May, S (2018) 'Fit or faint?' New Writing, 15 (2). pp. 273-297. ISSN 1479-0726
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Abstract
'Fit or Faint?' forms part of a series of plays dealing with a relationship ('Squatting In A Goldmine', 1988; 'A Selection of Ordinary Household Sounds', 1991; 'Cover/Recovery', 1996; 'Horizon', 2008). All the plays utilise the trope of the trickster/catalyst, who ‘triggers structural, and ultimately, transformational, change … by introducing disorder’. There is also a movement from realism to a kind of absurd. In 'Fit or Faint?' Marlon and Phizi are moving from middle to early old age. The trickster/catalyst is Vince, a single-response paramedic. In previous plays in the series (and in most trickster literature) the trickster/catalyst is ‘left untouched’ at the play's end; in 'Fit or Faint?' Vince's own unsatisfactory life becomes part of the dramatic equation, and provokes the extreme interventions he recommends. Marlon and Phizi are forced to confront their desires, weaknesses, and mortality, but manage to forge some kind of resolution, albeit frail and delusional.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Note: | Part of the 'Playwriting Special Section'. |
| Keywords: | playwriting, trickster, heightened realism, euthanasia |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater |
| Divisions: | School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities |
| Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2017.1417450 |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Apr 2018 15:57 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Jan 2022 16:56 |
| URI / Page ID: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/10640 |
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