Placing Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage in Perspective

Authors

C. J. Gianakaris, Western Michigan University

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

Peter Shaffer caught audiences off guard with Lettice and Lovage, his latest stage work. After twenty consecutive years of writing serious drama, suddenly in 1987 he returned to comedy with a brilliantly witty full-length play. That Shaffer is capable of sparkling comedy comes as no surprise, given the string of popular one-act plays (Black Comedy, White Liars, Public Eye, and Private Ear) staged two decades earlier. But here was a complex three-act comedy, engaging audiences on several planes, something rarely possible with smaller-scale comedies. Equally unexpected was finding two women figures at the center of the plot-unexpected because throughout his career Shaffer has been accused of inability, or unwillingness, to create plausible female characters as protagonists.

Recommended Citation

Gianakaris, C. J. (1988) "Placing Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage in Perspective," Comparative Drama: Vol. 22: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol22/iss2/4