Plays and Playwrights – serie

'A study of the work of Caryl Churchill who wrote "Fen", "Top Girls" and "Serious Money". Geraldine Cousin examines the development of Churchill"s powerful style from her earliest work to the major plays.'

A unique book of criticism that brings both theatre and film studies within a single theoretical framework Martin Esslin is the author of seminal critical studies such as The Theatre of the Absurd and Brecht: A Choice of Evils. Covering artists as diverse as Duchamp and Brecht, Busby Berkely and Congreve, Pinter and WC Fields, Esslin's approach is fresh and genuinely inquisitive, examining various prepared positions and testing the jargon. Taking each element of drama - the actor, the setting, the text, the music - and making provocative cross-references to stage and screen, Esslin offers a carefully argued "system" of his own, much fuller and more sensitive than anything that has gone before.

This study of Brecht's theatre from eight different aspects was first published in 1959. The book aims to explain the difficult aspects of his ideology and political leanings in a straightforward manner. It traces his stylistic development as a playwright and stage director through each of his major plays and explains his evolving notion of epic theatre within the political and social climate of the 1920s, Marxism, Nazism and post-war Communism.

Writer Files is an important series documenting the work of major dramatists of the last hundred years Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1856. In the years following his graduation from Oxford in 1878 he published poems and stories which included The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lady Windermere's Fan was produced in 1892, A Woman of No Importance in 1893 and An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895. Later work included De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He died in 1900.Each volume contains a comprehensive checklist of all the writer's plays, with a detailed performance history, excerpted reviews and a selection of the writers' own comments on their work.

"A brilliantly perceptive study of the most ambiguous and perpetually fascinating figure of the twentieth century European theatre" (Kenneth Tynan) Brecht's influence on the theatre may well be as powerful as Kafka's influence on the novel and this study of Brecht's life and work was unanimously well received when first published just after the writer's death in 1959. This book portrays the paradox of a man whose work was admired on the Western side of the Iron Curtain despite ideological differences whilst in the East his artistic output was criticised but his communist ideas were welcomed. This authoritative text has stood the test of time

Writers-Files is an important series documenting the work of major dramatists of the last hundred years. Each volume contains a comprehensive checklist of all the writer's plays, with a detailed performance history, excerpted reviews and a selection of th Imprisoned for his revolutionary activities and championed by Checkov, Maxim Gorky ("the bitter") had his first play produced by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902. Chekhov wrote, "Gorky is the first in Russia and the world at large to have expressed contempt and loathing for the petty bourgeoisie and he has done it at the precise moment when Russia is ready for protest." Among Gorky's most important plays are Philistines, The Lower Depths and Barbarians."Methuen are to be congratulated on launching this series...extremely useful to theatre professionals as well as to students and teachers of drama" (David Bradby, Speech and Drama)

"Frayn has the rare ability to construct farcical comedy around philosophical principles and the laughs and the ideas effortlessly intermesh" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Michael Frayn is a playwright, novelist, journalist and writer of screenplays. His most important plays included Copenhagen, Noises Off, Benefactors and Donkeys' Years. Writers-Files is an important series documenting the work of major dramatists of the last hundred years. Each volume contains a comprehensive checklist of all the writer's plays, with a detailed performance history, excerpted reviews and a selection of the writers' own comments on their work."Methuen are to be congratulated on launching this series...extremely useful to theatre professionals as well as to students and teachers of drama" (David Bradby, Speech and Drama)

"We are not short of good playwrights in Britain, but I know of none with Nichols' power to put modern Britain on the stage and send the spectators away feeling more like members of the human race" (Irving Wardle, The Times). Among Nichols' most important plays are A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The National Health and Forget-me-Not Lane. Writers-Files is an important series documenting the work of major dramatists of the last hundred years. Each volume contains a comprehensive checklist of all the writer's plays, with a detailed performance history, excerpted reviews and a selection of the writers' own comments on their work."Methuen are to be congratulated on launching this series...extremely useful to theatre professionals as well as to students and teachers of drama" (David Bradby, Speech and Drama)

