"Tis A Pity She's a Whore

One of my first memories of college and the surety that I was receiving a liberal education was having been assigned in English class to read the above titled play by John Ford, a "Restoration revenge play", as it is called. Last night I saw it at Center Stage. What a tangled web of relationships and what a gory mess!! I remembered it being comical, which it is in spots, as are most tragedies, but I didn't remember its complexity. It is said to parallel Romeo and Juliet, which may be the reason it was assigned, lo these many years ago. But what struck me is that our basest tastes do not change. Today we have soap operas with all kinds of messy situations and messy relationships. The theater of Carolinian Restoration England was every bit as messy. And just like our soap opera characters these days, we wonder how people can get themselves into such predicaments and manage to continue their lives as if they are normal, though sometimes, as in both types of drama, there are tragic consequences. And the theater has a penchant for presenting us with hyper characters and situations. The hyper nature is what makes it interesting, and simultaneously makes us glad to live our own lives on a more average keel.