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The Mandrake
Translated by Wallace Shawn. Author(s):
Niccolo Machiavelli
Set in sixteenth-century Florence, the play blends songs and robust action in detailing the hilarious lengths to which the smitten Callimaco goes in winning the favors of Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of the rich and aged lawyer, Nicia. Enlisting the aid of the artful trickster Ligurio, Callimaco is passed off as a doctor who has devised a magic potion which, he promises Nicia, will make the heretofore childless Lucrezia conceive. But the catch is that the first man who sleeps with her after she takes the potion will die. Lucrezia's gullible mother and a venal friar, Brother Timothy, are also persuaded to help overcome Lucrezia's scruples against bedding down with a man not her husband (and who needless to say, turns out to be Callimaco in disguise). The resulting twists and turns lead on to nonstop high spirits and hilarity until, in the end, everyone gets exactly what he hopes for and, quite possibly, deserves.
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| Genre(s): | Comedy
| | Time Period(s): | Not Available | | Play Type: | Play | | Runtime: | Not Available | | Acts: | Not Available | | Set Complexity: | Not Available | | Set Information: | Not Available | | Year First Published: | Not Available | | Total Characters: | 10 | | Male Characters: | 6 | | Female Characters: | 4 | | Androgynous Characters: | Not Available | | Minimum Cast: | Not Available | | Maximum Cast: | Not Available | | Cost: | FEE: $50 per performance Royalty/cost information prone to change. Please check with the publisher for the most accurate information. | | Publisher: | Dramatists Play Service Click on the publisher's name above for additional information, including updated prices. | | ISBN: | Not Available |
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