Mixed Faith and Shared Feeling: Theater in Post-Reformation London by Musa Gurnis (review)

• Published in: Theatre Journal 2021-06, Vol.73 (2), p.254-255
• Main Author: Preedy, Chloe Kathleen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Audiences; Case studies; Christianity; Collaboration; Drama; Dramatists; Literary characters; Religion; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Stereotypes; Theater
• ISSN: 0192-2882; 1086-332X; 1086-332X
• DOI: 10.1353/tj.2021.0031

On the one hand, Gurnis suggests, the fact that many early modern plays are the product of collaboration between two or more dramatists, as well as the “public” nature of the commercial playhouses, complicates the extent to which any one play might express a singular religious position. [...]these works were produced by and intended for consumption by “mixed-faith groups” of theatre professionals and playgoers (2). Chapter 3 demonstrates that, in the case of plays such as 1 Sir John Oldcastle and Sir Thomas More, the collaborative working practices prevalent at the time resulted in mixed-faith working relationships. [...]while their attention to protagonists whose real-life counterparts were regarded as martyrs has encouraged some scholars to interpret these plays along confessional lines, Gurnis persuasively suggests that the faith of individual authors was less significant than their expertise in specific genres or theatrical modes. If some characters adopt a recognizably Calvinist register to attack the play’s incestuous lovers, Ford’s depiction of Annabella and Giovanni’s love might simultaneously challenge negative stereotypes of Catholicism. [...]in Gurnis’s reading, ’Tis Pity allows playgoers to sympathize with characters who stand for a confessional perspective at odds with the playwright’s own.