Her mastery is unparalleled when it comes to the seduction of certain powerful individuals, but popular criticism supports the notion that " as far as Cleopatra is concerned, the main thrust of the play's action might be described as a machine especially devised to bend her to the Roman will ... and no doubt Roman order is sovereign at the end of the play.

" As such, the play's primary interest for critics has tended to lie in relation to what it reveals about Shakespeare's conception of certain themes before he became an accomplished playwright.

Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere.

Responding to critical interest in Orientalism, Noble accentuated the multicultural aspects of the play's setting.

The initial Los Angeles run ( as Woman on Trial ) got complimentary reviews, although Rand was disappointed that they focused on the play's melodrama and its similarity to The Trial of Mary Dugan, while paying little attention to aspects she considered more important, such as the contrasting ideas of individualism versus conformity.

" Massinger's blending of lighter dramatic materials, like comedy of intrigue, with the play's more serious aspects, has also been faulted.

Much of the play's Protestantism derives from its location in Denmark — both then and now a predominantly Protestant country, though it is unclear whether the fictional Denmark of the play is intended to mirror this fact.

Some feminist psychoanalytic critics, such as Janet Adelman, have connected the play's treatment of gender roles to its larger theme of inverted natural order.

The play's preface says that while the trial was its " genesis ," it is " not history.

Contemporary reviews all praised the play's humour, though some were cautious about its explicit lack of social messages, while others foresaw the modern consensus that it was the culmination of Wilde's artistic career so far.

The play's very title, with its mocking paradox ( serious people are so because they do not see trivial comedies ), introduces the theme, it continues in the drawing room discussion, " Yes, but you must be serious about it.

the play's strongly patriotic themes were credited by the Conservative Party for helping them secure a large percentage of the middle class votes, despite the fact Coward had conceived the project a full year before the election was held, and the playwright strenuously denied having any motivation to influence its outcome.

The play's line " the fault dear Brutus lies not in our stars but in ourselves " gave its name to the J. M.

Efforts to establish the play's date of composition and genesis have been complicated by its uncertain relationship with another Elizabethan play with an almost identical plot but different wording and character names, A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called the taming of a Shrew, which is often theorised to be a reported text of a performance of The Shrew, a source for The Shrew, or an early draft ( possibly reported ) of The Shrew.

Dana Aspinall also suggests that an Elizabethan audience would have been similarly taken aback by the play's harsh, misogynistic language: " Since its first appearance, some time between 1588 and 1594, Shrew has elicited a panoply of heartily supportive, ethically uneasy, or altogether disgusted responses to its rough-and-tumble treatment of the ' taming ' of the ' curst shrew ' Katherina, and obviously, of all potentially unruly wives.

Indeed, the play's situation was almost bound to be better than its resolution, which by comparison seemed trite and anticlimactic.

The play's theme is a demonstration of Ronceverte's importance in the turn of the 20th century, when its St. Lawrence Boom and Lumber Company was the largest softwood mill in the country, and traces of its industry have sculpted Ronceverte's portion of the Greenbrier River to the shape it is today.

Wycherley's The Plain Dealer ( 1676 ), a variation on the theme of Molière's Le Misanthrope, was highly regarded for its uncompromising satire and earned Wycherley the appellation " Plain Dealer " Wycherley or " Manly " Wycherley, after the play's main character Manly.

James ( or Jimmy ) Christie, at 15 years old, began playing Whitney ( the third son ) in 1939 on Broadway at the Empire Theatre and remained during most of its 7-year run, playing both Whitney and John ( the next to eldest son ) as he aged through the play's run.

The play's dual significance as a satire / allegory leads to an ambivalence in its characters that isn't easily resolved.

In the years between the play's composition and its first performance, Athens underwent many changes.

Hawke said that he was drawn to the play's take on " the nature of reality ", and its " weird juxtaposition of humor and mysticism ".

On the whole, everything Catholic is represented as bad, everything Protestant is represented as good: " The play's popularity 1592 has to be seen against the backdrop of an extraordinary efflorescence of interest in political history in the last two decades of the sixteenth century fed by self-conscious patriotic Protestantism's fascination with its own biography in history.

