Shakespeare and the Theatrical Event

JOHN RUSSELL BROWN is currently Professor of Theatre at Middlesex University and was recently Visiting Professor of English at Columbia University, New York. He has directed many plays for professional and student theatres in Britain, the USA, and India. From 1973 to 1988, he was an Associate Director of the National Theatre in London.

'In a style which he has made entirely his own, John Russell Brown continues to illuminate our understanding of how Shakespeare's texts work. Brown writes a flawless prose and nothing interposes itself between the words and what they intend to convey: the way in which Shakespeare's dramatic rhetoric can be opened up for what it was always intended to do, come to life on the stage. Brown brings to his enterprise a life-long involvement with both the stage and the study. We know that we can trust him as our guide to the text as he takes us ever more deeply into Shakespeare. His pages on King Lear are among the best I know on the play's dramatic rhythm. All students of Shakespeare at school and at university should be encouraged to peruse Brown's book.' - Professor R Weis, University College, University of London 'Excellent supplementary reading for a theatre or literature course on Shakespeare. Highly recommended.' - A.F. Winstead, Choice

• PrefaceIntroduction: Theatrical EventsPART ONE: AUDIENCES Playgoing and ParticipationFunctionsResponsesPART TWO: ACTORS Texts and TechniquesPersons in a PlayParts to PerformActions and ReactionsVisual InterplayImprovisationPART THREE: CONTEXTS Stage SpaceOff-Stage SpaceTimePART FOUR: PLAYS IN PRINT ReadingStudy and CriticismIndex.