Producible Interpretation

"Producible interpretation" is a critical method used by Milhous and Hume to examine eight plays. For each play they present deductions based upon six kinds of investigation: close reading; analysis of the original cast and reception of the original production; study of the scen­ery and machines required for perform­ance; historical reading in terms of 17th-century values and views of subject matter; a survey of the play's production history; and analysis of modern critical opinion.

The plays they examine in this man­ner are: The Country-Wife; All for Love; The Spanish Fryar; Venice Preserv'd; Amphitryon; The Wives Excuse; Love for Love; and The Beaux' Stratagem. With each evaluation their emphasis is on the stage-worthiness of the inter­pretation. They stress that "If it can be staged effectively it must possess some kind of validity, even if it is demon­strably remote from the apparent in­tention of the author and the original production."