3rd Year Unmounted: ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore
MFA Director Timothy Askew directs 3rd-year York Conservatory actors in
the rarely produced controversial play <em>‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore</em> by John Ford.
First published in 1633, <em>‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore</em> is perhaps the most popular and frequently performed play by John Ford, considered by many scholars to be the last major dramatist of the English renaissance.
Critics often note the similarities between <em>Tis Pity,</em> and <em>Romeo and Juliet;</em> however, Ford outdoes Shakespeare by creating a love story that is more powerfully sensual and angerous because of his controversial handling of its verboten love story. The result is far more sensational and lusciously, violently dark than Shakespeare’s play, taking the forbidden love to a new extreme. In our modern global society focused strongly on cultural and ethnic acceptance and tolerance, there are few remaining absolute taboos. This play is one of very few that provides an opportunity to explore such extreme behavior without casting a particular bias or point of view – it’s left open. The protagonists aren’t snow white and the antagonists aren’t wholly black. All are smudged and culpable throughout the course of the story.
The studio production runs in CFT 139 this week, Thursday through Saturday night at 7pm with a matinee this Friday at 2pm. Though seating is limited there are regularly seats available to those who sign up on the waiting list—the sign-up sheet is located outside CFT 139.
<strong>Admission is free!</strong>
