Plautus Plays Comparison

 "Casina" and "The Braggart Soldier" are two plays written by Titus Maccius Plautus. Both plays when compared have many similarities and differences. For example, both plays are comedies set in Greece, with a Greek cast of characters. They also both have love stories, featuring a slave/servant woman in the intended couple. In both of these stories as well, they use the formula, "a couple wants to be together, there is an obstacle in the way of this, and story ends when obstacle has been defeated." Personally, I enjoyed the "Casina" story more, as I felt it was easier to follow, and the plot had me more entertained while reading. "The Braggart Soldier" was slightly more challenging to follow, both in plot and the wide cast of characters and names, which took away some entertainment value for me personally. I think that "The Braggart Soldier" would be better understood with a visual component, either in the intended theater format or that of a movie. I feel like in this aspect the more complex script would make for a better and more interesting film, especially with its more definitive (and satisfying) ending where they end up happily together. Though of course I do also feel like if done well "Casina" could be very fun and entertaining as a film. Overall, I did feel the plays held up in their comedy and stories even today, which was very impressive.

- Annabelle

Comments

  1. DrKOctober 5, 2023 at 1:06 PM

    Now that you've seen Leon Greece as Captain Miles Gloriosus in "A Funny Thing", you can probably appreciate the comic potential of that play (Miles Gloriosus = Braggart Soldier) even better ;-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plautus Plays - Ben Webster

"Casina" and "The Braggart Soldier" are old roman comedies written by Plautus. They each center around farcical and exaggerated relationships between masters and servants. They have similarly satisfying conclusions, with the main antagonist being beaten in each play. I preferred "Casina" over "The Braggart Soldier" as I found the plot of "The Braggart Soldier" to be convoluted and confusing at times. I think this more complex plot would "The Braggart Soldier" would make a better movie, as film is a medium suited to telling complex stories.   
Read more

Basil Allen - "Casina" vs. "The Braggart Soldier"

  “Casina” and “The Braggart Soldier”, both by Plautus, are similar in many regards. They are both comedies that explore dynamics between slaves and their masters, with plenty of schemes and trickery. I enjoyed “Casina” more, with its biting, crass humor and horrible (in the sense that they are all terrible people) characters. The translator used very colloquial, modern language which I thought was really funny and relatable. I did think it was interesting how Casina, the person practically the entire cast of characters is fighting over never once even spoke. I feel as though “The Braggart Soldier” would make a better movie, however, due to the satirical nature of the play and a far more complex plot that would translate to film well. Overall, both plays were an enjoyable read (despite the length) and they were definitely not as hard to understand as I thought they would be. 
Read more

Plautus Casina vs Plautus The Braggart Soldier - Michael Kachanyuk

Casina and The Braggart Soldier are two plays written by Plautus. Both plays are comedies and share some similarities, but they also have some differences.  Casina is a play about a young man named Euthynicus who is in love with a slave named Casina. However, Euthynicus's father Lysidamus, is also in love with Casina and wants to marry her himself. So he sends his son out of the country and uses his slave Olympio to marry Casina so he could secretly have an affair with Casina while being married to his wife Cleostrata. Cleostrata finds out about her husbands attempt and tries to marry Casina to her slave, Chalinus, who would be stand in for Euthynicus until his return from the country. The play revolves around the various schemes and plots that the characters come up with to try to get what they want.   The Braggart Soldier, on the other hand, is about a soldier named Pyrgopolynices who is boastful and arrogant. He has kidnapped a young woman named Philocom...
Read more