In 1958 The Birthday Party was dismissed by all but a few critics and closed after one week's run in London. Since then Harold Pinter has come to be acknowledged as "our best living playwright" (Irving Wardle, The Times) Martin Esslin's study of Pinter's plays has become a standard work since its publication in 1970. This sixth, revised edition - published to mark Pinter's 70th birthday and updated to cover his most recent plays, Moonlight, Ashes to Ashes and Celebration - offers a comprehensive survey of the whole span of Harold Pinter's writing career by one of the most distinguished commentators on modern theatre."It will certainly not be the last book on Pinter, but seems bound to remain one of the best" John Russell Taylor"Holds its place as the most straightforwardly useful account of Pinter's work to date" Times Literary Supplement

This third book in a new series of magazine-style reviews of the performing arts, presents an introduction to the writers who are helping to shape the future of the British theatre. Ranging from Sarah Kane's controversial "Blasted" to Patrick Marber's humorous "Dealer's Choice", from Jonathan Harvey's "Beautiful Thing" to the intense emotion of Philip Ridley's "Apocalyptica", this collection presents extracts from some 20 texts. Together they present a portrait of an emergent generation of playwrights, the country they live in and the worlds which they create on stage.

"The best review I've ever had was when Michael Billington said, 'like Balzac, David Edgar seems to be a secretary for our times'...I'd like to be a secretary for the times through which I'm living." (David Edgar) David Edgar is one of Britain's major political playwrights. He belongs to a generation of dramatists - which includes Howard Brenton, Trevor Griffiths and David Hare - who learned their craft in the Fringe theatres of the late sixties. His best known plays have been written for the Royal National Theatre (including Albert Speer in 2000 and The Shape of the Table) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (Destiny; The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Nicholas Nickleby, Maydays and Pentecost). In this full-length study of Edgar's work, Susan Painter examines the social, political and theatrical context of Edgar's career in the theatre and provides a detailed analysis of the plays.

A invaluable survey of French theatre since 1968 Mise en Scene is a book in two parts. The first half is a probing look at French theatre now, providing an historical and critical survey of drama and theatre in France since 1968. It explores playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Michel Vinaver and Bernard-Marie Koltes and directors of international reputation such as Peter Brook, Robert Wilson, Roger Planchon, Antoine Vitez, Patrice Chereau and Ariane Mnouchkine. The second part of Mise en Scene features a comprehensive listings guide to major theatre companies, insitutions, festivals, training schools and invaluable A-Z profiles of contemporary playwrights and directors from France.

Women playwrights speak about their art and the theatre in this collection of interviews about a key decade of British drama Twenty leading contemporary dramatists discuss their work from the perspective of being both writers and women. Each talks about the state of the theatre now, the craft of playwrighting and the pressures of working within a male dominated environment.'What I think is so exciting about the response to a number of the plays written by women in the last ten years is that they are popular with audiences - because they've got this quality, this energy and this culture that hasn't been seen much on stage before: a humour, sexiness and wit that's been missing' - Charlotte Keatley

A new and definitive guide to the theatre of the ancient world The Guide to Greek Theatre and Drama is a meticulously researched and accessible survey into the place and purpose of theatre in Ancient Greece. It provides a comprehensive author-by-author examination of the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander, as well as giving an insight into how and where the plays were performed, who acted them out, and who watched them. It includes a fascinating discussion of the function of the essential characteristics of Greek drama, including verse, rhetoric, music, comedy, and chorus. Above all it offers a fascinating viewpoint onto the everyday values of the ancient Greeks; values with a continuing influence over the theatre of the present day.

New edition, revised for the centenary of Brecht's birth, containing additional updated material In this classic study, John Willett sets in context not only Brecht the theatre practitioner but Brecht the writer and man of his time. Through chapters on Brecht's relationships and attitudes to contemporary politics, English and American literature, Expressionism, music, art and cinema, as well as to such figures as Auden, Kipling and Piscator, the book presents a detailed and wide-ranging account of one of the most significant men of this century."An outstanding introduction to its subject...will immeasurably enrich Brechtians young and old, especially those who think they know it all" (Times Educational Supplement); "Economical, witty and unpretentious in a way that Brecht would have liked, but immensely well-informed and thoroughly documented, seems certain to become required reading for anyone seriously interested in the dramatist" (London Review of Books); "An extraordinarily rich volume, which succeeds in being packed but uncrowded" (New Statesman)

