This thesis describes the origins and development of the comic archvillain of the medieval stage: Herod, the historical Herod the Great; and also examines the dramatic treatment of his son, Herod Antipas, who also features prominently in medieval drama, sometimes as a second version of his father, sometimes as a character in his own right. Summarizing the facts about the historical Herods, as recounted by Josephus, and tracing the subsequent distortion of these facts by religious commentators, the thesis demonstrates how Herod the Great entered the liturgioal Latin drama as a tyrant who was to develop into the popular 'tyrant figure' of vernacular English drama A comparative study of the vemacular drama of Germany, France and Italy reveals that, although the English type of presentation of Herod the Great (and also, of Herod Antipas) was known elsewhere, it was employed only sporadically, as a form of low comedy, with no other motive. In England, however, the treatment first applied to Herod the Great was extended to include not only his son but also other evildoers, to create the discernible pattern of moral comedy that gives English medieval drama its own unique character. This pattern is shown in its most perfect form in the Magnus Herodes of the Towneley Cycle and is actually transcended in a much lesser-known Herod play, the Trial before Herod of the York Plays. The thesis discusses Herod plays of six languages, many of which are little known outside, or even inside, their countries of origin; and attempts to describe how the early popularity of Herod the Great, in particular, as a stage character, was an important factor in the development of medieval drama itself.

This thesis is a study of the success and failure of performers who aim to earn a living from intentionally making people in a live audience laugh. A fundamental aim of the study is to establish the sociological significance of live performance humour as social practice. Hence the emphasis of the research is to demonstrate the influence of non-performance and performance factors in the production of (un)successful live performance humour, rather than the influence of psychological factors that relate to positive (laughter) or negative responses of individual subjects to humorous stimuli contained within a performer's joking material. The study will show (un)successful live performance humour to be determined by the complexity of component factors involved in the construction of a social context for live performance humour. The thesis develops a definition of social context that refers specifically to venue settings rather than everyday social situations, which allows individuals participating in it to identify themselves as either a live performer of humour, or a member of a live audience to a live performance of humour. The social context of a venue setting is established on the interaction between; a 'live' audience as a social group (rather than a collection of individuals receiving humorous stimuli); a live performance in proximity to a live audience; and individual physical and social factors that exist within the physical and social environments of a venue setting. The sociological significance of (un)successful live performance humour is put forward on the basis of research which utilises macro- and micro-levels of analysis to show success or failure to be dependent upon more than the competence of performers - it is to show that the social context for live performance humour is a determining influence in the production of (un)successful live performance humour as social practice

By tracing the development of theories of comedy within Western philosophy, this thesis claims that anti-comic prejudices prevented comedy from being recognized as a serious genre. Comedy's inferior status for over two thousand years is shown to correspond to an ethical model that distinguishes the real from the Ideal and affirms a Neo-Platonic vision of existence. Through numerous examples taken from a particular phenomenon of post-war European theatre comprising five different playwrights, this thesis proposes three primary characteristics of comedy: the ontological instability of comic characters, comedy's paradoxical relation to the world of appearances, and comedy's willingness to accommodate the impossible. By throwing binaries into question and promoting a complete reversal of dominant value systems, comedy blurs the lines of distinction between the abstract and the concrete, the mechanical and the organic and, ultimately, between life and death. Demonstrating how this reversal is accomplished linguistically, metaphorically, or dramaturgically, this study concludes that comedy subverts the socio-symbolic order that relies upon the logic of possibility.

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In the global marketplace of the twenty-first century a proliferation of festivals, or festivalisation, has produced an increasingly pressurised and politicized environment for international arts festivals. Through a case study of the Edinburgh International Festival the thesis explores what strategies the Festival is adopting to maintain its lead position in this increasingly competitive international landscape. It examines recent cultural policy development in Scotland and the UK exploring how creative industry theory promotes the argument for ‘investment’ in cultural festivals as economic drivers and city or region profile boosters. Edinburgh’s cultural policy is to brand itself the Festival City and it has supported the establishment of a number of competing festivals in the city. The case study investigates how the Edinburgh International Festival is managing a range of new initiatives at a time of rapid political change in Scotland. These include: exploiting changing technology to assist marketing and audience development; establishing partnerships and collaborations with a growing range of non-cultural public and private bodies, and cultural diplomacy – the development of international initiatives on behalf of the Scottish and UK Governments. The case study also explores a unique model of co-opetition which has developed between the Edinburgh International Festival and rival festivals, producing new strategic cultural organizations. The thesis establishes how current cultural policies in Scotland and the UK require international arts festivals to engage in non-cultural roles in order to create profile and advantage for themselves and their stakeholders in addition to fulfilling their cultural remit and in an environment of dwindling public and private sector support. In conclusion, it considers the opportunities and risks for arts organizations of an instrumental approach to cultural policy.