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Comedy Of Menace
Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the subtitle of Campton's play '' The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace'', in reviewing Pinter's and Campton's plays in '' Encore'' in 1958. (Campton's subtitle ''Comedy of Menace'' is a jocular play-on-words derived from ''comedy of manners''—''menace'' being ''manners'' pronounced with somewhat of an English accent.)See Merritt 5, 9–10, 225–28, 240, 310, and 326, citing articles by Wardle, Gussow's ''Conversations with Pinter'', and various performance reviews by Wardle, Gussow, and others. Background Citing Wardle's original publications in ''Encore'' magazine (1958), Susan Hollis Merritt points out that in "Comedy of Menace" Wardle "first applies this label to Pinter's work … describ ngPinter as one of 'several playwrights who have been tentatively lumped together as the "non-naturalist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Campton
David Campton (2 May 1924 – 9 September 2006) was a prolific British dramatist who wrote plays for the stage, radio, and cinema for thirty-five years. Biography Campton was born in Leicester, in 1924. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the Royal Air Force, RAF, and then, for another year, in the Fleet Air Arm. He worked as a clerk in the City of Leicester Department of Education until 1949 and then moved to the East Midlands Gas Board, where he worked until 1956. Campton worked with Stephen Joseph in developing theatre in the round in the United Kingdom, and played a major role in establishing theatre-in-the-rounds in both Scarborough, North Yorkshire (now in the well-known Stephen Joseph Theatre, a converted 1930s Odeon Cinemas, Odeon cinema) and Staffordshire in the English West Midlands. He worked as writer, actor and also regularly ran the box-office and front-of-house. Campton always credited himself with giving a young Ala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin McDonagh
Martin Faranan McDonagh ( ; born 26 March 1970) is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his Absurdism, absurdist Black comedy, dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won List of awards and nominations received by Martin McDonagh, numerous accolades including an Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Laurence Olivier Awards, Olivier Awards in addition to nominations for five Tony Awards. His plays, many of which have been produced in the West End (theatre), West End and on Broadway (theatre), Broadway, include ''The Beauty Queen of Leenane'', ''The Cripple of Inishmaan'' (both 1996), ''The Lonesome West'' (1997), ''The Lieutenant of Inishmore'' (2001), ''The Pillowman'' (2003), ''A Behanding in Spokane'' (2010), and ''Hangmen (play), Hangmen'' (2015). McDonagh won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for ''Six Shooter (film), Six Shooter'' and has received nominations for List of award ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deus Ex Machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( ; ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; 'God from the machine') is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device. Origin of the expression ''Deus ex machina'' is a Latin calque . The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought on stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane ('' mechane'') used to lower actors from above or a riser that brought them up through a trapdoor. Aeschylus introduced the idea and it was used often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. The device is associated mostly with Greek tragedy, although it also appeared in comedies. Ancient examples Aeschylus used the device in his '' Eumenides'' but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Powers That Be (phrase)
In idiomatic English, "the powers that be" is a phrase used to refer to those individuals or groups who collectively hold authority over a particular domain. Within this phrase, the word ''be'' is an archaic variant of ''are'' rather than a subjunctive ''be''. Origin The phrase first appeared in the Tyndale Bible, William Tyndale's 1526 translation of Romans Chapter 13 verse 1 in the New Testament, as: "Let every soul submit himself unto the authority of the higher powers. There is no power but of God. The powers that be, are ordained of God". In the 1611 King James Version it became, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God." (), whence it eventually passed into popular language. The phrase comes from a translation of the ; is also translated as "authorities" in some other translations.Biblos.com. Chain Link BibleRomans 13:1 Examples "The powers that be" can refer to a variety of entities that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dumbwaiter (elevator)
