The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.07383  Tuesday, 12 March 2002

From:           Clifford Stetner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 11 Mar 2002 20:12:54 -0500
Subject: 13.0721 Re: Shakespearean FA Cup Promos
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.0721 Re: Shakespearean FA Cup Promos

> I have always thought that the three Henry VI plays would work very well
> in a football setting.  The factions would be rival teams and team
> supporters with red or white roses on their scarves flanking the names
> of either side.  I think it would make it much easier to for modern
> British, and really any nationality except American and Canadian, people
> to relate to and follow.
>
> Janet T. O'Keefe
> City 'til I die
> Yorkist 'til I die

Not only did sports and drama share the honor of being targeted for
suppression by the Puritans, but I support the view that they both (the
former completely and the latter in part) derive ultimately from ritual
warfare which is simultaneously sports and drama. We've just learned
that in northern Afghanistan they still play polo with the heads of
goats (unlike those guys across town who play with headless goats) only
one scapegoat away from the human original. The watered down World Cup
and Superbowl make due with the skins, but we thankfully have some
Mesoamerican records to remind us of what the pure original form of team
competition looked like.  The roots of drama in ritual warfare are seen
in the sword dances that survived into the modern age in Europe and I
would argue in every choreographed combat scene on the stage. In our
time, we are witnessing the reunion of sports and drama in the ritual
warfare of professional wrestling (and national politics).

Clifford

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