‘The top of woman! All her sex in abstract!’: Ben Jonson Directs the Boy Actor in <em>The Devil is an Ass</em>

Authors

  • Regina Buccola Roosevelt University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12745/et.8.2.700

Keywords:

article,

Abstract

Working from the premise that Jonson's copious stage directions and meta-theatrical dialogue offer insight into early modern theatrical practice, I use The Devil Is an Ass to consider anew the question of the cross-dressed boy actor. Jonson draws careful distinctions among the female characters in The Devil Is an Ass, suggesting a range of performance styles for the boy actor. The meta-theatrical discussion of cross-dressed performance in The Devil is an Ass coupled with the sheer variety in its female characters make this play a fascinating artifact chronicling the range of the boy players' abilities and what playwrights and stage managers expected of them.

Downloads

Published

2005-01-01

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2005)

Section

Articles

License

Contributors to Early Theatre retain full copyright to their content. All published authors are required to grant a limited exclusive license to the journal. According to the terms of this license, authors agree that for one year following publication in Early Theatre, they will not publish their submission elsewhere in the same form, in any language, without the consent of the journal, and without acknowledgment of its initial publication in the journal thereafter.