Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisThe theatre was a crucial forum for the representation of Irish civility and culture for the eighteenth-century English audience. Irish actors and playwrights, operating both as individuals and within networks, were remarkably popular and potent during this period, especially in London. As ideas of Enlightenment percolated throughout Britain and Ireland, Irish theatrical practitioners - actors, managers, playwrights, critics and journalists - exploited a growing receptivity to Irish civility, and advanced a patriot agenda of political and economic autonomy. Mobility, toleration and the capacity to negotiate multiple allegiances are marked features of this Irish theatrical Enlightenment, whose ambitious participants saw little conflict between their twin loyalties to the Crown and to Ireland. This collection of essays responds to recent work in the areas of eighteenth-century theatre studies, Irish studies and Enlightenment studies. The volume''s discussions of genre, colonialism, gendeTrade Review'Ireland, Enlightenment and the English Stage makes a bold and necessary intervention in the field. Its essays shed important new light on the dynamic contribution to English theatrical culture made by a multitude of Irish practitioners and also productively challenge the foundations of what we take 'the Enlightenment' to be in relation to ideas of nation, cosmopolitanism, and cultural production.' David Taylor, University of OxfordBurke's essay … strikes a note that synthesizes the volume. Theater, she writes, becomes a crucial vehicle for the spread of Enlightenment as it enables 'a broadening of horizons [that] did not require a jettisoning of the past'. In this volume, whose essays consistently pair careful historicist research with innovative thought, O'Shaughnessy and his fellow contributors exemplify this achievement for current scholarship as well.' Emily Hodgson Anderson, Review 19'Reconstructing and analysing the world of eighteenth-century theatre moreover demands research that extends beyond literary texts and is attentive to the contexts and the meanings of performance, and the different ways in which both text and performance were mediated and remediated in the period. The essays in this impressive collection not only navigate these challenges, they showcase an impressive sophistication in both the methods and approach employed, and in their nuanced conceptualization of the issues of identity on which the collection is focused ... This superb collection makes an important intervention in a number of different fields and should be considered essential reading for scholars of eighteenth-century Ireland across a range of disciplines, as well as for critics and historians of theatre in the long eighteenth century.' Clíona Ó Gallchoir, Eighteenth-Century Ireland'[an] impressive overview of a missing Irish theater history …' Misty G. Anderson, ECS ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: staging an Irish Enlightenment David O'Shaughnessy; Part I. Representations and Resistance: 1. Straddling: London-Irish actresses and their characters Felicity Nussbaum; 2. John Johnstone and the possibilities of Irishness, 1783–1820 Jim Davis; 3. The diminution of 'Irish' Johnstone Oskar Cox Jensen; Part II. Symbiotic Stages: Dublin and London: 4. Midas, Kane O'Hara and the Italians: an interplay of comedy between London and Dublin Michael Burden; 5. Trading loyalties: Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal and the Irish propositions Robert W. Jones; 6. Sydney Owenson, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and the domestic stage of post-inion politics Colleen Taylor; Part III. Enlightened Perspectives: 7. Civility, patriotism and performance: Cato and the Irish history play David O'Shaughnessy; 8. From Ireland to Peru: Arthur Murphy's (anti)-imperial dramaturgy Bridget Orr; 9. The provincial commencement of James Field Stanfield Declan Mccormack; 10. Worlding the village: John O'Keeffe's 'Excentric' pastorals Helen Burke.

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Book SynopsisHamlet is a characteristic intellectual more inclined to lecture actors about their craft than listen to them, and is a precursor of Enlightenment figures like Diderot and Lessing. This book is a quest for the voice of early professional actors, drawing on English, French and other European sources to distinguish the methods of professionals from the theories of intellectual amateurs. David Wiles challenges the orthodoxy that all serious discussion of acting began with Stanislavski, and outlines the comprehensive but fluid classical system of acting which was for some three hundred years its predecessor. He reveals premodern acting as a branch of rhetoric, which took from antiquity a vocabulary for conversations about the relationship of mind and body, inside and outside, voice and movement. Wiles demonstrates that Roman rhetoric provided the bones of both a resilient theatrical system and a physical art that retains its relevance for the post-Stanislavskian performer.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Hamlet's advice to the players; 2. Rhetorical performance in antiquity; 3. Acting, preaching and oratory in the sixteenth century; 4. Baroque acting; 5. Actors and intellectuals in the Enlightenment era; 6. Emotion; 7. Declamation; 8. Gesture; 9. Training.

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Book SynopsisFor readers interested in exploring the history ofemotional responses to suffering, this volume describes the theory and practice of compassion in the context of early modern Europe's sectarian strife, and will engage those looking to make connections between early modern history and our present political moment.Trade Review'… a convincing alternative to rigorous compassion scepticism …' James Waddell, Modern Language Review'Its commendable coherence is determined by both the central theme and the well-thought-through structure, which supports the topic's conceptualization … the volume is a valuable contribution on a timely topic …' Mirosława Hanusiewicz-Lavallee, Journal of Jesuit StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction Kristine Steenbergh and Katherine Ibbett; Part I. Theorizing: 1. The ethics of compassion in early modern England Bruce R. Smith; 2. The compassionate self of the Catholic Reformation Katherine Ibbett; Part II. Consoling: 3. 'Hee left them not comfortlesse by the way': grief and compassion in early modern English consolatory culture Paula Barros; 4. Friendship, counsel, and compassion in early modern medical thought Stephen Pender; Part III. Exhorting: 5. 'Compassion and mercie draw teares from the godlyfull often': the rhetoric of sympathy in the early modern sermon Richard Meek; 6. Mollified hearts and enlarged bowels: practising compassion in reformation England Kristine Steenbergh; Part IV. Performing: 7. Civic liberties and community compassion: the Jesuit drama of Poland-Lithuania Clarinda E. Calma and Jolanta Rzegocka; 8. Compassion, contingency and conversion in James Shirley's The Sisters Alison Searle; Part V. Responding: 9. Mountainish inhumanity in Illyria: compassion in Twelfth Night as social luxury and political duty Elisabetta Tarantino; 10. Standing on a beach: Shakespeare and the sympathetic imagination Eric Langley; Part VI. Giving: 11. 'To feel what wretches feel': Reformation and the re-naming of English compassion Toria Johnson; 12. Alms petitions and compassion in sixteenth-century London Rebecca Tomlin; Part VII. Racializing: 13. Pity and empire in the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1552) Matthew Goldmark; 14. 'Our Black hero': compassion for friends and others in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko John Staines; Part VIII. Contemporary Compassions: 15. Contemporary compassions: interrelating in the Anthropocene Kristine Steenbergh.

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Book SynopsisThis Element offers a first-person phenomenological history of watching productions of Shakespeare during the pandemic year of 2020. The first section of the Element explores how Shakespeare ''went viral'' during the first lockdown of 2020 and considers how the archival recordings of Shakespeare productions made freely available by theatres across Europe and North America impacted on modes of spectatorship and viewing practices, with a particular focus on the effect of binge-watching Hamlet in lockdown. The Element''s second section documents two made-for-digital productions of Shakespeare by Oxford-based Creation Theatre and Northern Irish Big Telly, two companies who became leaders in digital theatre during the pandemic. It investigates how their productions of The Tempest and Macbeth modelled new platform-specific ways of engaging with audiences and creating communities of viewing at a time when, in the UK, government policies were excluding most non-building-based theatre companiesTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Archival Obsessions; 2. Live Digital Shakespeare; Conclusion: When will this fearful slumber have an end?

