Fabrice Hadjadj on Elizabethan Theatre's Savage Grandeur

In a 2010 essay for Art Press, Fabrice Hadjadj examines the violent and impure nature of Elizabethan theatre, arguing that its tragic excesses—incest, murder, revenge—serve as a necessary exorcism of barbarism. He traces the genre from Gorboduc (1562), the first English tragedy, through works by Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, and John Ford, noting that Shakespeare's contemporaries were often more ferocious. Hadjadj contrasts this tradition with French classical drama (Racine, Corneille), which sought pure form and decorum, while the English mixed genres, used obscene language, and staged graphic violence. He cites Antonin Artaud's fascination with 'Tis Pity She's a Whore as a model for a theatre of plague and horror. The essay concludes that this 'apocalyptic theatre' reveals darkness to hasten revelation and judgment, as in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, where a fool declares he will 'bring the last day nearer.'