A Jovial Crew

by Stephen Jeffreys, Stephen Jeffreys (Editor)

A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song. Or is it? Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, A Jovial Crew shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world – poverty, dirt, licentiousness – come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values.

The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, A Jovial Crew's exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics. This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that A Jovial Crew also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome's attitude to performance and print, and follows A Jovial Crew from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an eighteenth-century opera, and a twentieth-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Renaissance

155 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1968

Reviews

[shula · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last (new) play performed at a public theatre in London before the start of the Civil War and the shutting of the theatres for 18 years, a Jovial Crew is an odd one to go out on. There are lines that suggest it is about something more, and maybe there is some sort of Aristophanic satire of current politicians going on, but mostly it seems like a piece of fluff.

There are some very funny lines, but the thing it really reminds me of is those sort of 1920s "well-made plays" where there is some romance, a ridiculous situation, and some terribly witty bits of dialogue, but no jeopardy, no risk, no threat to anything, and the satire is very feather duster.

Tiffany Stern's intro tries to make out how political it is, but I think you had to be there.

This is not to say I wouldn't go see this at the theatre: I would, and I would laugh a lot and embarrass my daughter. But I suspect that would be it.

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

what is travelling, who can travel? the romanticised beggar and the difference between the pastoral lower classes and the city lower classes. let's think about all that, shall we?

[Niah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Love the use of song and music, (early modern musical ??), and how it subtly conveyed the paradoxical themes of joviality and sorrow. Great carnivalesque comedy!