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Book SynopsisThis Element examines Beckett's dissidence in the face of the imperatives of nation, home and the canon, utilising Beckett's work in festival contexts to highlight in the negative the nature of the festival form and to critique the festivalisation of culture.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Upon Ruinous Foundations; 1. More Ruins: The Festival and the Author's Face; 2. Beckett as Irish Icon: A Genealogy of Festivalisation; 3. Festival Space: Staging the City ; 4. Tourist Epistemologies: The Beckett Bus ; 5. Festival Time: Carnivals of Ruin; Conclusion: Degenerate Gatherings.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare has been dubbed the greatest psychologist of all time. This book seeks to prove that statement by comparing the playwright''s fictional characters with real-life examples of violent individuals, from criminals to political actors. For Gilligan and Richards, the propensity to kill others, even (or especially) when it results in the killer''s own death, is the most serious threat to the continued survival of humanity. In this volume, the authors show how humiliated men, with their desire for retribution and revenge, apocryphal violence and political religions, justify and commit violence, and how love and restorative justice can prevent violence. Although our destructive power is far greater than anything that existed in his day, Shakespeare has much to teach us about the psychological and cultural roots of all violence. In this book the authors tell what Shakespeare shows, through the stories of his characters: what causes violence and what prevents it.Trade Review'Whoever would have thought that William Shakespeare could help us prevent murder in the twenty-first century? In this extraordinary book, James Gilligan and David Richards shepherd their readers through a riveting and brilliantly written journey, explaining how the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon can offer unique insights into the origins of violence. I simply could not put this down!' Estela V. Welldon, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Honorary Member, American Psychoanalytic Association, UK'Were I able to persuade my political colleagues to imbibe the wisdom of one book, this is it. What Girard did with the novel, Gilligan and Richards do for Shakespeare, making him accessible and essential for understanding and responding to personal and political violence. It is both brilliant and transformational.' Lord John Alderdice, House of Lords, Westminster, UK'James Gilligan and David Richards, an eminent psychiatrist and a distinguished legal scholar with vast experience dealing with violent men, brilliantly help us explore how Shakespeare's plays are among the most insightful sources for understanding human nature and human psychology. In the course of their work, they met men who were virtual reincarnations of Macbeth, Othello, Richard III, Timon and others, who felt so overwhelmingly shamed and humiliated that they did not know how to bring their emotional pain to an end except by destroying the world around them. Shame and its opposite, pride and honor, are the central themes Shakespeare uses to describe the motivations for violence. Gilligan and Richards show how Shakespeare enables us to understand not only what causes violence, but also how we can prevent it.' Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, founder of the Trauma Research Foundation, and Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University'The depth of Jim Gilligan's knowledge of the murderous mind and his understanding of shame as a motivating force are matched only by Shakespeare's poetic insights about what drives Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and others. Psychoanalysis and great creative writing join in Holding a Mirror up to Nature and give unique insights to the problems of violence in our modern age. Gilligan's work – together with the rational voice of law scholar David Richards – offer to the practitioner of Shakespeare's theater a road map to understand the great tragic heroes. It is an exhilarating mix of scholarship and dramatic knowledge, which can only deepen our appreciation of the power and truth of the plays of William Shakespeare.' Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director, Shakespeare & CompanyTable of ContentsIntroduction: can we learn from Shakespeare about the causes and prevention of violence?; 1. Shame and guilt in personality and culture; 2. The cycle of violence in history plays; 3. Fathers and mothers: the perversion of love in King Lear and Coriolanus; 4. Make war, not love: Anthony and Cleopatra; 5. The motives and malignity: shame and masculinity in Othello and Macbeth; 6. Moral nihilism and the paralysis of action: Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida; 7. Apocalyptic vioence: Timon of Athens; 8. Transcending morality, preventing violence: Measure for Measure, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, and The Merchant of Venice; 9. The form and pressure of Shakespeare's time – and ours: what Shakespeare shows us about shame, guilt, love and violence; Acknowledgments.

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Book SynopsisHere, essays use the latest theories in postcolonialism, globalization, and post-nationalism to explore how world cinema and theater respond to Bollywood's representation of Shakespeare. In this collection, Shakespeare is both part of an elite Western tradition and a window into a vibrant post-national identity founded by a global consumer culture.Trade Review"Shakespeare came to India during the British empire on the project of the 'civilizing mission.' Bollywood Shakespeares compellingly brings to life appropriations and adaptations of Shakespeare as a window into hybrid, post-national identities emerging from a global consumer culture in India today. In a theoretically nuanced framing argument, Dionne and Kapadia explore the interface between Shakespeare's theatre and the global stage of Bollywood cinema, while the ensuing essays examine in rich detail how Bollywood "uses" Shakespeare to represent and examine modern Indian life. Bollywood Shakespeares is an important and timely study into the politics of global culture and of the place of Shakespeare within it." - Jyotsna G. Singh, Professor of English, Michigan State University, USA "This edited collection traces the historical origins of Bollywood's engagement with the Bard to Parsi theater, provides nuanced readings of well-established films (such as Shakespeare Wallah), and introduces readers to some less familiar ones (such as The Last Lear). Collectively, the essays in Bollywood Shakespeares demonstrate how both terms in the book's title are complicated and unsettled by their interaction. The volume also makes a significant contribution to theoretical discussion of the relationship between Shakespearean appropriation/adaptation and the rapidly changing field of Global Shakespeare." - Christy Desmet, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of English, University of Georgia, USATable of ContentsIntroduction: Shakespeare and Bollywood: the Difference a World Makes; Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia PART I: BOLLYWOOD'S DEBT TO THE THEATER: AESTHETIC AND CULTURAL MULTIVALENCY 1. Parsi Shakespeare: The Precursor to 'Bollywood Shakespeare'; Vikram Singh Thakur 2. Bollywood Battles the Bard: The Evolving Relationship Between Film and Theater in Shakespeare Wallah ; Parmita Kapadia PART II: SHAKESPEARE'S LOCAL FACE: USING SHAKESPEARE TO REARTICULATE INDIAN IDENTITIES 3. The Ambiguities of Bollywood Conventions and the Reading of Transnationalism in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool ; Rosa María García Periago 4. No Country For Young Women: Empowering Emilia in Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara ; Mike Heidenberg 5. The Global as Local / Othello as Omkara; Brinda Charry and Gitanjali Shahani PART III: BOLLYWOOD'S CULTURAL CAPITAL: BOLLYWOOD SELLS SHAKESPEARE 6. Interrogating 'Bollywood Shakespeare': Reading Rituporno Ghosh's The Last Lear ; Paromita Chakravarti 7. The Sounds of India in Supple's Twelfth Night ; Kendra Preston Leonard 8. Comedies of Errors: Shakespeare, Indian Cinema, and The Poetics of Mistaken Identity; Richard Allen Afterword: Shakespeare and Bollywood

