Staging "The Mysterious Mother"

Staging
Author: Cynthia E. Roman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2023-11-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0300274858
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The first book-length study of Horace Walpole’s scandalous The Mysterious Mother, including critical essays, an abridged script, and a facsimile edition Horace Walpole’s five-act tragedy The Mysterious Mother (1768), a sensational tale of incest and intrigue, was initially circulated only among the author’s friends. Walpole never permitted it to be performed during his lifetime except as a private theatrical. He described his play as a “delicious entertainment for the closet” and claimed that he “did not think it would do for the stage.” Yet the essays in this volume trace a history of private readings, amateur theatricals, and even early public performances, demonstrating that the play was read and performed more than Walpole’s protests suggest. Exploring a wide variety of topics—including the play’s crypto-Catholicism, its treatments of incest, guilt, motherhood, orphans, and scientific spectacle, and the complex relations between print and performance—the essays demonstrate the rich relevance of The Mysterious Mother to current critical discussions. The volume includes the proceedings of a mini-conference hosted at Yale University in 2018 on the occasion of a staged reading of the play. Also included are the director’s reflections, an abridged script, a facsimile of Walpole’s own copy of the full-length play, and reproductions of the illustrations he commissioned from Lady Diana Beauclerk.

The Gothic Novel and the Stage

The Gothic Novel and the Stage
Author: Francesca Saggini
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2015-08-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317319516
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In this ground-breaking study Saggini explores the relationship between the late eighteenth-century novel and the theatre, arguing that the implicit theatricality of the Gothic novel made it an obvious source from which dramatists could take ideas. Similarly, elements of the theatre provided inspiration to novelists.

Displacing Female Bodies on the Eighteenth-Century Stage

Displacing Female Bodies on the Eighteenth-Century Stage
Author: John Robbins
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2024-02-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1527581721
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Displacing Female Bodies on the Eighteenth-Century Stage is driven by a central question: why were women playwrights in the Romantic period obsessed with silencing their female characters, pushing them off the stage, and announcing the removal of their own texts to the closet? These playwrights were some of the most well-known and commercially successful writers of their era, but were paradoxically also among its most marginalized figures: they were mocked by largely conservative audiences, suffered intense criticism for placing their works on display before the public eye, and frequently found their plays rejected by theater managers in favor of works by established male playwrights. This book argues that these writers did not simply craft plays that would please the crowd, but that they deftly incorporated the suppressions and subjugations to which they were subject into their works. It demonstrates that within their plays, gaps in discourse and representation contain a productive capacity, denoting spaces of imaginative potential or drawing into focus the conditions by which such silencing and erasure takes place, and argues that the long-standing critical misapprehension of these works stems from precisely these strategies of resistance, which of necessity took non-traditional forms and thus have not been readily recognizable to audiences, then or now.

The Mystery on Stage

The Mystery on Stage
Author: Gertrude Chandler Warner
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 129
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0807554189
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The Aldens are starring in The Wizard of Oz—and even Benny and Watch have roles! But as the children get ready to perform, mysterious things start to happen. Can the Boxcar Children find out what's going on and save the show before opening night?

A Death on Stage (Euphemia Martins Mystery 16)

A Death on Stage (Euphemia Martins Mystery 16)
Author: Caroline Dunford
Publisher: Headline Accent
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1786157993
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'A sparkling and witty crime debut with a female protagonist to challenge Miss Marple' LIN ANDERSON, Award winning Scottish crime author A Death on Stage - the sixteenth edition of the nail-biting Euphemia Martins Mysteries! Riddled with adventure, espionage and suspense _______________ It is 1914. War is underway. A group of French actors has become trapped in Britain and some of them are seeking political asylum, among these is a mathematician with whom Euphemia's friend, Mary, has been corresponding. He joined the troupe with the express intention of making it to Britain and to Mary before the war began. Euphemia's new commander sends her undercover to the theatre where the company is finishing its run, and he instructs Fitzroy to remain on medical leave. But Fitzroy has never been one to obey orders. Meanwhile, Euphemia's husband, Bertram, lies critically ill in hospital and Euphemia must employ all her strength to stay focussed on her mission. With actors and agents playing roles both on and off stage, the toughest challenge is knowing who to trust... _______________ Readers LOVE Caroline Dunford's compelling crime novels! 'Impeccable historical detail with a light touch' Lesley Cookman, The Libby Serjeant Series 'Euphemia Martins is feisty, funny and completely adorable' Colette McCormick, Ribbons in Her Hair 'A rattlingly good dose of Edwardian country house intrigue with plenty of twist and turns and clues to puzzle through along with the heroine of the book, Euphemia Martins' Booklore.co.uk