{"product_id":"marriage-a-la-mode-playtext","title":"Marriage A-La-Mode Playtext","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDryden's audiences in 1671, both aristocratic and middle-class, would \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehave been quick to respond to the themes of disputed royal succession, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrancophilia and loyalty among subjects in his most successful \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etragicomedy. In the tragic plot, written in verse, young Leonidas has\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eto struggle to assert his place as the rightful heir to the throne of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSicily and to the hand of the usurper's daughter. In the comic plot, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewritten in prose, two fashionable couples (much more at home in London \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edrawing-rooms than at the Sicilian court) play at switching partners in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe 'modern' style. The introduction of this edition argues that \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDryden's own ambivalence about King Charles and his entourage, on whom \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehe came to rely more on more for patronage, manifests itself in both \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eplots; most of all perhaps in the excessively Francophile Melantha, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewhose affectation cannot quite hide her endearing joie-de-vivre.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55450404684152,"sku":"9780713666663","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/9780713666663.jpg?v=1770826082","url":"https:\/\/shop.nationaltheatre.org.uk\/products\/marriage-a-la-mode-playtext","provider":"National Theatre Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}