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Book SynopsisTragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. A comprehensive guide for anyone undertaking a study of the genre, it provides a chronological overview and history of tragic theory. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it explains the contextual and theoretical issues which affect the interpretation of tragedy, examining popularly studied key plays in order to show historical change. Including a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, Tragedy: The Basics is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Greeks and Romans: Classical Tragedy Contexts: The Festival of Dionysus at Athens Aeschylus, The Oresteia Sophocles, Oedipus the King Sophocles, Antigone Euripides, Medea Euripides, Bacchae Contexts: Seneca and Roman Tragedy Seneca, Phaedra 2. ‘When the bad bleed’ ? Early Modern English Tragedy Contexts: Elizabethan Tragedy Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tragedy Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus William Shakespeare, Hamlet Contexts: Jacobean Tragedy William Shakespeare, Othello William Shakespeare, King Lear William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi 3. Neo-Classicism, Restoration Tragedy and Sentimentality Contexts Jean Racine, Phaedra John Dryden, All for Love Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d 4. ‘From Hero to Victim’: Romantic Tragedy and After Contexts Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg Georg Büchner, Woyzeck Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler 5. Modernism and Tragedy Contexts Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot 6. The Survival of Tragedy Contexts Edward Bond, Lear Howard Barker, Victory Tony Kushner, Angels in America Caryl Churchill, The Skriker Sarah Kane, Blasted.Conclusion Glossary References Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is the nature of romantic love and erotic desire in Shakespeare''s work? In this erudite and yet accessible study, David Schalkwyk addresses this question by exploring the historical contexts, theory and philosophy of love. Close readings of Shakespeare''s plays and poems are delivered through the lens of historical texts from Plato to Montaigne, and modern writers including Jacques Lacan, Jean-Luc Marion, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Alain Badiou and Stanley Cavell. Through these studies, it is argued that Shakespeare has no single or overarching concept of love, and that in Shakespeare''s work, love is not an emotion. Rather, it is a form of action and disposition, to be expressed and negotiated linguistically.Trade Review'Schalkwyk's arguments are closely reasoned and insightful … Essential.' C. Baker, ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction. 1. Shaping fantasies; 2. Love's troubled consummations; 3. The impossible gift of love; 4. The finality of the you; 5. Is love an emotion?

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Book SynopsisThis volume uniquely draws together seven contemporary plays by a selection of the finest African women writers and practitioners from across the continent, offering a rich and diverse portrait of identity, politics, culture, gender issues and society in contemporary Africa.Niqabi Ninja by Sara Shaarawi (Egypt) is set in Cairo during the chaotic time of the Egyptian uprising. Not That Woman by Tosin Jobi-Tume (Nigeria) addresses issues of violence against women in Nigeria and its attendant conspiracy of silence. The play advocates zero-tolerance for violence against women and urges women to bury shame and speak out rather than suffer in silence.I Want To Fly by Thembelihle Moyo (Zimbabwe) tells the story of an African girl who wants to be a pilot. It looks at how patriarchal society shapes the thinking of men regarding lobola (bride price), how women endure abusive men and the role society at large plays in these issues.Silent Voices Trade ReviewA rare treasure chest of dynamic and challenging new plays. For theatre practitioners, this book offers diverse works with opportunities for interesting staging and sharp direction. For female actors, there is a selection of strong, unique and complex lead roles … For scholars these works are a rich source of material for critical reflection and debate. * South African Theatre Journal *This volume is an important one for the voices of African women playwrights. The theatrical information it contains should be invaluable to directors, companies and festivals interested in producing the work it features. * Critical Stages *Table of ContentsNiqabi Ninja by Sara Shaarawi Bonganyi by Sophie Kwachuh Mempuh Unsettled by JC Niala Silent Voices by Adong Judith I Want To Fly by Thembelihle Moyo Mbuzemi by Koleka Putuma Not That Woman by Tosin Jobi-Tume

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Book SynopsisSo we''re clearYou know, right?You know I'm not that kind of personSometimes we can't find the right words. Sometimes the wrong word just slips out. Sometimes the right words become the wrong words. Sometimes that ruins everything.When a misfiring joke turns their life upside down, B sets off on a surreal journey looking for answers. In an age when technology multiplies every mistake, can we find a way to understand each other?A razor sharp satire about the search for a sure footing in an uncertain world from BAFTA nominated Vinay Patel. This edition was published to coincide with the premiere at Paines Plough and produced by Theatr Clwyd.Trade ReviewThere’s a lot wrapped up in this deceptively simple little package that is performed with an engaging immediacy by David Mumeni . Patel writes with complete honesty and unforced poetry about a young man swept up in the tides of contemporary history. * The Guardian review of True Brits, 9/02/2015 *

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Book SynopsisI wish I had copies like this at Drama School. Essential notes on the language for those who will get up and speak it, not purely for those who will sit and study it. An incredibly useful tool with room on every page to make notes. Next time I'm in rehearsal on a Shakespeare play, I have no doubt that a copy from this series will be in my hand.' ADRIAN LESTER, Actor, Director and Writer Arden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambiguities and pronunciation, each edition has been developed to open the play's possibilities and meanings to actors and students. Each edition offers: -Facing-page notes -Short, clear definitions of words -Easily accessible information about key textual variants -Notes on pronunciation of difficult names and unfamiliar words -An easy to read layout -SpaTrade ReviewThese editions are likely to help not only actors and drama students but also all amateur Shakespeareans including schools and colleges which stage the plays … What genius to have Simon Russell Beale as a series editor along with two Shakespeare Institute academics, Michael Dobson and Abigail Rokison-Woodall. * Ink Pellet *Table of ContentsSeries Introduction; Introduction; As You Like It

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 2004, David George''s majestic compendium of criticism relating to Shakespeare''s Coriolanus was recognised as a major contribution to teaching and scholarship on the play. This new edition has been updated with a new supplementary introduction by the author tracing criticism on the play since that first publication, including materialist, psychoanalytic and feminist readings, as well as further readings of the play''s politics.As with all titles in the series, this edition increases our knowledge of how Shakespeare's plays were received and understood by critics, editors and general readers. The volume offers, in separate sections, both critical opinions about the play across the centuries and an evaluation of their positions within and their impact on the reception of the play. The chronological arrangement of the text-excerpts engages the readers in a direct and unbiased dialogue, whereas the substantial introduction offers a critical evaluation from a currTable of ContentsGeneral Editor's Preface Preface Introduction Supplementary Introduction The Critical Tradition Texts Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCan theatre change the world? If so, how can it productively connect with social reality and foster spectatorial critique and engagement? This open access book examines the forms and functions of political drama in what has been described as a post-Marxist, post-ideological, even post-political moment. It argues that Bertolt Brecht's concept of dialectical theatre represents a privileged theoretical and dramaturgical method on the contemporary British stage as well as a valuable lens for understanding 21st-century theatre in Britain. Establishing a creative philosophical dialogue between Brecht, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Jacques Rancière, the study analyses seminal works by five influential contemporary playwrights, ranging from Mark Ravenhill's in-yer-face' plays to Caryl Churchill's 21st century theatrical experiments. Engaging critically with Brecht's theatrical legacy, these plays create a politically progressive form of drama which emphasises notions of negativity, amTrade ReviewAn impressive and persuasive study, paying close and scrupulous attention to a selection of well-chosen and significant dramatic works to show how the Brechtian mode has endured through adaptation to a transformed political and critical context. * Journal of Contemporary Drama in English *Hartl is able to expose new and interesting facets in her analysis of the plays ... the argumentation is rigorous, circumspect, and well-informed throughout. * The Brecht Yearbook *Dramaturgically informed and philosophically astute, Hartl makes a compelling argument for Brecht’s contribution to today’s theatre. Focused on British playtexts, the book clarifies the centrality of Brecht’s materialist dialectics in sharp-eyed readings of performances responding to neo-liberal globalization and post-postmodern relativism. Updating Brecht’s strategies of spectatorship, negation and contradiction, this book is required reading for anyone concerned about new forms of dialectical realism on the stage. * Marc Silberman, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA *An eloquent, lucidly argued investigation of Brecht’s legacy in post-1990s British theatre, this book probes “the potential of Brechtian-inspired theatre to spur resistance and ideological critique in a decidedly anti-dialectical age.” Anja Hartl incisively clarifies dialectics as a worldview rooted in openness rather than dogma, illuminating the ways in which Brechtian concepts find renewed urgency and fresh forms in the work of an exciting and important cluster of contemporary playwrights. * Clare Wallace, Charles University, Czech Republic *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Revisiting Brecht’s Dialectical Theatre Rethinking Dialectics via Adorno and Rancière Towards a Post-Brechtian Theatre 1. ‘In-Yer-Face’ Theatre and the Crisis of Dialectics: Mark Ravenhill’s Post-Brechtian Drama in Anti-Dialectical Times 1.1 The Post-Brechtian Parable: Some Explicit Polaroids 1.2 Resisting the Banal Dialectic of (Counter-)Terrorism: Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat 1.3 Conclusion 2. Reimagining Brecht: David Greig’s Theatre of Dissensus 2.1 Appropriating the Imagination in Dunsinane 2.2 Interrupting Empathy: The Events 2.3 Conclusion 3. Strategic Naivety: The Dialectic of Sincerity in Andy Smith and Tim Crouch’s Work 3.1 Post-Brechtian Meta-Theatre: all that is solid melts into air 3.2 The Limits of Sincerity: The Author 3.3 Conclusion 4. Political Theatre Between Dialectics and Absurdity: Caryl Churchill’s Twenty-First-Century Plays 4.1 Dystopian Negativity: Escaped Alone 4.2 Deconstructing the Dialectic: Here We Go 4.3 Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMoney, magic and the theatre were powerful forces in early modern England. Money was acquiring an independent, efficacious agency, as the growth of usury allowed financial signs to reproduce without human intervention. Magic was coming to seem Satanic, as the manipulation of magical signs to performative purposes was criminalized in the great witch craze.' And the commercial, public theatre was emerging to great controversy as the perfect medium to display, analyse and evaluate the newly autonomous power of representation in its financial, magical and aesthetic forms.Money and Magic in Early Modern Drama is especially timely in the current era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which are just as mysterious and occult in their operations as the germinal finance of 16th-century London. Chapters examine the convergence of money and magic in a wide range of early modern drama, from the anonymous Mankind through Christopher Marlowe to Ben Jonson, concen