A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaurants, schools, hospitals, retirement homes or private homes, they generally terminate in a kitchen. Limited Preview, ''Google Books'', accessed August 26, 2008. The term seems to have been popularized in the United States in the 1840s, after the model of earlier "dumbwaiters" now known as serving trays and lazy Susans. Quinion, Michael. ''World Wide Words'':Lazy Susan. 24 Apr 2010. Accessed 11 Aug 2013. The mechanical dumbwaiter was invented by George W. Cannon, a New York City inventor. He first filed for the patent of a brake system (US Patent no. 260776) that could be used for a dumbwaiter on January 6, 1883, Limited Preview, ''Google Books', accessed October 30, 2012. then for the patent on the mechanical dumbwaiter (US Patent No. 36 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tragicomic episodes of life, often coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense. A major figure of Irish literature and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, he is credited with transforming the genre of the modern theatre. Best remembered for his tragicomedy play ''Waiting for Godot'' (1953), he is considered to be one of the last Modernism, modernist writers, and a key figure in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd." For his lasting literary contributions, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation." A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, Beckett wrote in both Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyril Tourneur
Cyril Tourneur (; died 28 February 1626) was an English soldier, diplomat and dramatist who wrote '' The Atheist's Tragedy'' (published 1611); another (and better-known) play, '' The Revenger's Tragedy'' (1607), formerly ascribed to him, is now more generally attributed to Thomas Middleton. Life Little is known of Cyril Tourneur's early life. It has been suggested that he was either son of Edward Tournor of Canons, Great Parndon (Essex), or his grandson via Captain Richard Turnor, water-bailiff and subsequently lieutenant-governor of Brill in the Netherlands. However, the literary scholar Allardyce Nicoll concluded "the evidence connecting him with the Turnors of Great Parndon is of the slightest", further observing that he had "discovered not a shred of proof for associating him with any others of the numerous Turner families of this time. Turners, of course, abounded in the late sixteenth century as they abound to-day". Allardyce noted that the alleged connection of Cyril Tourn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Webster
John Webster (c. 1578 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and career overlapped with Shakespeare's. Biography Webster's life is obscure and the dates of his birth and death are not known. His father, a carriage maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter named Elizabeth Coates on 4 November 1577 and it is likely that Webster was born not long after, in or near London. The family lived in St Sepulchre's parish. His father John and uncle Edward were Freemen of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London. On 1 August 1598, "John Webster, lately of the New Inn" was admitted to the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court; in view of the legal interests evident in his dramatic work, this may be the playwright. Webster married 17-year- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of River Avon, Warwickshire, Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including William Shakespeare's collaborations, collaborations, consist of some Shakespeare's plays, 39 plays, Shakespeare's sonnets, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays List of translations of works by William Shakespeare, have been translated into every major modern language, living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Literary realism, realism and the fantastique, and typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surreal predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of social alienation, alienation, existential anxiety, guilt (emotion), guilt, and absurdity. His best-known works include the novella ''The Metamorphosis'' (1915) and the novels ''The Trial'' (1924) and ''The Castle (novel), The Castle'' (1926). The term '':en:wikt:Kafkaesque, Kafkaesque'' has entered the English lexicon to describe bizarre situations like those depicted in his writing. Kafka was born into a middle-class German- and Yiddish-speaking Czech Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Killers (Hemingway Short Story)
"The Killers" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway, first published in ''Scribner's Magazine'' in 1927 and later republished in ''Men Without Women (short story collection), Men Without Women,'' ''The Snows of Kilimanjaro (short story collection), Snows of Kilimanjaro'', and ''The Nick Adams Stories''. Set in 1920s Summit, Illinois, the story follows recurring Hemingway character Nick Adams (character), Nick Adams as he has a run-in with a pair of hitmen, who are seeking to kill a Boxing, boxer, in a local restaurant. Historians have some documents showing that the working title of the piece was "The Matadors". Hemingway received $200 () for the story, and told F. Scott Fitzgerald he submitted it solely "to see what the alibi would be" should it be rejected. Hemingway's depiction of the human experience, his use of satire, and the themes of death, friendship, and the purpose of life have contributed to make "The Killers" one of his most famous and frequently anthologized short sto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. After high school, he spent six months as a reporter for ''The Kansas City Star'' before enlisting in the American Red Cross, Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front (World War I), Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded by shrapnel in 1918. In 1921, Hemingway moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the ''Toronto Star'' and was influenced by the modernist writers and artists ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
