The Broken Heart: Selina Cartmell Revives a Sex-and-Death-
Obsessed Tragedy  Shakespeare casts a long shadow, particularly
over the decadent sex-and-death-obsessed tragedians who
flourished in the years after he died and before the Puritans
finally shut down the theaters (because of all the sex and
death). The pervy, ghoulish John Ford is perhaps the most
unjustly neglected writer of this cohort—and so Theatre for a
New Audience and director Selina Cartmell deserve accolades not
just for reviving Ford's little-known The Broken Heart, but also
for giving it the kind of revelatory production that proves it's
an overlooked classic.  Diseased love was Ford's special
subject, and The Broken Heart is no exception. He was interested
in the edgy border territories where chaste love morphs into
feverish lust, married affection becomes obsessive jealousy, and
sibling attachment turns incestuous. The plot of The Broken
Heart is a tortured maze—but that's the point. The frenzied
scheming and counter-scheming matches the p