Research Paper on:
Dark and Death Themed Comedy Plays

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and framing of dark elements within lighter and farcical works. In both plays death is so close yet comical elements keep the characters at an unreal distance from it thereby  not making it a powerful obstacle to overcome. In "All in the Timing" which contains six one act plays, Ives frames the last 36 hours of Trotskys death by the  one act play proceeding it "The Universal Language" and the one act play which follows it "Philadelphia" which both included elements of the ridiculous while the Trotsky play itself manages  to overcome its dark content by Trotskys fear of ice picks all the while having a mountaineers axe wedged in his head. "Noises Off" on the other hand is a  three act play which shows the onstage production of a farcical and bad play called "Nothing On" in acts one and three while the dark and conniving backstage life of  the actors and actresses are shown in act two. Surrounded by the unreal and comical acts of one and three does an adequate job of lightening the content of act  two, but act two itself contains a large amount of slap stick and physical comedy which lightens the elements of death and successfully continues in its comic frame.  David Ives "All in the Timing" is a series of one act plays which tell the story of different situations all with a comical and  satirical twist. Although the play is comprised of six one act plays, the plays are mixed depending on the director and occasionally interchanged with other plays or presented with only  five of the six acts depending upon the production. Regardless of the format of the presentation, all the one act plays can be considered as the equivalent of a short