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A review by jmoravec
The Comedies by Peter Brown, Terence
4.0
This one is tough to rate. I'm no expert (or even well-read) of Roman Literature or ancient comedy, so this was a fairly new experience. I picked it up to follow along with the excellent History and Literature podcast. If one wants to read this, its going to be especially important to read it in context of the time it was written due to its treatment of women. It's been 2000 years, and we've a long way to go yet, but it's good to see that we have made *some* progress in that time.
The Girl from Andros:
I enjoyed this one. The scheming between the characters plus the dramatic irony of the different plots was pretty fun. While it didn't make me laugh, I think if staged right, this could be pretty funny in person.
The Mother in Law:
This one was almost funny in how ridiculous its treatment of the wife was in this play. "Oh no, my wife who I hated at first and didn't consummate the marriage for awhile because I was in love with a prostitute, is pregnant when we've only been together for 7 months! Oh you say she was raped 9 months ago? That's even worse! I must abandon the baby and divorce her for my honor. Oh wait! I remembered I raped a girl 9 months ago while I was drunk and it was dark. Turns out the kid was mine all along!"
The Girl from Andros:
I enjoyed this one. The scheming between the characters plus the dramatic irony of the different plots was pretty fun. While it didn't make me laugh, I think if staged right, this could be pretty funny in person.
The Mother in Law:
This one was almost funny in how ridiculous its treatment of the wife was in this play. "Oh no, my wife who I hated at first and didn't consummate the marriage for awhile because I was in love with a prostitute, is pregnant when we've only been together for 7 months! Oh you say she was raped 9 months ago? That's even worse! I must abandon the baby and divorce her for my honor. Oh wait! I remembered I raped a girl 9 months ago while I was drunk and it was dark. Turns out the kid was mine all along!"