As such, all of the play's problems can be attributed to its co-authors rather than Shakespeare himself, who may have had a limited hand its composition.

And, while the play's textual critics have sharply disagreed about editorial methodology in the last half-century, almost all of them, beginning with F. D. Hoeniger with his 1963 Arden 2 edition, have been enthusiastic about Pericles ( Other, more recent, critics have been Stephen Orgel ( Pelican Shakespeare ), Suzanne Gossett ( Arden 3 ), Roger Warren ( Reconstructed Oxford ), Harold Bloom said that the play works well on the stage despite its problems.

" As such, the final scene " stages the play's ultimate collaboration of male friendship and its incorporation of the plot we would label " heterosexual.

There are no contemporary allusions to the play by which its date of composition may be determined ; nor is there an agreed means of explaining the play's " loose ends and inconsistencies ".

The director, famous actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, was criticised for the play's unadventurous staging, but Campino was cheered by the audience.

During this time, Ibsen told Vilhelm Bergsøe that " I don't think the play's for acting " when they discussed the possibility of staging the play's image of a casting-ladle " big enough to re-cast human beings in.

Tree's production was notable for its elaborate exploitation of the play's pageantry, typical of the expensive and spactacular staging of the era.

The play's first staging was produced by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

The purpose of the organization is to further the interest of women students in recreational activities as a means of promoting physical efficiency, sportsmanship, and `` play for play's sake ''.

perhaps that is the Comedie's equivalent for thrusting this play's characters into our own time.

It was felt by Ibsen's German agent that the original ending would not play well in German theatres ; therefore, for the play's German debut, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending for it to be considered acceptable.

Guest began his career in theatre during the early 1970s with one of his earliest professional performances being the role of Norman in Michael Weller's Moonchildren for the play's American premiere at the Arena Stage in Washington D. C. in November 1971.

In the wake of the play's US success, the composer Stravinsky invited Thomas to write a libretto for an opera.

Academic Laurie Osborne identifies the direct influence of Hamlet in numerous modern narratives, and divides them into four main categories: fictional accounts of the play's composition, simplifications of the story for young readers, stories expanding the role of one or more characters, and narratives featuring performances of the play.

Similarly, 1933's La femme en blanc Woman in White uses a then-new technique of recreating for the audience events as they are being described by the play's characters.

Smith repeated the play's allegations, and he was consequently arrested for sedition.

Sondheim wrote the lyrics and music over a two-day period during rehearsals for the play's Broadway debut, specifically for the actress Glynis Johns, who created the role of Desirée.

" The theme is hinted at in the play's ironic title, and " earnestness " is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue, Algernon says in Act II, " one has to be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life " but goes on to reproach Jack for ' being serious about everything '".

Leigh next sought the role of Blanche DuBois in the West End stage production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and was cast after Williams and the play's producer Irene Mayer Selznick saw her in The School for Scandal and Antigone ; Olivier was contracted to direct.

The play's American première was at the Garrick Theatre in New York City in October 1922, where it ran for 184 performances, a production in which Spencer Tracy and Pat O ' Brien played robots in their Broadway debuts.

However, the award's advisory board — the trustees of Columbia University — objected to the play's then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes, and overruled the award's advisory committee, awarding no Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1963.

Cardinal Richelieu's Académie Française acknowledged the play's success, but determined that it was defective, in part because it did not respect the classical unities of time, place, and action ( Unity of Time stipulated that all the action in a play must take place within a twenty-four hour time-frame ; Unity of Place, that there must be only one setting for the action ; and Unity of Action, that the plot must be centred around a single conflict or problem ).

The play's West End transfer, after an eight-month run at the National, gave an opportunity for re-appraisal and The Daily Telegraph commented: " I have never left a play more convinced that I had just witnessed a masterpiece ".

The play's success and reputation has been boosted in recent years by a successful revival by English director Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre in 1992., and a tour of the UK in 2011-2012.

( Critics have speculated that the play's themes were considered too negative and critical for wartime British audiences ).

She later reprised this role for the play's run in London's West End.

The film was adapted by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, but the play's storyline and the characters ' names were almost completely changed for the movie, so much so in fact that Kaufman joked the film should be called " Screen Door ".