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Book SynopsisThis book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.Rethinking Theatrical Documents brings together fifteen major scholars to analyse and theorise the documents, lost and found, that produced a play in Shakespeare's England. Showing how the playhouse frantically generated paratexts, it explores a rich variety of entangled documents, some known and some unknown: from before the play (drafts, casting lists, actors' parts); during the play (prologues, epilogues, title-boards); and after the play (playbooks, commonplace snippets, ballads) though before', during' and after' intertwine in fascinating ways. By using collective intervention to rethink both theatre history and book history, it provides new ways of understanding plays critically, interpretatively, editorially, practically and textually.Trade ReviewAn invaluable contribution of Rethinking Theatrical Documents is its expansion of both what constitutes the stuff of plays and how such play stuffs were manipulated. * Early Theatre *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on the Text Notes on Contributors Introduction Part One: Documents Before Performance 1 Writing a Play with Robert Daborne: Lucy Munro (King’s College, London, UK) 2 A Sharers' Repertory: Holger Syme (University of Toronto, Canada) 3 Parts and the Playscript: Seven Questions: James J. Marino (Cleveland State University, USA) 4 Undocumented: Improvisation, Rehearsal and the Clown: Richard Preiss (University of Utah, USA) Part Two: Documents of Performance 5 ‘Rethinking Prologues on Page and Stage’: Sonia Massai (King’s College, London) and Heidi Craig (The Folger Shakespeare Library, USA) 6 Title-and Scene-Boards: The Largest, Shortest Documents: Matt Steggle (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) 7 ‘What is a staged book? Books as ‘Actors’ in the Early Modern English Theatre’ (Sarah Wall-Randell, Wellesley College, USA) Part Three: Documents After Performance 8 Flowers for English Speaking: Play Extracts and Conversation: András Kiséry (The City College of New York, USA) 9 Shakespearean Extracts and the Misrepresentation of the Archive: Laura Estill (Texas A and M University, USA) 10 Typography After Performance: Claire M. L. Bourne (Pennsylvania State University, USA) 11 Shakespeare the Balladmonger: Tiffany Stern (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK) Part Four: Documents Beyond Performance 12 Lost Documents, Absent Documents, Forged Documents: Roslyn Knutson (University of Arkansas, USA) and David McInnis (University of Melbourne, Australia) 13 Afterward: Peter Holland (Notre Dame University, USA) Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisNiru is a young Bengali woman married to an English colonial bureaucrat Tom. Tom loves Niru, exoticising her as a frivolous plaything to be admired and kept; but Niru has a long-kept secret, and just as she thinks she is almost free of it, it threatens to bring her life crashing down around her. Tanika Gupta re-imagines Ibsen's classic play of gender politics through the lens of British colonialism, offering a bold, female perspective exploring themes of ownership and race. This edition is published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Plays For Young People series, aimed specifically at students aged 16-18 to perform and study.Trade ReviewMoving, multilayered and intelligent. * Guardian *Gupta is gutsy with her rewrite. The first half, in particular, may have characters corresponding to Ibsen but is far more concerned with giving a sense of the Raj as it was in the high Victorian era. * Time Out, London *Fitfully fascinating and eventually mesmerising adaptation. * The Times *

