A play named Ralph Roister Doister is generally looked upon as the first real English comedy. In revenge for her scorn Ralph Roister Doister threatens to burn the dame's house down, and sets off to attack it with his servants.

Shortly after the middle of the century, probably, the head-master of Westminister School, Nicholas Udall, took the further step of writing for his boys on the classical model an original farce-comedy, the amusing 'Ralph Roister Doister.' This play is so close a copy of Plautus' 'Miles Gloriosus' and Terence's 'Eunuchus' that there is little that is really English about it; a much larger element of local realism of the traditional English sort, in a classical framework, was presented in the coarse but really skillful

Noting that 'Recovering plausible music to songs in comic interludes is more possible than people may think', Duffin fleshes out this background via attention to sixteenth-century 'chorus-masters, composers, and instrumentalists' involved in the production of court interludes (20): William Cornysh, John Skel-ton, John Heywood, and Nicholas Udall (whose Ralph Roister Doister Duffin dubs 'one of the most musical of English Renaissance comedies' [45]).

A local native, Michael attended Kendall College for culinary training and has worked in the kitchens of several internationally-acclaimed chefs including Giuseppe Tentori (BOKA, GT Fish and Oyster, GT Prime) and Grant Achatz (Alinea, Next, Roister ).

Incredibly a crowd watches on laughing and egging on the bouncers and roister , as they brawl in the street.

Joining in the rollicking roister is a festive choir of background vocals from the likes of Broadway household David Keeley, renowned vocalists Keith Fluitt (Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Ashford & Simpson) and Jerri Bocchino (Phil Spector, John Lennon, Cher) and award-winning New York singer/songwriter Lina Koutrakos, alongside the instrumental finesse of Mike Sorrentino on drums, Carras Paton on bass and saxophone, Rafael Cintron and Dan DelVecchio on guitars, Rob Preuss on keyboard and Tom Gallaher on piano.

In place of sour, dour recrimination there was cheerful rejoinder and, everywhere, the sound of Geordie on the roister ."

8DA LAST week's winner is Thomas Hutchison, from Hamilton YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS WEE THINKER ACROSS: 7 Andorra 9 Atoll 10 Check 11 Unladen 12 Ski 13 Nautical 16 Mediocre 17 Too 19 Tableau 21 Basis 22 Bigot 23 Extreme DOWN: 1 Carcase 2 Adhesive 3 Trek 4 Nail-file 5 Goad 6 Cling 8 Acupuncture 13 Noisette 14 Attested 15 Roister 18 Stubs 20 Bugs 21 Beta QUICKIE ACROSS: 1 God-daughter 8 Gab 9 Lop 11 Lioness 12 Pasta 13 One 14 Ear 15 Isolate 17 Sad 19 Wars 21 Ogre 23 Iced 25 Edge 27 Dew 29 Manager 31 Arm 34 Opt 36 Cairo 37 Assault 38 Tin 39 Say 40 Dinner party DOWN: 1 Gain 2 Oboe 3 Dresser 4 Unsold 5 Hop it 6 Else 7 Rota 8 Gloss 10 Paris 16 Ewe 18 Dog 20 Add 22 Gem 24 Chelsea 25 Exact 26 Bazaar 28 Witty 30 Acorn 32 Raid 33 Mini 34 Oust 35 Play

Ralph Roister Doister contains a much more elaborate scene in which the maidservants--Madge Mumblecrust, Tib Talkapace and Annot Alyface--sing while performing three different female occupations, sewing, spinning and knitting ("So shall we pleasantly bothe the tyme beguile now,/ And eke dispatche all our works ere we can tell how.").

Interestingly, illegal weapon discharges are timed at the height of firecracker roister to mask the prohibited act.