All of Artaud's theatrical ideas collected in one volume Artaud's cherished dream was to found a new kind of theatre in France that would not be an artistic spectacle, but a communion between spectators and actors. This volume contains all of Artaud's key writings on theatre and cinema from 1921 to his death in 1948, together with a definitive commentary on the key texts of this 20th-century theatre visionary. Although his potent theories were never successfully realised during his own tortured lifetime, his revolutionary ideas have inspired the work of Genet, Arrabal, The Living Theatre, Grotowski, Brook and most experimental drama and performance work of the last decades. "Artaud was one of the most influential figures in European theatre , one of the great, daring mapmakers of the consciousness in extremis." (Susan Sontag) "For Artaud, the actor is the victim at the stake desperately signalling through the flames." Peter Brook

A key critical work bringing relevance to Brecht's poetry in the 21st century Brecht is increasingly recognised as one of the most important lyric voices of the 20th century. Alongside Rilke he is honoured as Germany's greatest modern poet. Yet his poetry is relatively little known in the English speaking world. This title takes its cue from an allegorical poem about the artist's legacy and looks at how poets and translators might read Brecht today.The volume arises from a seminar held at Oxford University in 1998 to mark the centenary of Brecht's birth and includes seminal contributions from experts. It sheds new light on individual poems as well as giving an overview of Brecht's poetry from the earliest days to the GDR years. There are also Brecht poems in parallel translation as well as translations by major British poets such as Tom Paulin, Seamus Heaney, Jamie McKendrick, Michael Morley, Derek Mahon, and David Constantine.Contributors include: Ronald Speirs, Hans-Harald Muller, Tom Kindt, Robert Habeck, Hilda Brown, David Midgley, Elizabeth Boa, Anthony Phelan, David Constantine, Ray Ockenden, Erdmut Wizisla.

The definitive guide to the life and work of Antonin Artaud Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty is one of the most vital forces in world theatre, yet the concept is one of the most frequently misunderstood. In this incisive study, Albert Bermel looks closely at Artaud's work as a playwright, director, actor, designer, producer and critic, and provides a fresh insight into his ideas, innovations and, above all, his writings. Tracing the theatre of cruelty's origins in earlier dramatic conventions, tribal rituals of cleansing, transfiguration and exaltation, and in related arts such as film and dance, Bermel examines each of Artaud's six plays for form and meaning, as well as surveying the application of Artaud's theories and techniques to the international theatre of recent years.

Now out in paperback, this highly personal and comprehensive survey of contemporary drama which celebrates the plays and playwrights at the forefront of theatre today All the way from A-Z, Dromgoole's engaging and provocative short essays include his thoughts on Sebastian Barry, Edward Bond, April de Angelis, Pam Gems, David Hare, Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Harold Pinter, Mark Ravenhill, and many, many more. Intelligent, partisan, enthusiastic and always illuminating, this is an insider's guide to the key shapers of theatre over the last decade, and essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary theatre. This edition includes a new afterword."We are living in the middle of a carnival, a free festival, a fete, a flower show, a harvest home, a steam fair, a rock festival, a grand glorious tender wild burst of new plays." Dominic Dromgoole

New essays on ancient Greek classics from Ireland's greatest living dramatists and academics That so many Irish playwrights should return to the Greek classics can not really be a surprise. Drama in Ireland is still a means of exploring the issues of family and state; of gender, class and race; of the oppressors and the oppressed. It is political in the broad sense in which the Greeks understood the word, involving everyone - immediate but concentrated through parallel and parable. This collection of provocative essays reveals how some of the great Irish poets and dramatists, of the past and present, have drawn on Greek myths and used these stories, which have travelled across three thousand years, to bring new insights on the world in which we now live. Including essays from, amongst others, Athol Fugard, Seamus Heaney and Tom Paulin Amid Our Troubles looks at the work of such writers as Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Brendan Kennelly, Frank McGuinness and W. B. Yeats.

