A Melodramatic Study of Reaney’s Sticks and Stones: A Note

Abstract

Melodrama is a sub-genre of drama with an ability to move the audiences with exaggerated and sensationalized events and characters. The melodrama is characterized by a plot that have larger than life characters, exaggerated fears, bloodshed, murders, background music, nightmares, and sometimes, the appearance of the ghosts. It raises the strong emotions of the audience. The melodramatic structure makes the characters to achieve payhos to appeal you through their struggle and hardship.

Reaney’s skillful use of melodrama is quite evident in his plays as well as in his poetry. From The Sun and the Moon through to King Whistle! (1962), Reaney has repeatedly drawn on the narrative conventions and character stereotypes found in nineteenth-century romantic melodramas and gothic novels. The aesthetic and cathartic values of this structure have occupied a central role mainly in his theatre. His Donnellys Trilogy is the most obvious representation of the simple structure of popular melodrama.

 Sticks and Stones is a drama of the highest order and, along with the two other parts of The Donnellys Trilogy, probably the finest dramatic work ever written in English Canada. From its roots in the soil of our own history, Reaney has created a world-class melodrama from the Donnellys myth that will endure even if future historians and lawyers ever answer the many questions that remain about the Donnellys and their times.