Modern Drama

Ruby Cohn was a comp lit prof at UCD where I studied, a prolific expert in Samuel Beckett. In the modern drama class she had us write a paper in three parts. Choosing a theme, and then studying in three different plays. I found that method uncreative. When I heard her give a lecture, I noticed that that was how she worked. She talked about how dramatists portrayed academics and intellectuals, and gave examples from multiple plays.  It was a good lecture, though at the time I kind of thought of her as having a mediocre mind. (Arrogance of youth.) 

I remember how we went from Ibsen to Strindberg. We ended up with Beckett (Godot) and Ionescu, who at the point were still alive. I knew Ionescu in High School from the bald soprano, which we read in French class. 

She corrected me when I said the rhinoceros was absurdist: it was a denunciation of totalitarian conformity. I'm not sure what was between Strindberg and Beckett. I don't remember reading Shaw or Yeats in that class. It wouldn't have been Lorca because I would have remembered that.  

I remember the enemy of the people and the concept of the "well-made play." The course was excellent, in retrospect, because I still remember it today.