In this highly personal and comprehensive survey of contemporary drama, Dominic Dromgoole, one of Britain's most innovative young directors, celebrates the plays and playwrights at the forefront of theatre today All the way from A-Z, Dromgoole's engaging and provocative short essays include his thoughts on Sebastian Barry, Edward Bond, April de Angelis, Pam Gems, David Hare, Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Harold Pinter, Mark Ravenhill, and many, many more. Intelligent, partisan, enthusiastic and always illuminating, this is an insider's guide to the key shapers of theatre over the last decade, and essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary theatre."We are living in the middle of a carnival, a free festival, a fete, a flower show, a harvest home, a steam fair, a rock festival, a grand glorious tender wild burst of new plays." Dominic Dromgoole

A guide to all of Brecht's key plays that sets them in their historical, dramaturgical and political contexts Stephen Unwin provides a clear and readable guide to Brecht's plays that will prove invaluable to the student, teacher and theatre practitioner. Grouping and analysing plays chronologically according to their context, Unwin also considers Brecht's theory and looks at his impact and the legacy that he left. The Guide covers: * Three Early Plays and Expressionism * Two Music Theatre Pieces and Kurt Weill * Marxism and the Theatre * Opposition Plays * Five Great Plays * A Late Masterpiece * Theory and Practice * Brecht's LegacyWritten by the Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre and the author of a range of theatre studies books, this is a perfect companion to the plays of Brecht for the student and theatre practitioner.

A major study of the work of one of Britain's best-known dramatists Peter Barnes was one of the UK's most significant, prolific and enduring playwrights. This book offers a major critical appraisal of the canon of Barnes' work, including a detailed study of his best-known plays, The Ruling Class, Bewitched, Laughter!, Red Noses, and Dreaming, as well as a selection of his television and radio plays which illuminate his thematic concerns, and offer key insights into his dramatic methods. Through this examination, Brian Woolland shows that many of Barnes' plays have remarkable contemporary relevance, and are formally far more innovative than has hitherto been recognised. Woolland analyses the ways in which Barnes uses and subverts theatrical traditions, and relates his work to relevant critical contexts: theatrical, critical and socio-political. Deservedly, Barnes' use of comedy is given special attention. It is a sad truth that Barnes' great talents have not always been acknowledged by the theatrical establishment. In this exciting study, Barnes finally gets the recognition he deserves, as one of the most original, daring and exuberant dramatists of his generation.

A collection of essays by many distinguished contributors, focused on the portrayal of rebel women in ancient Greek drama Ancient Greek drama provides the modern stage with a host of powerful female characters who stand in opposition to the patriarchal structures that seek to limit and define them. For contemporary theatre directors their representation serves as a vehicle for examining and illuminating issues of gender, power, family and morality, as germane today as when the plays were first written. Rebel Women brings together essays by leading writers from across different disciplines examining the representation of ancient Greek heroines in their original contexts and on today's stage. Divided into three sections, it considers in turn international productions, Irish versions, and studies of the original texts. The articles explore how such characters as Iphigenia, Medea, Antigone and Clytemnestra have been portrayed in recent times and the challenges and provocation they offer to both contemporary audiences and dramatists alike.'Seamus Heaney and Athol Fugard are brought together as contributors by the inspiration that ancient Greek tragedy has offered to them both.There are offerings here on Iphigenia, Medea, Antigone, Clytemnestra, film, drama, Greece, Russia ...and especially Ireland. Amidst all this variety, the level of interest and of scholarship are consistently high.' Oliver Taplin, Professor of Classical Languages and Literature, Oxford University

Bill Bryden's Cottesloe Company, which flourished at Peter Hall's National Theatre, was the English theatre's only true ensemble of the last thirty or so years. Impossible Plays tells the story of the company and the many actors and musicians connected to it. Co-written by Keith Dewhurst, author of eight plays for the group, and Jack Shepherd, a founder-actor, it explains the ideas behind the company's work and how the work was staged, and provides an idiosyncratic, lively and deeply personal take on the company. "The search was always to find a popular theatre, a form of theatre that would draw into it people from all backgrounds, not just the cultured and the educated." Beginning with a Royal Court Theatre Sunday night performance in 1970, the story of one company's aim to create a popular theatre form includes such milestone productions as The Mystery cycle of plays and Lark Rise to Candleford. With photographs by John Haynes, Michael Mayhew and Nobby Clark, Impossible Plays is a glorious and timely tribute to one of theatre's most innovative companies.

