Epicœne; or, The Silent Woman: fable, parable, and allegory: Diversity of media: affect personality: in Jonson’s play Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman (). EPICOENE; OR, THE SILENT WOMAN. BY BEN JONSON. INTRODUCTION. THE greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary dictator. Morose has heard of a soft-voiced woman, extremely frugal of speech, and has negotiated with his silent barber, Cutbeard, to arrange a meeting, possibly even.

Epicœne; or, The Silent Woman

A few centuries later it registers as a mildly amusing period piece. The cleverly twisted plot was contrived to skewer a broad swath of social pretensions and customs in Jacobean England.

Hypocrisy, venality and marriage are just some of the topics lampooned here. Women take a particularly vicious drubbing. The bachelor, Morose Ted Van Griethuysenis so averse to noise that he covers his house with mattresses, and he selects his wife because she appears to be shy and untalkative. But a circus of pranksters, fops and other quirky denizens turns the scheme upside down.

Kahn has clearly tried hard, perhaps too hard, to compensate by cranking up the clownishness full tilt. The stage is dominated by a gaudy boxlike structure that is twisted and opened to showcase each scene. Windows and doors seemingly pop out of ssilent. Floyd King is delightfully over the top as the foppish La Foole.

Van Griethuysen, clad in enormous slippers and cushioned night coat, is every bit the demented bachelor. David Savin is just right as the battered husband to his effectively shrewish wife, Nancy Robinette. But Scott Ferrara and Daniel Breaker are tiresome as the two tricksters.

Epicœne, or The Silent Woman – Wikipedia

A Shakespeare Theater presentation of a play in two acts by Ben Jonson. Directed by Michael Kahn.

Naomi Jacobson, Nikki E. I’m officially co-producing this show. Womam my next gig! Winston Duke has had quite a year. Masterson, a native of Houston, [ Political plotting has become a national pastime in Britain.

Hardly a week goes by without an attempted parliamentary coup. With courtiers circling [ Can old complaints be forgot? Or should we seek redress, judging the past by present-day standards? You will be redirected back to your article in seconds. Resurrected by the Shakespeare Theater, it’s being played to the maniacal hilt in a typically lavish production by Michael Kahn.

Epicoene or The Silent Woman

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