Five Great Comedies


Book Description

This inexpensive Dover edition brings together five of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, from the magic and mischief of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the rollicking farce of The Merry Wives of Windsor.




Five Comedies


Book Description

"This is a book worthy of high praise... All versions are exceedingly witty and versatile, in verse that ripples from one's lips, pulling all the punches of Plautus, the knockabout king of farce, and proving that the more polished Terence can be just as funny. Accuracy to the original has been thoroughly respected, but look at the humour in rendering Diphilius' play called Synapothnescontes as Three's a Shroud... Students in schools and colleges will benefit from short introductions to each play, to Roman stage conventions, to different types of Greek and Roman comedy, and there is a note on staging, with a diagram illustrating a typical Roman stage and further diagrams of the basic set for each play. The translators have paid more attention to stage directions than is usually given in translations, because they aim to show how these plays worked.




Four Comedies


Book Description

The Taming of the Shrew Robust and bawdy, The Taming of the Shrew captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio, in a comedy of unmatched theatrical brilliance, filled with visual gags and witty repartee. A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood turn the mismatched rivalries of four young lovers into a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, all touched by Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between dreams and the waking world. The Merchant of Venice This dark comedy of love and money contains one of the truly mythic figures in literature–Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. The “pound of flesh” he demands as payment of Antonio’s debt has become a universal metaphor for vengeance. Here, pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglements, to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Twelfth Night Set in a topsy-turvy world like a holiday revel, this comedy juxtaposes a romantic plot involving separated twins and mistaken identity with a more satiric one about the humiliation of a pompous killjoy. The hilarity is touched with melancholy, and the play ends, not with laughter, but with a clown’s plaintive song. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography




Five Plays; Comedies and Tragicomedies


Book Description

Two additional comedies, published here in book form in English for the first time, are The Billy-Club Puppets -- a guignol-type farce with delicate wit; and The Butterfly's Evil Spell, an "insect comedy" about a beetle-poet who aspires to be a butterfly.




Four Great Comedies


Book Description

The greatest works of comedy from the Bard, this book features "The Taming ofthe Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night" and "The Tempest". Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.




The Great Comedies and Tragedies


Book Description

The collection of the finest of Shakespeare's plays presents Shakespeare's comedies with introductions by Judith Buchanan and tragedies with introductions by Emma Smith




Old MacDonald Had a Farm


Book Description

For use in schools and libraries only. In this version of the familiar song, the reader is asked to guess which animal comes next by looking through a peep hole.




Pictures at a Revolution


Book Description

Documents the cultural revolution behind the making of 1967's five Best Picture-nominated films, including Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, Doctor Doolittle, In the Heat of the Night, and Bonnie and Clyde, in an account that discusses how the movies reflected period beliefs about race, violence, and identity. 40,000 first printing.




Bedrooms


Book Description

Plays include: Alan, Betty and Riva (1 male, 2 females) Alan gets his mistress Betty to agree to join him in a menage a trois with Riva, a hooker who calls herself a sex therapist. Betty gets cold feet and acquiesces only when Alan convinces her it will help him make the decision to finally leave his wife. Afterward, Betty is depressed and, when she realizes Alan still isn't going to leave his wife, she threatens suicide. Bill and Laura (3 males, 3 females) Bill and Laura have recently separated. They show up at the same dinner party with dates and come face-to-face in the bedroom where the coats are being stored. They immediately begin fightng. They go out to the party, but soon return looking for their coats, which are now buried. The fight gets heated as they criticize each other's dates and lives as single people. The more they fight the more they realize that their lives apart have been miserable. In each other's arms, they lock the door and throw the coats off the bed. David and Nancy (1 males, 1 females) David wakes up with an anxiety attack, rushes to his daughter's bedroom and wakes her, certain there is a prowler outside. After she convinces him no one is there, what is really upsetting him surfaces. She is getting married in the morning and he thinks she's making a horrendous mistake. He goes through all the reasons why she should not marry Martin, reasons so outrageous that Nancy just sits there letting him have his tantrum. His love for his daughter and sense of loss at her impending marriage that are the cause of his upset. Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Wexel (1 male, 1 female) Mr. Lewis, a widower, invites Mrs. Wexel, a widow who lives in the same Florida senior citizen center, up to his apartment to see his fish. He then tries to seduce her and though both are in their eighties, he pursues her as if they were sixteen. When she finally gives in, he's too tired to do anything. Nick and Wendy (2 male, 1 female)




Inside Comedy


Book Description

David Steinberg's name has been synonymous with comedy for decades. The Canadian-born comedian, producer, writer, director, and author has been called "a comic institution himself" by the New York Times. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 140 times (second only to Bob Hope), and directed episodes of popular television sitcoms, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. From 2012–2015, Steinberg hosted the comedy documentary series Inside Comedy, which featured such comedy greats as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Gary Shandling. In this entertaining history of comedy, Steinberg shares insightful memories of his journey through his career and takes the reader behind the curtain of the comedy scene of the last half-century. Steinberg shares amusing and often hilarious stories and anecdotes from some of the most legendary comedians in the industry—from Groucho Marx, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, and Richard Pryor to Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tina Fey. Inside Comedy presents in-depth portraits of some of the most talented and revered comedians in the world of comedy today.