A Note on the Text

I'm getting back into the research mode for my upcoming dramaturgy internship at the American Shakespeare Center by reading 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. *SHOCK GASP WHAT?!* That's the reaction I get from most people when I tell them the title of the play that I'm working on as the dramaturg. To lessen the blow, I quickly say, "But don't worry, it's a mid-seventeenth century play by a guy who came around near the time of Shakespeare." Getting in that all important name-- Shakespeare-- tends to take the edge off. Oh, by a guy like SHAKESPEARE, it can't be dirty at all. Well, clearly they don't know much about Shakespeare, if that's what they think.

But 'Tis Pity She's a Whore is NOT by Shakespeare, but by John Ford. Ford, while somewhat of a contemporary of Shakespeare, produced nearly all of his extant work entirely after Shakespeare's death, in the late 1620s and 1630s. And though the play recalls moments from Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and many other plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries, the subject matter remains uncomfortable, no matter how many times you say 'Shakespeare.' To put it plainly, the play deals with incest. Incest invokes a visceral reaction in most human beings, rather than a logical one, but in the play Giovanni justifies incest with his sister Annabella using pure sixteenth/seventeenth century logic, mostly of the scholastic variety. Not concerned with morality, but simply with proving a point, this type of logic becomes very dangerous in the play. The thing is, Ford doesn't exactly lead the text in one direction or another-- it's open to interpretation whether he condemns or condones incest. Everyone gets their just desserts, of course (it is a tragedy, after all), but all types of secret-keeping and immoral acts are punished, not just the incestuous lovers. Moreover, the incest plot isn't the center of the play; the play really centers around Annabella and her choice of marriage partner, which, while the incest is never far afoot, puts the focus more firmly on Annabella and her suitors and their subplots than on the incest. Which, of course, gets into society and the place of women in that society-- the Madonna/whore complex, simply, but there's more to it than that. For example, the title seems to suggest that everything is Annabella's fault, but is it? The text seems to suggest that other characters are more to blame for the tragedy than she. Though she's not innocent, neither does she alone reek the ultimate destruction of her circle. Also interesting to note is the place of the Catholic Church and religion in the world of the play and the fact that Ford intended it as a 'period piece', set about 100 years before his own time. Oh, and watch out for the heart motif.

(Photo found here; Malthouse Theatre 2011 production of 'Tis Pity)

After only a few days, the play has already unfolded into a much more complex and interesting piece than I anticipated, with much more intertextuality, and I'm really enjoying the research. I forget how much I love history and literary theory until I start into it again, plus it's been too long since I've delved into pre-English Civil War theatre (though, of course, my love for the 18th century will never abate).