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Book SynopsisAs one of the world's leading voice coaches, Patsy Rodenburg describes practical ways to approach language, using Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, modern prose and a range of other texts to help each of us discover our own unique need for words. In Part One Rodenburg attacks the myth that there is only one correct way to speak by clearing away the blocks that can make language inaccessible. Part Two, a series of language and text exercises, connects the voice to the shape and quality of individual words and phrases. Drawing on Rodenburg's time spent coaching in the worlds of business and politics, this edition reflects on how the way we use words has changed since the book was first published. It brings a renewed focus on the language of power, spoken in the worlds of politicians and company directors. This gives readers an insight into the potency of clear, direct communication. Language and text exercises provide readers with unmediated access to this new research, allowing them tTrade ReviewI know Patsy to be a gifted voice and speech coach. In The Need for Words she provides practical and imaginative means for getting to the heart of the text and making the necessity for the language to be strongly felt by audiences. I do recommend it to anyone who needs to use words with clarity and passion. * Trevor Nunn *Playwrights, a complacent lot, tend to think that their text says it all. Grudgingly conceding the role of the director, they still think the words speak for themselves. They don't, and in this excellent book, Patsy Rodenburg shows why. * Alan Bennett *The Need for Words is an astonishing book. It takes you on an extraordinary voyage of discovery through the worlds of language and texts. Every actor and non-actor should know it and read it. * Declan Donnellan *Table of ContentsAbout the Author Acknowledgements Foreword Antony Sher Introduction 1 Let’s Consider Shakespeare! PART ONE The Need for Words 1 Connecting with Words The Speaking Act Distrust of Words Returning to Words In the Beginning was the Word The Power of Words The Importance of Oracy The Deeper Need for Words Lost Voices Not Empty Rhetoric Native Eloquence Words are Physical 2 The Breakdown of Words Family Education Conservation The Written Word vs the Spoken Word Speaking Your Way into Writing and Reading Discussion and Debate Training Young Actors Guarding Against Quick Fixes 3 Cultural and Physical Barriers The Age of Cacophony and Image Saturation Embodiment Role Models Speaking in Public The Inability to Listen Tensions and Physical Habits as Barriers Poetry Profanity Language of Gestures Wit and Wordplay Irony and Satire The Tyranny of the Intellectual Codes and Code Breaking The Media and Tabloid Thinking Solipsism Advertising Power Talk or Don’t Talk Back The Passion-Mongers Sentimentality Fillers and Clichés Sexual Politics Political Correctness RP or Not RP RP is a Choice Overcoming the Speech Barrier PART TWO Voice and the Text 4 Finding a Voice Releasing Physical Barriers Getting ‘In Voice’ Focal Points Simple Voice Workout 5 Voice into Words and Text Connecting to a Text Experimenting with Language Sounding Real Language Exercises 6 Working Further with Texts The Marriage between Voice and Text Clues from the Great Writers The Poetry Barrier The Structure of Verse The Way Words Work Starting with Shakespeare Speaking Shakespeare’s Text Sonnets Shakespeare’s Speeches Shakespearean Prose The Verse Duet Medieval Verse Christopher Marlowe John Milton Jacobean Drama A Modern Jacobean Equivalent The Age of Pope and the Age of Reason Restoration Dialogue Oscar Wilde George Bernard Shaw Styles in Speaking Texts Greek Tragedy Edward Bond William Blake Samuel Beckett Harold Pinter Working with Song Lyrics Bad Texts Prologues and Epilogues Copyright and Permissions Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisAlistair McDowall grew up in the North East of England. Plays include: The Glow (Royal Court Theatre 2022); all of it (Royal Court Theatre 2020); Zero for the Young Dudes! (National Theatre Connections 2017); X (Royal Court Theatre 2016); Pomona (RWCMD/Gate 2014; Orange Tree Theatre/Royal Exchange/National Theatre 2014/5); Talk Show (Royal Court Theatre 2013); Brilliant Adventures (Royal Court Young Writers' Festival 2012; Royal Exchange, Manchester and Live Theatre, Newcastle 2013) and Captain Amazing (Live Theatre, Newcastle and Edinburgh Fringe 2013; UK tour 2014). He is a MacDowell fellow, and a recipient of the Harold Pinter Commission. His work has been translated and produced internationally.Trade ReviewMyth and history collide in a sci-fi spine-tingler ... Sci-fi is too rarely done on stage but here McDowall has chosen the perfect medium. How better to tell a story about the perils of immortality and the fear of carrying on alone than through an art form built for impermanence, with stories that can live longer than we do? * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisProfessor John Halder is a 'good' man. But 'good' men must adapt to survive. As the world faces its Second World War, Halder finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. Good is a story about a liberal-minded university professor who drifts well-meaningly into a position in the upper reaches of the Nazi administration. John Halder, a professor of literature, seems to be a good man; he diligently visits his blind and senile mother and looks after his vacant wife and three children. He is unremarkable, other than an unusual neurotic tic: the imaginary sound of band music plays in the background of his life, particularly at moments of high emotion. But by writing a book the result of his own experience discussing euthanasia for senile elderly people and by lecturing on the delicacy of German literary culture, John has unintentionally made himself a very desirable acquisition for the Nazi party. A profound and alarming examination of passivity and the rationaTrade ReviewGood is an original and intelligent play, light in texture but serious in content, that tries to work out how decent, liberal, humane men came to be swept up by the Nazi juggernaut. * Michael Billington, The Guardian *Taylor's play is about moral compromise in a political fog, and like all good plays is as much about now. as then * Time Out *One of the most powerful, politically pointed nights at the theatre * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisTwo plays by the 2021 Papatango Prize-winning playwright Tom Powell.Surfacing NHS therapist Luc is fine. Honest. She's definitely not overwhelmed by meeting Owen, a new client, definitely not freaked out by what she's started seeing, definitely doesn't think her reality has been punctured and something else is leaking in. Luc goes for a swim and feels a hand dragging her down to the bottom of the lake When she surfaces, her reality is different. She's haunted by tormented mice, shape-shifting people, and secrets she thought she'd buried.This breathtaking new two-hander creates a contemporary Through The Looking Glass world. It premiered in February 2023.The Silence and the Noise Winner of Best Online Production at the Offies Awards 2024Ben and Daize are teenagers either side of a county line. Drug runner and daughter of an addict. As the adult world around them becomes deadly dangerous, do these natural enemies have it in them to save each other? The Silence andTrade ReviewA modest masterpiece. (on The Silence and the Noise) * The Stage *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisMoves away from offering a single methodology or approach to social justice teaching, providing practical models for academics to follow

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA Companion to Terence is a useful research tool for the growing number of scholars, students and critics of Terence and Roman comedy.Trade Review"In this Volume, the editors have aimed to offer 'a wide-ranging guide to studying Terence's plays within the historical and social-political context in which they were produced'. Their goal has been realized- but neither fully nor without problems; and, although there is a wealth of information contextualizing the playright and his work, the notion that his plays were primarily comic strips designed for live performances should have been represented more strongly in the volume." (The Journal of Roman Studies, May 2016)Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors viii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Antony Augoustakis and Ariana Traill PART I Terence and Ancient Comedy 15 1. Terence and Greek New Comedy 17 Peter Brown 2. Terence and the Traditions of Roman New Comedy 33 George Fredric Franko 3. Terence and Non-Comic Intertexts 52 Alison Sharrock 4. Fabula Stataria: Language and Humor in Terence 69 Heather Vincent 5. Meter and Music 89 Timothy J. Moore PART II Contexts and Themes 111 6. Terence and the Scipionic Grex 113 Daniel P. Hanchey 7. opera in bello, in otio, in negotio: Terence and Rome in the 160s bce 132 John H. Starks, Jr. 8. Religious Ritual and Family Dynamics in Terence 156 T.H.M. Gellar-Goad 9. Gender and Sexuality in Terence 175 Sharon L. James 10. Family and Household in the Comedies of Terence 195 Z.M. Packman 11. Masters and Slaves 211 Evangelos Karakasis PART III The Plays 223 12. Andria 225 Robert Germany 13. Heauton Timorumenos 243 Eckard Lef èvre 14. Eunuchus 262 David M. Christenson 15. Phormio 281 Stavros Frangoulidis 16. Hecyra 295 Ortwin Knorr 17. Adelphoe 318 Ariana Traill PART IV Reception 341 18. History of the Text and Scholia 343 Benjamin Victor 19. Terence in Latin Literature from the Second Century bce to the Second Century ce 363 Roman Müller 20. Terence in Late Antiquity 380 Andrew Cain 21. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim Christianizes Terence 397 Antony Augoustakis 22. ‘‘Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him’’: Terence in Early Modern England 410 Martine van Elk 23. mulier inopia et cognatorum neglegentia coacta: Thornton Wilder’s Tragic Take on The Woman of Andros 429 Mathias Hanses 24. Terence in Translation 446 John Barsby 25. Performing Terence (and Hrotsvit) Now 466 Mary-Kay Gamel References 482 General Index 515 Index Locorum 523

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Book SynopsisA Student Edition of McDonagh's dramatic engagement with Republican paramilitaries, first produced by the RSC in 2000.