What value does theatre have in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century? How has theatre responded to the challenge of remaining relevant in the media-saturated world of today? These are the questions that underpin this stimulating study of some of the leading dramatists of contemporary British theatre. At the Sharp End sets the scene examining how the forces that created a revolution in theatre fifty years ago have been replaced by a new wave of political and social issues. It goes on to explore the ways in which five key writers have sought to reflect and wrestle with the changing character of modern Britain. The work of David Edgar, David Greig, Mark Ravenhill, Tanika Gupta and Tim Etchells' company Forced Entertainment is considered, with recent plays examined in detail, an interview with each writer; and suggestions of other writers and plays for reading and comparison. At the Sharp End provides the perfect companion for anyone wanting to understand the changing face of contemporary drama and the writers whose work is making an impact on our stages today.

Containing over a hundred interviews conducted over the last fifteen years with leading directors, actors and writers at the National Theatre, Buzz Buzz! is a fantastic compendium that offers unrivalled insight into the work and practice of the best theatre talent. In these illuminating interviews playwrights such as Michael Frayn, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, David Hare, Pam Gems and Tony Kushner and many others talk about the roots of their work, their methods of research, and how they collaborate with their directors, while actors from Fiona Shaw to Kenneth Branagh, and directors from Peter Hall to Marianne Elliott, contribute fascinating insights into their ideas and ways of working. The book covers plays by the Greeks and Shakespeare, English and European classics, and the best of modern English, Irish and American drama. Theatre writer and commentator Jonathan Croall draws on the vast wealth of interviews he's conducted at the National Theatre in this fascinating and wide-ranging book.

'In this masterful reevaluation of Euripides, Michael Walton recasts the playwright in light of his resonance for today's translators and directors. Springing from the rehearsal room rather than the page, Walton shows us not only why we are ready for Euripides, but why we so desperately need him.' Mary Louise Hart, Associate Curator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum 'A useful, reader-friendly introduction aimed at non-specialists, [it] offers detailed summaries of Euripides' plays, along with keen observations on their relevance for today's theater.' Rush Rehm, author of Radical Theatre Euripides Our Contemporary is a major new study of the work of the great classical tragedian that illuminates his work and demonstrates both its vitality and how it continues to speak to us today. Taking a thematic approach to Euripides' plays it provides the reader with a wide-ranging and thorough appreciation of the writer's entire canon. For students, teachers and practitioners this is the best single-volume treatment of the writer's work, considering the plays for their accessibility and for their focus on issues and concerns which are as significant as ever in the modern world.Divided into three sections, the book first examines 'Domesticating Tragedy', the manner in which Euripides gave the world of myth an application to ordinary life. The second section tackles the 'Grand Passions': characters under extraordinary pressure and the extent to which personal responsibility can be absolved through various aspects of circumstance. The third looks at the nature of Euripides' theatre and his acknowledgment of it, the great roles and the playwrights of the last hundred years whose craft seems most influenced by his work. An Appendix at the end of the book provides a short summary of the plots of all nineteen plays.

This is an essential guide for anyone interested in the best new British stage plays to emerge in the new millennium. For students of theatre studies and theatre-goers Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today is a perfect companion to Britain's burgeoning theatre writing scene. It explores the context from which new plays have emerged and charts the way that playwrights have responded to the key concerns of the decade and helped shape our sense of who we are.In recent years British theatre has seen a renaissance in playwriting accompanied by a proliferation of writing awards and new writing groups. The book provides an in-depth exploration of the industry and of the key plays and playwrights. It opens by defining what is meant by 'new writing' and providing a study of the leading theatres, such as the Royal Court, the Traverse, the Bush, the Hampstead and the National theatres, together with the London fringe and the work of touring companies.In the second part, Sierz provides a fascinating survey of the main issues that have characterised new plays in the first decade of the new century, such as foreign policy and war overseas, economic boom and bust, divided communities and questions of identity and race. It considers too how playwrights have re-examined domestic issues of family, of love, of growing up, and the fantasies and nightmares of the mind. Against the backdrop of economic, political and social change under New Labour, Sierz shows how British theatre responded to these changes and in doing so has been and remains deeply involved in the project of rewriting the nation.