Word: bentley
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Comedy indicates a "different temperament" from tragedy, Bentley said. "It prefers only to hint at the serious side," while tragedy confronts pain directly, "taking terror by the hand." Comedy "veils its feelings with eloquencies, while tragedy is a "long lament...
Comedy, like tragedy, is based upon misery, said Eric Bentley last night in the last of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures. "Psychologists know that a patient's vehement 'no' means 'yes,'" and in the same way, carefree laughter at a comedy is a cover-up for anxiety...
...Bentley criticized strongly comedy's "reputation for frivolity." "If a comedy attains grandeur, critics don't call it a comedy," he said. "Someone should collect all the plays that are called not a comedy, not a tragedy, and not a play. I am convinced that it would be the greatest collection of dramas ever made...
...Bentley devoted the last half of his lecture to discussing "revenge, justice, and bitterness" in all forms of drama. He traced revenge to its "leading role" in real life...
...production at off-Broadway's Living Theatre. On the critical front, his personality and drama have been brilliantly mapped in two books: Brecht: The Man and His Work by Martin Esslin (Doubleday), and The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht by John Willett (Methuen). In these Seven Plays, Critic Eric Bentley, a longtime Brecht devotee and translator, has put together a varied sampling of the playwright's work and written an incisive preface...