In this title, first published in 1985, Michael Bristol draws on several theoretical and critical traditions to study the nature and purpose of theatre as a social institution: on Marxism, and its revisions in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin; on the theories of Emile Durkheim and their adaptations in the work of Victor Turner; and on the history of social life and material culture as practiced by the Annales school. This valuable work is an important contribution to literary criticism, theatre studies and social history and has particular importance for scholars interested in the dramatic literature of Elizabethan England.

From the Fool to the Wildman, from the irate Reformer to the festive Masqueraders, this collection of articles offers a variety of topics, approaches, and agendas in the study of early modern European theatre. With samplings from Scandinavia, Germany, England, France, the Iberian peninsula, and even the New World, this collection also spans time, from the late fifteenth century to the present. In the process, Carnival and the carnivalesque are examined from archival, Bakhtinian, cultural, and even political points of view. The articles in this collection reveal the variety and inherent vitality of scholarship in early modern theatre. The thirteen essays have been selected from presentations made at the Eighth Triennial Congress of the Société Internationale pour l'Etude du Théâtre Médiéval held in Toronto (1995), under the auspices of the Records of Early English Drama project and Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

In this title, first published in 1985, Michael Bristol draws on several theoretical and critical traditions to study the nature and purpose of theatre as a social institution: on Marxism, and its revisions in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin; on the theories of Emile Durkheim and their adaptations in the work of Victor Turner; and on the history of social life and material culture as practiced by the Annales school. This valuable work is an important contribution to literary criticism, theatre studies and social history and has particular importance for scholars interested in the dramatic literature of Elizabethan England.

From the Fool to the Wildman, from the irate Reformer to the festive Masqueraders, this collection of articles offers a variety of topics, approaches, and agendas in the study of early modern European theatre. With samplings from Scandinavia, Germany, England, France, the Iberian peninsula, and even the New World, this collection also spans time, from the late fifteenth century to the present. In the process, Carnival and the carnivalesque are examined from archival, Bakhtinian, cultural, and even political points of view. The articles in this collection reveal the variety and inherent vitality of scholarship in early modern theatre. The thirteen essays have been selected from presentations made at the Eighth Triennial Congress of the Société Internationale pour l'Etude du Théâtre Médiéval held in Toronto (1995), under the auspices of the Records of Early English Drama project and Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Spotting a trend in the early 1950s of staging summer theater in the round under tents, Clevelander John L. Price Jr. decided to give it a try. Consulting a local statistician to determine the geographical center of the culturally inclined population, the bull's-eye fell in Warrensville Heights, a Cleveland suburb that was also the home to Thistledown Race Track. Price opened his Musicarnival there, on the grounds of the race track, with a production of Oklahoma! in the summer of 1954. The Music Went 'Round and Around tells the story of this unique summer theater and of its ebullient founder, John L. Price Jr. Price's venture was one of the last commercial legitimate theaters established in Cleveland. In its heyday the Musicar-nival had a capacity of 2500 and presented an average of eight to ten shows each summer. The backbone of the repertoire consisted of such musical classics as Carousel; Kiss Me, Kate; Wonderful Town; Fanny; Paint Your Wagon; and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The summer schedule also featured popular solo acts, such as Louis Armstrong, Henny Youngman, Tom Jones, and even burlesque. Occasionally Price tried to sneak in an opera, letting the popular shows support these operatic flings. For the first eleven seasons Price principally used a resident stock company, occasionally bringing in a visiting star, if available and right for the role. Toward the end of the 1960s, however, Price was forced to adopt the star system to keep his tent filled. Dropping the stock company, he brought in packaged productions generally headlined by popular singing or television stars. Both offerings had strong followings, and Musicarnival kept the torch of musical theater burning brightly in Cleveland until 1975, when declining attendance finally forced its closing. The Music Went 'Round and Around is the first book in the Cleveland Showtime Series.

Petrushka, the Russian equivalent of Punch and Judy, was one of the most popular spectacles at fairgrounds and in city courtyards for over a century. Catriona Kelly's study, the first to appear in English, traces the history of Petrushka, illustrating how it reflected the tensions of Russian urban life both before and after the Revolution. Written from a standpoint informed by literary theory, her book at the same time breaks open the categories traditionally applied, both in the Soviet Union and in the West, to the study of Russian literature and popular culture. Contemporary interpretations of Petrushka on the street, high-cultural appropriations of it for a bourgeois and intellectual readership (notably the famous ballet by Benois and Stravinsky), and adaptations made for agit-prop purposes are all analysed. Based on a wide range of unusual materials, this lively and very readable account will appeal not only to literary specialists, but also to those interested in cultural politics, folklore, women's studies and popular theatre.

Carnival in eighteenth-century Europe finds its most fertile ground in the city of Venice, renowned city of diversion where theatre, masquerades and exuberant spectacles of every manner abound overwhelming all aspects of city life. Considering the impact of carnival and its festivities on the everyday life of La Serenissima, it becomes difficult to examine the works of Carlo Goldoni---eighteenth-century Italy's famed playwright and librettist---without pondering the role that carnival folklore and the carnival act played in the realization of his art. In his comedies the import of carnival is thematic in nature and it is emblematic of the author's social criticism. Carnival is presented as essentially ambivalent: on one end of the spectrum it is freedom from the constraints of daily life, a moment for the fulfillment of desires that is fully embraced by the characters, whilst on the other it is a negative force that is reprehended as the instigator of an irrational behaviour antithetical to the author's ideal of bourgeois common sense and moderation. Within the plays the elements of carnival literature and folklore are patently visible, from the process of dissimulation and masking to the overindulgence in food and mocking morbin; all functioning as constituent parts of the colourful and dynamic landscape of Eighteenth century Venice that the author strives to faithfully capture. In the works for music and most particularly in a series of comic opera librettos from 1750 carnival takes on even greater significance, becoming the vehicle of expression through which the author conveys his social themes. The coffee houses, the calli and all the typical locales set for the encounters of Goldoni's characters, are transformed into the topsy turvy reverse worlds of carnival literature. The author's excursion into the fantastic explores the subversive effects of the carnival of the insane, the utopian world of plenty, the travels to exotic lands and places of alternate reality. He combines the typical topoi of carnival folklore with his own moral ideals and this carnivalization of the goldonian universe allows for an innovative and more penetrating analysis of contemporary Venetian society.

This book shows how Carnival under British colonial rule became a locus of resistance as well as an exercise and affirmation of power. Carnival is both a space of theatricality and a site of politics, where the playful, participatory aspects are appropriated by countervailing forces seeking to influence, control, channel or redirect power. Focusing specifically on the Maltese islands, a tiny European archipelago situated at the heart of the Mediterranean, this work links the contrast between play and power to other Carnival realities across the world. It examines the question of power and identity in relation to different social classes and environments of Carnival play, from streets to ballrooms. It looks at satire and censorship, unbridled gaiety and controlled celebration. It describes the ways Carnival was appropriated as a power channel both by the British and their Maltese subjects, and ultimately how it was manipulated in the struggle for Malta’s independence.