ENGLISH 119 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Dennis Amiss, Tyburn, Jab
Document Summary
Lesson plan: brief histories, john gay and the history of this text, the theatrical performances of this text. Movie clips of the same scene being performed by different companies and have the class help analyze what the differences are and how they affect your understanding of the story. Overall themes of the play: why the beggar is an instrumental component to establishing the context of the play, touching on the theme of equality in the context of this time period. Could this be further complicated through the process of acting (and the role of reinterpretation that accompanies acting) out this play: analyzing ballads with topics in, the loyalty/friendship of criminals, the inconstancy of macheath"s character. Gay introduced a wildly new theatrical form in 1728 with the beggar"s opera. Ballad opera, a comedy interlaced with songs whose melodies were those of well- known ballad airs, rather than melodies composed specifically for the play.
