{"id":1408,"date":"2016-12-30T23:53:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T23:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1408"},"modified":"2016-12-30T23:53:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T23:53:48","slug":"12-plays-of-xmas-4-the-roaring-girl-by-middleton-dekker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2016\/12\/12-plays-of-xmas-4-the-roaring-girl-by-middleton-dekker.html","title":{"rendered":"12 Plays of Xmas: 4 The Roaring Girl by Middleton & Dekker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12plays-roaring-girle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s pantomime season, which is as good a time as any to pay tribute to the fine British traditions of smutty humour, sexual confusion, homosexual panic and coming over a bit funny when you think about women\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n

All of the above get a good working over in The Roaring Girl <\/em>(1611),\u00a0a Jacobean city comedy in which Thomases Middleton and Dekker fit a real-life gender renegade into a giddy mesh of plots about marriage, lads and adultery. Mary Frith scandalised London by swaggering about in men\u2019s clothes. Moll Cutpurse, her fictionalised version, spends much of the play protesting that she\u2019s not actually a moll, or prostitute, and not actually a cutpurse.<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/a>

Helen Mirren as Moll (RSC 1983)<\/p><\/div>\n

Is it funny? Debatable, at least on paper. But like so many of these 12 Plays of Xmas, its flaws are fascinating. Moll is a good-natured Robin Hood, righting wrongs and enforcing a kind of poetic justice. She remains determinedly free from sexual or romantic entanglement \u2013 yet the play\u2019s male characters are fixated on her sexuality \u2013 identity, presumed proclivities, general up-for-it-ness. They see a woman in breeches and assume any transgression of gender norms only makes her more available. They hear her protest against marriage and imagine a no-strings romp. Moll may have hoped her wardrobe would take her out of the sexual arena \u2013 for the play\u2019s one-track willies, it\u2019s an open invitation.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Moll is handy with both the sword and banter, so they don\u2019t stand a chance. Her liveliest moments come towards the end of the play, when she demonstrates her knowledge of criminal slanging, canting with the best (‘What are you? A wildrogue, an angler, or a ruffler?’). It is a scene, blessedly, that gives a brief release from pelvic patter.<\/p>\n

The mucky-pup obsession runs throughout the play, much of which is written in the key of fnaar. They demonstrate that, to the English, everything<\/em> is an innuendo. The dialogue makes naughty with a whole range of vocabularies \u2013 from cooking to combat, and a strong emphasis on fashion (so, nudge-nudge jokes about needles and ruffs and, oh, you name it). Many of the yuks are now beyond obscure \u2013 my scholarly edition devotes acres of footnote to explaining them, but might as well just say \u2018filth\u2019 and leave it at that.<\/p>\n

Moll may have to pick her way through the play\u2019s groinal conversations \u2013 but she is nonetheless a character we don\u2019t see often in British drama. Delightedly trans, refusing to be defined in relation to men, unashamed and unpunished. It makes an unexpectedly cheering addition to the drama of Brits being weird about sex. This winter I saw a revival of Terry Johnson\u2019s grim Dead Funny<\/em> \u2013 written nearly 400 years later, yet also about remorseless innuendo, miserable marriage and adultery, homosexual panic. The bitterly despondent heroine is only defined as an unhappy wife and wannabe mother. Perhaps she should pick up a sword, slip into trousers and learn the rogues\u2019 cant.<\/p>\n

Sample stage direction\u00a0<\/strong>Enter Moll (in men’s clothes)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sample quote\u00a0<\/strong>Sebastian: ‘Methinks a woman’s lip tastes well in a doublet.’<\/p>\n

12 Plays of Xmas<\/strong>
\nI have, surprise, a lot of books. And I have, surprise, not read them all. So, 12 unfamiliar plays, 12 posts: welcome to 12 Plays of Xmas.
\nOwners by Caryl Churchill<\/a>
\nBirth by TW Robertson<\/a>
\nRuined by Lynn Nottage<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s pantomime season, which is as good a time as any to pay tribute to the fine British traditions of smutty humour, sexual confusion, homosexual panic and coming over a bit funny when you think about women\u2019s legs. All of the above get a good working over in The Roaring Girl (1611),\u00a0a Jacobean city comedy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[402,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-12-plays-of-xmas","9":"tag-theatre","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1411,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions\/1411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}