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Book SynopsisOthello has long been, and remains, one of Shakespeare''s most popular works. It is a favourite work of scholars, students, and general readers alike. Perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare''s tragedies, this one seems to speak most clearly to contemporary readers and audiences, partly because it deals with such pressing modern issues as race, gender, multiculturalism, and the ways love, jealousy, and misunderstanding can affect relations between romantic partners. The play also features Iago, one of Shakespeare''s most mesmerizing and puzzling villains. This guide offers students and scholars an introduction to the play''s critical and performance history, including notable stage productions and film versions. It includes a keynote chapter outlining major areas of current research on the play and four new critical essays. Finally, a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further research.Table of ContentsSeries Introduction; Othello Timeline; Introduction; The Critical Backstory RICHARD HARP Performance History: CHRISTOPHER BAKER The State of the Art: IMTIAZ HABIB New Directions: 1.Othello as an Englishman: MATTHEW STEGGLE 2.Iago: Male Witch and Black Magician: ROBERT C. EVANS 3.Othello, the Turks, and Cyprus: RAPHAEL FALCO 4. Othello and His Brothers: LISA HOPKINS Resources for Teaching and Studying Othello: ALISON SCOTT Notes on the Contributors; Index

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Book SynopsisJoan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company was set up at the end of the war and started by touring in Wales, the industrial north and Scotland. In 1953 they moved into the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London E15 and remained there for the next eleven years during which time they built up an international reputation. Their best work included classical revivals like Volpone and Edward II and new plays like The Quare Fellow and The Hostage by Brendan Behan, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney and musical plays like Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be by Frank Norman and Lionel Bart.

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Book SynopsisBased on the true story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, her lover and accomplices in 1551, Arden of Faversham is one of the earliest domestic tragedies and a play which has continued to thrill audiences since its first staging. This comprehensive edition situates the play in its social, cultural and political context while exploring its performance and critical history through a range of historical and contemporary productions, including William Poel's Lilies That Fester (1897) and the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2014 production. Throughout, the edition aims to reanimate the play's engagement with the material culture of domestic life, using little-known evidence for the objects and spaces implicated in the murder. The introduction also accounts for recent new thinking about the play's likely authorship, including claims that Shakespeare was a key co-author. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction combined with detailed on-page commentary notes and glosses Trade Review[The editor] combine[s] personal enthusiasm ... with scholarly rigour, and the result is ... useful and enjoyable insights into early modern drama. * The Times Literary Supplement *Richardson’s is a valuable edition of Arden for students, teachers, and scholars, making important contributions to our understanding of the play and no doubt occupying a significant place in editorial history. * Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Introduction Arden of Faversham Appendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFollow this vividly recounted ghostly trail through spooky stories from the past and present by Ann Radcliffe, Washington Irving, Emily Bronte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James and Susan Hill.

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Book SynopsisProvides the first dedicated study on appropriations of King Lear in British playwriting of the post-war, developing valuable new perspectives on the legacy of Shakespeare in post-war drama and culture.

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Book SynopsisExamines dramatic acts of nostalgia as rhetorical moves designed to precipitate future action.

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Book SynopsisTracks the history of concepts and practices associated with the physical crossroads in the early modern period.Trade Review"Bill Angus offers a rich and fascinating exploration of the symbolic potential of the uncanny points at which roads simultaneously meet and diverge, showing that whether as places for selling one's soul, burying the outcast dead, or encountering the supernatural, crossroads in the early modern imagination were charged and dangerous.? " -Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University

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Book SynopsisIn The Ways of the Word, Garrett Stewart steps aside from theory to focus on the sheer pleasure of attentive reading and the excitement of recognizing the play of syllables and words upon which the best literary writing is founded. Emerging out of teaching creative writing and a broader effort to convene writers and critics, Stewart''s episodes in verbal attention track the means to meaning through the byways of literary wording.Through close engagement with literary passages and poetic instances whose imaginative demands are their own reward, Stewart gathers exhibits from dozens of authors: from Dickinson, Dickens, and DeLillo to Whitman, Woolf, and Colson Whitehead. In the process, idiom, tense, etymology, and other elements of expressive language and its phonetic wordplay are estranged and heard anew. The Ways of the Word fluidly and intuitively reveals a verbal alchemy that is as riveting as it is elusive and mysterious.Trade ReviewStewart is clearly having fun in this book, channeling techniques into his exposition with such parings as word's way and world's way, touchstone and touchtone, density and intensity, and epiphony and epiphany, to note just a few. Impressively erudite, this work will interest critics, creative writers, and literary-minded linguists. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisWhat does the keyword "continence" in Love's Labor's Lost reveal about geopolitical boundaries and their breaching? What can we learn from the contemporary identification of the "quince" with weddings that is crucial for A Midsummer Night's Dream? How does the evocation of Spanish-occupied "Brabant" in Othello resonate with contemporary geopolitical contexts, wordplay on "Low Countries," and fears of sexual/territorial "occupation"? How does "supposes" connote not only sexual submission in The Taming of the Shrew but also the transvestite practice of boys playing women, and what does it mean for the dramatic recognition scene in Cymbeline? With dazzling wit and erudition, Patricia Parker explores these and other critical keywords to reveal how they provide a lens for interpreting the language, contexts, and preoccupations of Shakespeare's plays. In doing so, she probes classical and historical sources, theatrical performance practices, geopolitical interrelations, hierarchies of race, gender, and class, and the multiple significances of "preposterousness," including reversals of high and low, male and female, Latinate and vulgar, "sinister" or backward writing, and latter ends both bodily and dramatic. Providing innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives on Shakespeare, from early to late and across dramatic genres, Parker's deeply evocative readings demonstrate how easy-to-overlook textual or semantic details reverberate within and beyond the Shakespearean text, and suggest that the boundary between language and context is an incontinent divide.Trade Review"By honing a feminist philological practice attuned to the intersections of language, class, gender, sexuality, and race, Parker illuminates how single words and their discursive networks firm up or challenge hierarchies of self and other in early modern English culture....Working across historical periods, geographies, discourses, and languages, Parker traces how single words range far afield to mate, drawing other terms into the orbit of the self-same in subtle, queer, and preposterous ways. As one has come to expect from Parker, delight is in the details....Shakespearean Intersections delivers on the promises of philologically attuned intersectional analysis, revealing the critical, historical, ontological, and epistemological insights that arise when we delve deeply and patiently into the world of words." * Shakespeare Quarterly *"The conclusion one draws from Shakespearean Intersections is that a lifetime of study in classical and early modern literature, multiple languages, philosophy, and world history might foster a critical perspective that invigorates our most familiar texts and makes them speak to the pressing issues of our time. This is the true promise of creative, inspiring literary criticism. It is a promise made good in Shakespearean Intersections." * Renaissance Quarterly *"Parker has always been one of the most trenchant and dazzling observers of word behaviour and her command of the almost incorrigible and mischievous elements of Shakespeare's language is an art in itself. The vibrant way in which she conjures contexts and allusions, recalls, suppositions, bends, behinds and breaches draws out the spectacular ways in which meanings are networked across the plays, but also the audiences and how the word becomes a powerful token or gift through which we can explore the rich complexities of belonging to Shakespeare's play worlds." * Shakespeare Survey *"Providing a rather prolific response to the age-old question, 'what's in a name?' this book's methodological approach to words (including nominal) as uniquely rewarding vehicles for exploring the language, contexts, and preoccupations of a period's literature and drama-together with oft-overlooked issues and historical intersections-testifies to the rich dividends paid by the meticulously close scholarly readings at which Parker is so adept." * Renaissance and Reformation *"Shakespearean Intersections offers a stunningly creative and illuminating method for reading Shakespeare's words as nodes in densely linked webs of religious, racial, political, and sexual meanings. No word is safe from Patricia Parker's eagle-eyed attention to the polyglot resonances, inferences, and figurations that unexpectedly connect Shakespeare's language to contemporary discourses as diverse as sodomy, military science, biblical teleology, and orthography. Shakespearean Intersections shows us how much we have overlooked in Shakespeare's language, and how much richer and more inventive our readings of even his most familiar texts might be." * Mario DiGangi, The Graduate Center, City University of New York *"Our editorial and critical endeavors have always (and perhaps necessarily) underestimated the activity of words-which is why we need Patricia Parker's extraordinary readings of Shakespeare." * Margreta de Grazia, University of Pennsylvania *"In Shakespearean Intersections, Patricia Parker identifies a wide range of especially resonant keywords and cultural contexts for early modern drama. Her readings of Shakespearean drama are a joy to encounter: immensely learned; acutely sensitive to rhetorical complexity; and deeply thoughtful about the politics of language." * Patricia Cahill, Emory University *

