Laughter, Pain & Wonder: Shakespeare's Comedies Analysis - Theater Audience Experience for Literature Students & Drama Lovers - Perfect for Classroom Study & Theater Performances

A valuable introduction to my Shakespeare library, and to my library of literary criticism. Richman applies an encyclopedic knowledge of Shakespeare's plays in general and his comedies in particular to create a rhetoric of comedy, as it evolved from the early "workshop comedies" through the "problem comedies." He demonstrates clearly how Shakespeare strove to generate comedy through the constant friction between the elements of laughter, pain, wonder, and mood. Of course, this presents him with the inevitable problem of how to wrap it all up, a problem that he found ultimately unsolvable while presenting his audiences with a brilliant arrays of failed solutions: from several comedies that end with "I'll explain it all in the dressing room" to one comedy ("problem comedy" indeed) that ends with a funeral procession. This book is a Shakespeare fan's dream guide to help pull all those theatrical experiences together, enriched with quotation from detailed critical reviews of productions from the 1950's into the 1990's, Richman's first-person experience directing the plays in collaboration with his actors, and the array of texts ranging from first quartos through the 1900's. I also mentioned this book's value to the library of literary criticism. As I studied it carefully in my first reading, I gradually came to the conclusion that, in the absence of the actual second part of Aristotle's Poetics, the one on comedy, this book will do nicely. The more I kept reading, the more I was convinced. The hope that the secret book kept in the monastery in The Name of the Rose will someday be discovered springs eternal; but until it is actually discovered this comprehensive and readable volume will do just fine.