Vocabulary:

puppet theatre – ляльковий театр stall – партер

stage – сцена box – ложа

hall – зал dress-circle – бельетаж

curtain – завіса pit – амфітеатр

to separate – відділяти upper circle – верхній ярус

audience – публіка performance – вистава

box-office – театральна касса interval – антракт

ticket – квиток scenery – декорація

I. Some pupils from different classes and of different ages were asked what they think of the theatre. Read what they say and agree or disagree with them:

A boy of 14: You ask me if I love theatre. Oh no, I am not interested in it at all. Theatre is our past and now is a time of television and video. I think that teenagers don’t like to visit theatres.

A girl of 15: I can’t say that I am a theatre-goer; but sometimes when I have free time and no idea how to spend it, I go to the theatre with my friends. I am sure that theatre exists for our amusement and entertainment. When I am at the theatre I don’t want to think much, I only want to rest, to laugh and enjoy myself.

A girl of 14: I love theatre very much. I am fond of seeing comedies, dramas and even tragedies; but I also watch ballets and listen to operas occasionally. In our town there is no opera-house and children are not taught to understand this art. It’s a pity.

A boy of 15: Well, I think that this kind of art is dying now. Young people don’t like it. Theatres are visited mostly by grown-ups and old people. I think that something should be done to change the situation. Each town should have a children’s theatre.

II. Read the descriptions and try to guess what play it is and who the author of it is:

a) This play is a well-known comedy written by a great Russian playwright. It is a kind of sharp satire on our society in the first half of the 19th century, as the action in the comedy takes place in a Russian provincial town. The main character of the comedy is a young man who comes to this provincial town by chance and is mistaken by its people for an inspector.

b) This play is a well-known tragedy, written by the greatest English playwright. The main character of the tragedy is an old king who one day decided to divide his kingdom among his daughters. The only question he asked them is how much they loved him. Though he was an old and clever man, he misunderstood his youngest daughter’s words that she loved him not more than a daughter could love her father. He got angry with her and gave her none of his kingdom. Only at the end of the play, when the king saw his dead daughter at his feet could he realise how great her love towards him was. His heart broke and he died.

c) The play starts with an encounter between young prince of Denmark, and his father’s ghost. The ghost tells the prince that he was killed by his brother Claudius, who then quickly married his wife Gertrude. The ghost asks the prince to seek revenge on the man who stole his throne and his queen, and the prince promises to do so.

d) The action of this play takes place in Verona, Italy. The play is about young girl of the Capulet family and a young boy of the Montague family who fall in love with each other. But their families are bitter enemies. A boy and a girl get married in secret. In the end of the play the young people die.

e) It is one of the most beloved works of Ukrainian classical literature. A forest nymph Mavka falls in love with a mortal youth Lukash. The author shows two different worlds in the play: the world of beauty of the forest and the world of the humans filled with jealousy, passion, rivalry and evil.

f) It is a comedy written by the famous Ukrainian playwright. The main hero of this play wants to change his surname for more harmonious one – Mazyenin. His son Mokiy is a real Ukrainian; he always quarrels with his father because of that. Aunt Motya from Kharkiv comes to help; she thinks that it is better to be raped once than to be Ukrainionized once. And Mokiy is in love with Ulya and studies the native language with her. Ulya is a very beautiful girl with the plait around her head. Her pronounciation of the Ukrainian words is so nice…

g) The play takes place at Mr. Jourdain's house in Paris. Jourdain is a middle-aged "bourgeois" whose father grew rich as a cloth merchant. The foolish Jourdain now has one aim in life, which is to rise above this middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat. He orders beautiful new clothes and is very happy when the tailor mockingly addresses him as "my Lord". He learns the arts of fencing, dancing, music and philosophy, despite his age; in doing so he continually manages to make a fool of himself, to the disgust of his hired teachers. Madame Jourdain, his intelligent wife, sees that he is making a fool of himself and asks him to return to his previous middle-class life, and to forget all he has learned. Jourdain dreams of marrying a Marchioness, Dorimene, and having his daughter Lucille marry a nobleman. But Lucille is in love with the middle-class Cléonte. Then Cléonte disguises himself and presents himself to Jourdain as the son of the Sultan of Turkey. Jourdain believes in everything and is very pleased to have his daughter marry foreign royalty.

Topic 71. Music in My Life