Comparing Kingsborough's Two Gentlemen Of Verona The Musical

The play up for discussion is the Kingsborough’s Community College spring production of Two Gentlemen of Verona The Musical. This is a musical adaptation of the original Shakespearean play The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In this essay the Kingsborough’s Community College spring production of Two Gentlemen of Verona The Musical, the original Shakespearean play and five former plays adaptations, themes, and characters will be evaluated. The first is Euripides 431 B.C. E. play Medea, the second is the 148 A.D. Latin play, The Menaechmi by Plautus, the third is the 1509 play Everyman by an anonymous playwright during the Tudor period, the fourth is the 1671 three-act comedy play The Impostures of Scapin by French playwright Moliere and the fifth is the 1604 Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Even though there have been modern adaptations of these plays the theme and the recurring motif remains the same and it still probes into the life of humans.

Medea was written by the famous playwright Euripides in 431 B.C.E and was

first performed in 431 B.C. E. In the play Medea actions made her powerless in the face of the other characters decisions. Her sentence included banishment and isolation from everything she loved. The play shares the same theme of love and infidelity found in the Shakespearean play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but the ending is not the same. There have been modern adaptations to Euripides and Shakespeare’s play but the moral importance are the same. Our actions do directly and indirectly affect those we love. In the original mythology Euripides wanted his audiences to understand that unfaithfulness kills and destroys everything we love. Shakespeare ending shows that love conquers all in the end. In conclusion, Euripides plays remains a great moral debate in today’s society, because of the tragic storyline and the human themes of jealousy, betrayal, revenge and the feminist movement in a male-dominated world.
The Latin play, The Menaechmi by Plautus is a comedy and the typical Roman characters sang most of the dialogue. The characters included the comic servants, and courtesans. There were also the parasite, and the quack doctor. Last but not least, the domineering wife and unbelievable father-in-law. David M. Christenson has done the most recent update or translation of the play. His production kept many of the original costumes, masks and energy from the ancient rendition of the play and similar to the Kingsborough’s Community College spring production of Two Gentlemen of Verona The Musical they enhance the finished product considerably. However, Kingsborough’s added more of a 1980’s look with rock music. Both translation was well done and did not remove from the comedy or moral of the stories. The modern additions to the dialogue aided and emphasized the original idea of the plays in a manner which todays audiences could understand. Most reviewers praised the Christenson production and the use of modern allusions with the robes/toga and masks, finding that it successfully aided in establishing the ancient story in a modern setting.
The play Everyman was written by an anonymous playwright during the Tudor period.

Scholars believe that Everyman is an English translation of a Dutch play known as Elckerlijc. Unlike William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona the play Everyman is an allegory that examines the Christian idea of salvation during the Roman Catholicism era. This was a time of corruption and immoral actions. There have been many adaptations of this play. However, recent adaptions changed to make death more like a businessman and the main character like the common civilian of the time period. There are movies that were modified into a 21-century setting with distinctive characters. However, the most recognized adaptations of this play are the Elizabethan stage society by William Poel. The Everyman and Shakespeare plays are still symbolic of mankind flaws. The point of the plays remains the same. Both plays speak about morals, because it is the way to a happy

life.
The subsequent play that was discussed is the three-act comedy play The Impostures of Scapin by French playwright Moliere. The original name is “Les Fourberies de Scapin” and the main character Scapin is a classic Scapino character. Scapino complicates everything with his self-centeredness. The theme is about ambition, love, lies and a little bit of luck. The play was performed in the 1600s; this was around the time when people stopped wearing masks. In the Medea masks allowed everyone to see and understand the diverse emotions on display. In addition, actors were primarily men, and the mask helped the actors and the audience to focus on the theme and not the performers. In the The Impostures of Scapin and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, instead of using mask they wore clothes that displayed elegance and class.
The last play is Dr. Faustus. The play Dr. Faustus was formerly written by English playwright Christopher Marlowe in the early 1590s, and first published in 1604 a decade after his death. Both Shakespeare and plays give the audience an open examination of right and wrong. Scholars agree that Marlowe’s plot seems similar to the 1587 anonymous German work of Historia von D. Iohan Fausten, which was consequently translated into English in 1592. Doctor Faustusis is a well known and the leading version of the Faust’s literary representations. There are later versions that include the legendary poem Faust by the nineteenth-century Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, performances by Charles Gounod and Arrigo Boito as well as a symphony by Hector Berlioz. There are many 1900 and 2000 hundred reviews of the friendship and deceit in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, however, scholar view it as the author’s weakest work. The recent adaption was in 2014 at the Royal Shakespeare Theater.
The play up is for discussion is William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the Kingsborough’s Community College spring production of Two Gentlemen of Verona The Musical. The original play was formerly written it around 1589 or 1592. It is believed to be Shakespeare’s first play. The theme deals with friendship, love and infidelity was impressed by the performance and the performers efforts. The lighting brought out the story’s settings and mood. The costumes added a different element and helped in appreciating the plot. What was not clear was the dog’s role. The choreography did not flow and the singings sang off key. In conclusion, the theme and the recurring motif of all these plays remains the same and it still probes into the life of humans. These plays are timeless.