Word: dekker
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Among the second-rank late-Elizabethan dramatists was a triumvirate of Thomases--Dekker, Heywood, and Middleton--all of whom expressed a rare deep sympathy with the common man. Of the three Dekker was the most gifted; and Wellesley's Group 20 has wisely chosen for this week's offering his 357-year-old comic masterpiece, The Shoemaker's Holiday (based on a story by another Thomas--Deloney...
...Dekker was an unsurpassedly keen observer of contemporary London life, if not a peeping Tom; and he gave us here a vivid picture of the artisan and aristocratic milieus. The finest social comedy of its age, Holiday has special appeal for us today: it presents pre-echos of the Horatio Alger story, champions the ideals of democracy (even the King proclaims that "love respects no blood, cares not for difference of birth or state"), and contains the first labor sit down strike in drama...
There is no doubting Thomas's skill. No profound intellectual, Dekker still possessed consummate wit, and produced a busty, gusty, lusty farce of great warmth and vigor. Teeming with bawdy doubles ententes, it makes Measure for Measure read like Sunday sermon. And when Dekker doesn't call a spade a spade, he calls it a steamshovel...
...overall effect of this production is a sheer joy. Should any one tell you otherwise, just reply, "Pishery-pashery! Go snick up, you gibble-gabbling trullibubs!" and hie to Wellesley on a Schulmacher's holiday for this triple-Dekker treat...
...Brattle Theatre Company has shown in "The Country Girl" that Restoration comedy can be sparkling and enjoyable in modern hands, there is good reason to be disappointed in the current production of "The Roaring Girl." The major disappointment is the play itself. It is a farce by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, about an old man, his wayward son, and a town character known as Mad Moll, the roaring girl. There are some moments of delightful comedy during the evening, but most of the time the actions seem mere posturing and the words mere wind...