“Is this your buying China?”: Luxury consumerism and superficiality in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife
Following increased maritime trade and a reliance on foreign goods, the commercial revolution that swept through England in the late sixteenth century resulted in an intensified desire for new and hitherto inaccessible luxury commodities. One such commodity, china porcelain, resulted in a “china fever” that continued well into the eighteenth century, introducing new notions of...
Transgressive social mobility in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood”
“Once upon a time, deep in the heart of the country,” begins Charles Perrault, “there lived a pretty little girl whose mother adored her, and her grandmother adored her even more. This good woman made her a red hood like the ones that fine ladies wear when they go riding. The hood suited the child...
“A salvatory of green mummy”: John Webster and Corpse Medicine
Jacobean dramatist John Webster approached the taboo and the questionable with inexhaustible determination, plunging the contemporary reader into those dark, uncomfortable spaces we prefer to skirt around, never lingering for too long for fear of what we might uncover. For Webster, a preoccupation with the gruesome side of mortality manifests particularly strongly in his references...
Aconite and mandrake: Crypto-pharmacological botanicals in Shakespeare
Don’t try these remedies at home, kids, no matter how reputable Shakespeare’s local apothecary might seem.
Festival Dionysia: A Review
A cacophony settled by stillness, despair tempered by hope, Festival Dionysia lays bare the humanity of its characters and its audience. In a whirlwind of motion and storylines, six plays come together to celebrate the truly brilliant platform that is the UBC Players Club.
“The Loveliest Lies of All”: Adapting Folk and Fairy Tale Functions in “Over the Garden Wall”
“If dreams can’t come true, then why not pretend?” asks the narrator of Patrick McHale’s animated series Over the Garden Wall, offering a partially hopeful, partially haunting message to guide the viewer through the whimsical, eerie, and complex process and history of adapting folk and fairy tales.