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Book SynopsisJulius Caesar presents a performance history of a controversial play, moving from its 1599 opening all the way into the new millennium with particular emphasis on its twentieth- and twenty-first-century incarnations on stage and screen. The book tracks the play’s evolution from being a play about the oratorical skill of noble Romans to its recent manifestations as a dark political thriller.Chapters in this theoretically savvy and global study consider productions such as Orson Welles’s groundbreaking examination of European Fascism, Joseph Mankeiwicz’s Oscar winning 1953 film, politically complex productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and shows from around the world which interrogate their own cultural and educational context as well as pressing contemporary concerns such as the reach of mass media.Table of ContentsIntroduction: political theatre1. “So are they all, all honourable men”: Julius Caesar before the Second World War2. The rise of European Fascism: Welles at the Mercury Theater3. (Un) American identities: Mankiewicz (1953)4. Wise saws and modern(ist) instances: Anderson, Barton and Nunn5. Glories past: the minor films6. The Romans in Britain. Caesar under Thatcher7. Accents yet unknown: Global Caesars8. ‘Growing on the South’: Georgia Shakespeare 2001 and 20099. A strange disposed time: Caesar at the MilleniumAppendix: major cast and company staff of select twentieth century productionsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis original and innovative book proposes ‘dismemory’ as a new form of intertextual engagement with Shakespeare by modern and contemporary Irish writers. Through reflection on these canonical writers and ranging across thirteen Shakespeare plays, Taylor-Collins demonstrates how Irish writers who helped to fashion and critique the Irish nation state carry an indelible, if often subdued, mark of Shakespeare’s early modern English influence.The volume overall renews and revitalises the Shakespeare–modern Ireland connection: Taylor-Collins reveals Hamlet’s hauntological legacy in Playboy of the Western World, Ulysses, and Ghosts; how the corporal economies that exert pressure from Coriolanus and Ben Jonson flicker through to the antiheroes in Beckett’s Three Novels; and how the landed legacies of territorial contests in Shakespeare are engaged with in Yeats’s poetry, and similarly how the diseased muddiness in Hamlet is addressed by Heaney.Trade Review'Breath-taking in an imaginative audacity tempered only by scholarly scruple, this study shows just how much of the modern Irish mind Shakespeare invented. Nick Taylor-Collins's text crackles with new ideas: it is a work of passion and truth. It shows just how deeply Irish writers illuminate the Bard who in turn lights up their texts. The author has the gift of explanation without simplification. Its writer combines a fine alertness to the nuances of language along with a deep understanding of the socio-cultural matrices out of which all literature springs. The result is a magnificent evocation of the ways in which writers take fire from one another ... and even reinvent their predecessors.'Declan Kiberd, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame University -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Remembering memoryPart I: Ghosts1 ‘Go on from this’: J. M. Synge’s Playboy2 ‘Remember me’: Hamlet, memory, and Leopold Bloom’s poiesis3 ‘Someone wholly other’: John Banville’s GhostsPart II: Bodies4 ‘[M]y genius for forgetting’: Samuel Beckett’s theatrical bodies5 ‘Kate had herself sterilized’: O’Brien’s self-disciplining bodiesPart III: Land6 ‘[R]ights of memory’: W. B. Yeats, surface, and counter-memory7 ‘[D]ithering, blathering’: Seamus Heaney, the diseased word-hoard, and the HistorianConclusion: ‘I disremember’ ReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisBoika Sokolova and Kirilka Stavreva’s second edition of the stage history of The Merchant of Venice interweaves into the chronology of James Bulman’s first edition richly contextualised chapters on Max Reinhardt, Peter Zadek, and the first production of the play in Mandatory Palestine, directed by Leopold Jessner. While the focus of the book is on post-1990s productions across Europe and the USA, and on film, the Segue provides a broad survey of the interpretative shifts in the play’s performance from the 1930s to the second decade of the twenty-first century. Individual chapters explore productions by Peter Zadek, Trevor Nunn, Robert Sturua, Edward Hall, Rupert Goold, Daniel Sullivan, and Karin Coonrod. An extensive film section including silent film offers close analysis of Don Selwyn’s Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti and Michael Radford’s adaptation. Accessible and engaging, the book will interest students, academics, and general readers.Table of ContentsPART II An Elizabethan Merchant: performance and contextII Henry Irving and the great traditionIII Wayward genius in the high temple of bardolotry: Theodore KomisarjevskyIV Aesthetes in a rugger club: Jonathan Miller and Laurence OlivierV The BBC Merchant: diminishing returnsVI Cultural stereotyping and audience response: Bill Alexander and Antony SherVII Shylock and the pressures of historyPART IISegue The Merchant of Venice: pressures of war, ideology, and the crises of late capitalismI Magical spectacles and nightmarish times: Max Reinhardt’s productions of The Merchant of VeniceII Peter Zadek’s challenges to the post-war German legacy of The Merchant of VeniceIII A post-Holocaust balancing act: The Merchant of Venice directed by Trevor Nunn at the National Theatre, London (1999)IV Desperate outsiders in a money-drunk world: The Merchant of Venice directed by Daniel Sullivan (2010) and Rupert Goold (2011)V Crises of the new millennium: The Merchant of Venice directed by Robert Sturua (2000) and Edward Hall (2009)VI The Merchant of Venice on filmVII The search for justice: The Merchant of Venice in Mandatory Palestine (1936) and the Venetian Ghetto (2016)Appendix A Some significant twentieth- and twenty-first century productions of The Merchant of Venice Appendix B Major actors and creative staff for productions discussedBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWith its fantasy of magical travel and inexhaustible riches, Thomas Dekker’s Old Fortunatus is the quintessential early modern journeying play. The adventures of Fortunatus and his sons, aided by a magical purse and wishing-hat, offers the period’s most overt celebration of the pleasures of travel, as well as a sustained critique of the dangers of intemperance and prodigality. Written following a period of financial difficulty for Dekker, the play is also notable for its fascination with the symbolic, mercantile and ethical uses of gold.This Revels Plays edition is the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of Old Fortunatus. It offers scholarly discussion of the play’s performance and textual history, including attention to the German version printed and performed in the early seventeenth century. It provides a long overdue critical reappraisal of this unjustly neglected play.Trade Review'McInnis has produced an admirable, rigorous, and reliable scholarly edition. He has given criticism a chance to match this editorial achievement with insights of comparable height and nuance.'Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme'This new edition of Old Fortunatus is a valuable intervention. It brings the play into focus for advanced teaching and research. It suggests some of the ways Dekker’s dramaturgy embodies the possessive imagination that structures English travel writing and proto-colonial fantasy in the period.'Early Theatre'If Old Fortunatus has another moment, it might be now, when technologies of trade and travel elate and overwhelm us, and the world seems to flicker between far off and at hand. Like other Revels editions, this one offers an authoritatively edited, modernized, and annotated text, a comprehensive textual and historical introduction, and a short performance history. McInnis’s introduction and notes are exceptional even by the high standards of the Revels series, adroitly recounting the wanderings of the Fortunatus story and the complicated history of Dekker’s playtext. McInnis’s particular expertise on travel narratives and lost plays shows to advantage, as he also sets Dekker’s play into the performance context of other contemporary plays. McInnis’s Old Fortunatus is an example of how a good edition does more than simply make a play newly available; it serves as waystation to a way of grasping a new world.'SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 -- .Table of ContentsList of illustrationsAbbreviationsIntroduction Authorship and the lost play(s) The text The German play Sources Performance history Critical reception Act and scene divisions Press-variantsOld FortunatusIndex

