We know about this early performance because someone wrote an account of the Inn’s Christmas festivities of which the play formed a part. 

...On the night in question, a ‘great presence of lords, ladies and worshipful personages’ crammed into the hall to welcome an ‘embassy from ‘the State of Templaria’ (more prosaically, Inner Temple – another Inn of Court half a mile to the south). Such was the crush that the worshipful personages rioted, sending the ‘Templarians’ off in a huff. It was before this mêlée that the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who had been commissioned to provide the after-dinner entertainment, performed The Comedy of Errors, which the educated audience recognised as being remarkably ‘like to Plautus his Menaechmus.’ The anonymous author of the Gesta Grayorum also observed that that play’s concerns were pertinent to the disarray of that day’s celebrations: ‘so that night was begun, and continued to the end, in nothing but Confusion and Errors; whereupon, it was ever after called, The Night of Errors.’

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

The story of Globe Theatre started with William Shakespeare's acting company, Lord Chamberlain's Men.

William Shakespeare (baptized 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was a part-owner or sharer in the company, as well as an actor and resident playwright.

From its inception in 1594 AD, Lord Chamberlain's Men performed at Theatre, a playhouse located in Shoreditch.

However, by 1598, their patrons, including Earl of Southampton, had fallen out of favour with the Queen.

Theatre's landlord, Giles Alleyn, had intentions to cancel the company's lease and tear the building down.

While Alleyn did own the land, he did not own the materials with which the theatre had been built.

So, on 28 December 1598, after leasing a new site in Southwark, Cuthbert and Richard Burbage led the rest of the company of actors, sharers, and volunteers in taking the building down, timber by timber, loading it on to barges, and making their way across Thames.

Working together, the actors built the new theatre as quickly as they could.

The ground on the new site was marshy and prone to flooding, but foundations were built by digging trenches, filling them with limestone, constructing brick walls above stone, and then raising wooden beams on top of that.

A funnel caught rainwater and drained it into ditch surrounding the theatre and down into Thames.

The theatre was 30m in diameter and had 20 sides, giving it its perceived circular shape. 

Structure was similar to that of their old theatre, as well as that of the neighbouring bear garden.

The rectangular stage, at 5ft high, projected halfway into the yard and circular galleries.

Pillars were painted to look like Italian marble, sky painted midnight blue, and images of gods overlooked balcony. It could hold up to 3,000 people.

By May 1599, the new theatre was ready to be opened.

Burbage named it Globe after the figure of Hercules carrying the globe on his back — for in like manner, the actors carried Globe's framework on their backs across Thames.

A flag of Hercules with globe was raised above theatre with Latin motto: 'totus mundus agit histrionem' ('all the world's a playhouse'). 

Shakespeare's plays that were performed there early on included: 

Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Here, the Lord Chamberlain's Men enjoyed much success and gained the patronage of King James I in 1603, subsequently becoming The King's Men.

During a fateful performance of Henry VIII on 29 June 1613, a cannon announcing the unexpected arrival of the king at the end of Act 1 set fire to the thatched roof, and within an hour, the Globe burned to ground.

Everyone escaped safely, save for one man whose breeches reportedly caught fire. Two different songs had been written about it by the next day.

Globe was rebuilt by February 1614. The company could then afford to decorate it extravagantly, and it had a tiled roof instead of thatched.

However, by this point, Shakespeare's influence had lessened. He was spending more and more time back in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Disaster struck again in 1642 when the Parliament ordered the closure of London theatres.

In 1644-45, Globe was destroyed and the land sold for building.

In 1970, American actor and director, Samuel Wanamaker CBE (born Wattenmacker; 14 June 1919 – 18 December 1993), set up the Shakespeare's Globe Trust to pursue his dream of reconstructing the original Globe Theatre.

For what would be almost the next 30 years, he and his team worked and fought to obtain the permissions, funds, and research necessary for a project of this scope. 

Historians, scholars and architects all worked together in their efforts to build the Globe in the same way Lord Chamberlain's Men did, down to the green oak pillars and thatched roof.

Their work and dreams were fulfilled when the new Globe Theatre opened in 1997, one street away from where original stood.

Globe stands today as a living monument to Shakespeare, greatest English playwright, home to productions of his plays and many other new ones every season.

[mariocki]

Peter Wyngarde sprawls around being louche as a self-styled modern day Caesar, Tiberio Magadino, in The Saint: The Man Who Liked Lions (5.8, ITC, 1966)

[cakesandfail]

I received another Shakespeare-related book today to add to my collection, and can I just say, I am VERY disappointed that none of those books (fiction OR non-fiction) start with "Marlowe was dead, to begin with"

[johnflorio]

Welcome to John Florio's Tumblr!

Hello! I'm Mary, I'm an independent scholar and I study the life and works of John Florio.

Who was John Florio?

John Florio (1552–1625), was an English linguist, poet, writer, translator, lexicographer, and royal language tutor at the Court of James I. He is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. He contributed 1,149 words to the English language, placing third after Chaucer (with 2,012 words) and Shakespeare (with 1,969 words). He was the first translator of Montaigne into English, the first translator of Boccaccio into English and he wrote the first comprehensive Italian–English dictionary.

The representative humanist of the Elizabethan age.

Translator, teacher, secretary, lexicographer and encyclopedist, stylist, interpreter, book collector, philologist, and philosopher: John Florio was one of the most prodigious and learned scholars of the Renaissance. He was patronized by the Earl of Leicester and Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, perhaps also patron of Shakespeare; he was an official “Groom of the Privy Chamber” reader in Italian to Prince Henry and tutor to Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen Anne of Denmark; he numbered Sir Edward Dyer, Fulke Greville, John Lyly, and Stephen Gosson among his pupils; his works were prefaced with commendatory poems by such men as Samuel Daniel, John Thorius, and Matthew Gwinne; he was the friend of Ben Jonson, Nicholas Breton, Richard Hakluyt, Theodore Diodati, Gabriel Harvey, Edmund Spenser, and Giordano Bruno.

My website: https://www.resolutejohnflorio.com/

Instagram: iohannesflorius

Twitter: iohannesflorius

[ophthalmotropy]

You know, maybe I should have gone into visual arts.

[dullahandyke]

writing background for an art essay like save me britannica.com