Comparing Shakespeare & Webster

I had the delight of introducing Angel to John Webster's work recently. While Shakespeare may be the better known, with greater output, there is no doubt he cannot match the sheer number of bodies that pile up at the later stages of Webster's plays. Titus Andronicus compares to the Duchess of Malfi, but still doesn't quite manage the (literal) pile of corpses on stage at the end. I've heard Webster described as the Quentin Tarantino of Elizabethan Theatre. Would that make Shakespeare it's Spielberg?

Is there anyone else who enjoys the works of this theatre macabre virtuoso?

 

You're also introducing him to me. I can't say I recall his name ever coming up, or at least not in a way that stuck. Shakespeare seems to get all the time allotted to the theatre. I'm certainly intrigued though and will be looking into him and his works.

 

It was, one might say, eye-opening and certainly different.

I had heard of the Duchess of Malfi before, but never equated it with such bloodletting, or the author for that matter. Reader has promised me a few more in that general direction.

 

Lucky you! He's on the national curriculum. We couldn't get away from him!

 

Webster suffers from Reverse-Redshirt syndrome. If he names a character in one of his plays, they die horribly. Redshirts 1-4 are there to carry the bodies off before the next murder, so no one bothers killing them.

 

This is a fantastic topic. I enjoyed reading the responses! I'm a bit surprised that John Webster isn't more well known.

I read John Websters' work at Uni. I'd say he's more like Stanley Kubrick who directed "The Shining" than anyone else. I don't share your interest in gore, Reader, but Stanley Kubrick was known to do terrible things to his actors to get the perfect scene. Alfred Hitchcock did as well. I'd say that compares to the tragedies written by Webster.

 

We got taken to see The Duchess of Malfi at school. I won't forget the graphic rape scene in a hurry - it wasn't in the play, but apparently dead men's hands, child murder, etc was not shocking enough and the director wanted to add a personal touch. Definitely a way too personal touch.

 

@tirial, I dread to ask but a graphic rape scene, on stage?

 

I've only read Duchess of Malfi so I can't speak to his works on a larger scale, but I enjoyed the play immensely. I can see some similarities between it and Titus Andronicus (my favorite Shakespeare play, by the way), but I don't know if I'd say that Duchess of Malfi is better. At the end of the day, I think they are both talented playwrights and I'd like to read more from Webster.

 

Yes. In front of a group of sixteen-year-old school girls and our rather stunned teacher... Our next English lesson was interesting.

The White Devil's available free on Talebooks, but I'm still nerving myself up to read it. Apparently he wrote quite a few plays, but very few survived.

 

Did the teacher not read the play? That level of violence should have been expected! Even a mere summary would have pointed that out.

Did Webster produce any non-tragic tales? I'm only familiar with The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. The bodies pile up in the former as well.

 

I think I missed something here.

Never realised writers of old were just as gory as some of the writers of today.