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Book SynopsisThis volume includes the text of Twelfth Night as prepared and annotated by David Swain for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, and is accompanied by the excellent introduction and supplementary materials from the anthology. The diverse and extensive appendices acquaint readers with Shakespeare’s sources and contextualize the play within Elizabethan society. The appendices include an excerpt from Barnabe Riche’s “Of Apollonius and Silla,” Shakespeare’s primary source of inspiration for the play; selections from Galen, Plato, and others illustrating Elizabethan attitudes toward gender and sexuality; excerptions illuminating contemporary moral discomfort with the theatre, such as Philip Stubbes’s “Of Stage-plays and Interludes, with their wickedness”; and pieces on music and duelling that illustrate cultural conventions important to the interpretation of Twelfth Night.This is one of several Broadview Anthology of British Literature Editions being released this year; those wishing to teach the text will have the option of including the convenient stand-alone book as part of a specially-priced shrink-wrapped package together with a volume of the anthology.Trade Review“Broadview’s recent Anthology of British Literature is an exciting achievement. Broadview has accomplished what no other anthology to date has been able to do.... Its introductory essays and useful appendices successfully reflect current scholarship while remaining student-centered.... With an impressive selection of literary works, an equally impressive collection of visual images, and an exemplary emphasis on print culture and history of the language, The Broadview Anthology not only rivals the Norton and the Longman, it sets a new standard by which all other anthologies of British literature will now have to be measured.” — Graham Hammill, University of Notre Dame on The Broadview Anthology of British Literature“The simple fact is that a major work of student-centered scholarship has arrived in the field of English studies, and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is no mere pretender to the throne long held by the Norton: it is the new standard.” — Richard Nordquist, Armstrong Atlantic State University on The Broadview Anthology of British LiteratureTable of ContentsAcknowledgments IntroductionWilliam Shakespeare 1564–1616 Twelfth Night, or What You Will Twelfth Night, or What You Will In Context The Shakespearean Theater The Swan TheatreTitus Andronicus in PerformanceThe Plot of an Elizabethan PlayEarly Editions of Shakespeare’s Plays Twelfth Night Performance and Sources from John Manningham, Diary (2 February 1602)from Barnabe Riche, “Apollonius and Silla” Gender and Sexuality from Plato, The Symposium from Galen, De Usu Partium (On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body)from Helkiah Crooke, Microcosmographia (London, 1615) from William Shakespeare, Sonnets: Sonnet 20 from Michel de Montaigne, “Of Friendship” Theater and Society from Philip Stubbes, “Of Stage-Plays and Interludes, with Their Wickedness” from William Rankins, A Mirror of Monsters (London, 1587) from William Gager, Letter to Dr. John Rainolds (written 1592)from King James I, The King’s Majesty’s Declaration to His Subjects Concerning Lawful Sports to Be Used (London, 1618, 1633) Music and the Passions from Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Mind in General (London, 1601) from Sir Thomas Wyatt, “Ah Robin,” manuscript (c. 1510–20) from William Shakespeare, King Lear 3.2.73–77 Dueling from Vincentio Saviolo, Vincentio Saviolo His Practice. The First Book (London, 1595)from Vincentio Saviolo, Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels. The Second Book (London, 1595)

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Book SynopsisAt the center of this remarkable 1621 play is the story of Elizabeth Sawyer, the titular "Witch of Edmonton," a woman who had in fact been executed for the crime of witchcraft mere months before the play's first performance. Yet hers is only one of several plots that animate The Witch of Edmonton. Blending sensational drama with domestic tragedy and comic farce, this complex and multi-layered play by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley emphasizes the mundane realities and interpersonal conflicts that are so often at the heart of sensational occurrences. This edition of their work offers a compelling and informative introduction, thorough annotation, and a selection of contextual materials that helps set the play in the context of the "witch-craze" of Jacobean England.Table of Contents Introduction William Rowley, John Ford, and Thomas Dekker The Witch of Edmonton The Witch of Edmonton In Context from James I (James VI of Scotland), Demonology, In Form of a Dialogue, Divided into Three Books (1597) from William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft; so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience (1608) from John Cotta, The Trial of Witchcraft, Showing the True and Right Method of the Discovery: With a Confutation of Erroneous Ways (1616) Henry Goodcole, The Wonderful Discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch, late of Edmonton, her conviction and condemnation and death. Together with the relation of the Devil's access to her, and their conference together (1621)

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Book SynopsisAs Americans began defining who was to be counted a citizen in their newly-established republic, Susanna Rowson’s comic opera Slaves in Algiers (1794) makes an earnest case that women be accorded the rights guaranteed to men, playfully turning sexual hierarchies on their head: “Women were born for universal sway; / Men to adore, be silent, and obey.” A fast-paced plot, engaging characterization, and rollicking songs ensured that Slaves in Algiers garnered success when it was first performed at the New Theater in Philadelphia. But Rowson’s play also engages in perpetuating racial stereotypes: set in Algiers at a time when Barbary pirates were seizing more and more U.S. ships in the Mediterranean Sea, Slaves in Algiers is written for a largely white audience driven by outrage at the enslavement of white people in the Barbary states. The play is critical of many aspects of North African cultures, particularly the practices of piracy and enslavement, while not acknowledging the moral and ethical taint of America’s own enslavement of African Americans. In recent years, critics have given increased attention to Slaves in Algiers, particularly to its interwoven feminist, nationalist, and imperialist themes, as well as to its treatment of Muslim and Jewish characters.This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature; like the others, it is designed to make a range of material from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts.Trade ReviewCOMMENTS ON The Broadview Anthology of American Literature“The expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature.” — Hester Blum, Penn State University“The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike.” — Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University“So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come.” — Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College “The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display.” — Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University “Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways.” — Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison“a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be.” — Michael C. Cohen, UCLA Table of ContentsIntroduction Susanna Haswell Rowson Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom: A Play, Interspersed with Songs, in Three Acts Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom: A Play, Interspersed with Songs, in Three Acts

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Book SynopsisInaugurated in the 1860s, and the standard reference edition of Shakespeare's work, each volume of the New Variorum Shakespeare presents complete textual and critical histories of each line of the play, along with extensive essays on criticism, sources, stage history, and more.The New Variorum Editions are valuable resources for an international audience of scholars, students, directors, actors, and general readers. Overseen by three general editors and an MLA committee, the production of each edition is conducted by a team of scholars and researchers working over a number of years.This edition contains a text of the play, textual variants from all subsequent editions of the play, and commentary notes. Includes discussion of important early editions, date of composition, sources, language and style, structure, influences, analogues, criticism, themes, characters, stage productions, film adaptations, operatic adaptations, and music for the play.Trade ReviewThis volume is not only beautifully readable but an irresistible page-turner." - Laurie Maguire, TLS, April 2022

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