Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends

Verna A. Foster is a professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of numerous essays on modern drama. She lives in Chicago.

“remarkable...highly recommended”—Choice; “admirably wide-ranging survey...offers new perspectives.... There is plenty to stimulate and provoke in these essays, but what is particularly valuable about this volume is the juxtaposition and interaction of these analyses...a valuable survey on an important aspect of contemporary playwriting and theater practice..”—Comparative Drama.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      IntroductionVERNA A. FOSTER      Hellenic Women Revisited: The Aesthetics of Mythic Revision in the Plays of Karen Hartman, Sarah Ruhl and Caridad SvichMIRIAM CHIRICO      Greek Tragedy Transformed: A. R. Gurney and Charles Mee Rewrite Greek DramaKARELISA HARTIGAN      “That story is not true”: Unmaking Myth in Ellen McLaughlin’s Helen and Saviana Stanescu and Richard Schechner’s YokastaSELIZABETH W. SCHARFFENBERGER      Tina Howe and Demetrian SeriocomedyJEFFREY B. LOOMIS      Children of Yemayá and the American Eshu: West African Myth in African-American TheatreKEVIN J. WETMORE, JR.      Punctured by Patriarchy: Theatricalizing the Christian Assault upon Native Mythology in Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to KapuskasingCHRISTY STANLAKE      Damaged Myth in Caryl Churchill’s The SkrikerAMELIA HOWE KRITZER      Between Desire and Authority: The “Dybbuk” in Modernist and Postmodern Theatrical Adaptations from S. Ansky to Tony KushnerSHARON FRIEDMAN      Martin McDonagh’s Fractured Fairy Tales: Representational Horrors in The PillowmanANTHONY ELLIS      Food, Sex and Fairy Tales: Wallace Shawn’s Grasses of a Thousand ColorsSHEILA RABILLARD      Turning Komachi Legends, Gender and Noh Inside Out: Remaking Desire in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Early PlayMAYA E. ROTH      Romancing “La Corriveau” and Marguerite de Nontron: Anne Hébert’s La Cage and L’Île de la demoiselleGREGORY J. REID      Bloody Relations of Exchange: Sharon Pollock’s Revision of Legend and Feminine Myth in Blood RelationsLAURA SNYDER      Beth Henley’s Abundance: The Cinematic Myth of the Wild West RevisedVERNA A. FOSTER      About the Contributors      Index