Please write a 2pp. response on one of these prompts (due October 1 @10:00am on D2L); instructions on format, etc., are posted on the course website ("Responses" page):
1. Plautus's Pseudolus provides a brilliant example of the clever comic slave, who, despite occupying the lowest rung of the social ladder in (historical/real) Roman life, can take complete control of a play, and owing to his creative powers defeat and even humiliate his social superiors. Compare and contrast Pseudolus with a character from film (or some other form of modern fiction, such as television) who seems to function in similar ways as Pseudolus in her/his medium.
2. Imaginatively place yourself in the role of any character you choose in one of the comedies we've read. How would you play this role in a stage performance? Without changing your character's basic stereotype, her/his lines, or the outcome of the play, how would you appropriate this role for yourself, i.e. make it yours for your own amusement?
3. Watch the 1966 film version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. What elements (plot, theme, character, type of humor, etc.) of Plautus's Casina and Pseudolus does the film adopt? How is your own imaginative conception of these elements—i.e. from reading and studying these plays in this course—similar to, or different from that of the filmmakers?
4. Terence's Eunuchus is in some ways a modern play, especially in how it addresses issues of gender. Citing evidence from the play, how does Eunuchus seem to critique Roman concepts of masculinity?
5. The comedies we have read include many metatheatrical features. Adopting a broad definition of metatheater as any performance move that highlights the status of a play as theater-in-the-process-of-being-performed, analyze the metatheatrical aspects of any one play we've read. What effects are achieved by the use of metatheatrical devices in the play? What purposes are served by calling attention to the fact that the play is a play? What impact might this use of metatheater have on spectators watching the comedy you've chosen?
6. Compare and contrast a modern film of your choosing with Casina that similarly combines elements such as comic deception and disguise, cross-dressing, and subversive marriage with themes of power, sexuality, and gender.