Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisThis major new edition of Shakespeare's greatest tragedy of love argues that that play is ultimately Juliet's. The play text is expertly edited and the on-page commentary notes discuss issues of staging, theme, meaning and Shakespeare's use of his sources to give the reader deep and engaging insights into the play. The richly illustrated introduction looks at the play's exceptionally beautiful and complex language and focuses on the figure of Juliet as being at its centre. René Weis discusses the play's critical, stage and film history, including West Side Story and Baz Luhrmann's seminal film Romeo + Juliet. This is an authoritative edition from a leading scholar, giving the reader a penetrating and wide-ranging insight into this ever popular play.Trade ReviewRomeo and Juliet continues to be a perennial favourite in the English classroom. As well as offering students a clear and spacious text to read and annotate, the latest Arden edition provides a wealth of critical and contextual material - so crucial to today's study of Shakespeare. Ideal for teachers looking to refresh and update their reading of the text, René Weis's introduction combines close attention to dramatic language with a comprehensive overview of the history of the play in performance. However familiar a reader might be with Romeo and Juliet, this new edition will bring a range of fresh perspectives, dispelling some oft-repeated myths along the way. * Dr Jenny Stevens, Teacher and Lecturer in English *... this new Arden is a thoroughly usable edition... Both introduction and commentary are sensitive, sharp-eyed and clear. Weis's account of the play's performance history brings out the excitement of modern productions by Michael Bogdanov and Tim Carroll, and the innovations of Baz Luhrmann's film... this Romeo and Juliet will serve well. -- Duncan Salkeld * Times Literary Supplement *If you are looking for something for your A-level students, particularly to start off study for Edexcel's unit four for A level, this is the perfect edition. The notes are detailed and scholarly, and there are many essays and appendices which students would find useful, including a look at playing the love scenes through the ages and some reflection on the various adaptations and original setting for Romeo and Juliet over the centuries. * Teaching Drama *Rene Weis’s Romeo and Juliet lives up to the high standards of the Arden Shakespeare, with an extensive introduction, expansive editorial glosses, and even a facsimile reproduction of Q1 in an appendix. -- Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr., Rice University * Studies in English Literature, Vol. 53, No. 2 *Prof. Weis' edition of Romeo and Juliet implements a number of important updates from the second Arden edition of the test. With a comprehensive introduction, and in-depth textual notations, it has easily become the definitive edition of the play. * Jarrod DePrado, Sacred Heart University, USA *

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Book SynopsisThe Taming of the Shrew is unique among Shakespeare's plays and is a perennial and compelling success in the theatre. Its reception is marked, however, by ongoing polarized debate over the meaning and worth of the play. This edition disengages Shakespeare's exuberant and disturbing marital farce from the tangled history of its reception. It views the two sixteenth-century Shrew plays as textually independent but theatrically interdependent and so includes the full text of The Taming of A Shrew in an appendix. While the Introduction and Commentary focus on the critical and theatrical debate surrounding the play, the original and comprehensive editing of the playtext makes available a 'different' Shrew, more open to the reader's interpretation than is usually the case. Barbara Hodgdon is a distinguished feminist scholar whose reading of the play offers a stimulating array of ideas and questions about this enduringly popular yet challenging comedy.Trade Review'a spry, supple introduction to the play...Hodgson's performance history is particularly impressive: closely aligned to the breadth of critical readings, but suggesting the comedy's challenges and even, its charms.' * Plays International (February 2011) *'Barbara Hodgdon is a distinguished feminist scholar whose reading of the play offers a stimulating array of ideas and questions about this enduringly popular yet challenging comedy.' * Sardines Magazine (Autumn 2010) *

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Book SynopsisTwo Gentlemen of Verona is commonly agreed to be Shakespeare's first comedy, and probably his first play. A comedy built around the confusions of doubling, cross - dressing and identity, it is also a play about the ideal of male friendship and what happens to those friendships when men fall in love.William Carroll's engaging Introduction focuses on the traditions and sources that stand behind the play and explores Shakespeare's unique and bold treatment of them. Special attention is given to the strong female figure of Julia and the controversial final scene.

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Book SynopsisTimon of Athens has struck many readers as rough and unpolished, perhaps even unfinished, though to others it has appeared as Shakespeare's most profound tragic allegory. Described by Coleridge as 'the stillborn twin of King Lear', the play has nevertheless proved brilliantly effective in performance over the past thirty or forty years.This edition accepts and contributes to the growing scholarly consensus that the play is not Shakespeare's solo work, but is the result of his collaboration with Thomas Middleton, who wrote about a third of it. The editors offer an account of the process of collaboration and discuss the different ways that each author contributes to the play's relentless look at the corruption and greed of society. They provide, as well, detailed annotation of the text and explore the wide range of critical and theatrical interpretations that the play has engendered. Tracing both its satirical and tragic strains, their introduction presents a perspective on the play's meanings that combines careful elucidation of historical context with analysis of its relevance to modern-day society. An extensive and well-illustrated account of the play's production history generates a rich sense of how the play can speak to different historical moments in specific and rewarding ways.Trade Review'...a critical introduction that...could scarcely be better...an admirable edition of Shakespeare and Middleton's challenging collaberative play.' Shakespeare Quarterly (2009)

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Book SynopsisCritically acclaimed as one of Shakespeare's most complex and intriguing plays, Twelfth Night is a classic romantic comedy of mistaken identities. In recent years it has returned to the centre of critical debate surrounding gender and sexuality. The Introduction explores the multiple factors that make up the play's rich textual, theatrical, critical and cultural history. Keir Elam surveys the play's production and reception, emphasizing the role of the spectator both within the comedy and the playhouse.Trade Review'Brings together into one volume a wealth of textual, bibliographical, and critical scholarship...emplifies scholarly achievement...' Shakespeare Quarterly (2009)

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Book SynopsisDistinguished editor T.W. Craik makes an independent and balanced examination of the many textual problems of Henry V, providing many new emendations. "Craik's commentary is particularly ample and detailed, with careful attention to the play's language, textual problems, the interpretation of stage directions, and Shakespeare's handling of source materials...he builds up a distinct though traditionalist reading which, critically sympathetic and undogmatic, finds the play at once simple and subtle." John Jowett, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare Survey, 1997 'With the exceptionally thorough Arden notes, and the extensive editorial coverage, including recent stage history, this Henry V is the one to have.'Times Higher Education Supplement'Craik's commentary is exemplary in its thorough treatment of critical concerns, glossaries and explanations, theatrical matters, and source material.'Barry Gaines, University of New Mexico, Shakespeare Quarterly

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Book SynopsisThe Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare's only thoroughly English comedy, created an archetypal literary figure in the shape of the devious, irrepressible John Falstaff. This stimulating new edition celebrates the play as a joyous exploration of language, but also places elements of its plot firmly in a continental, specifically Italian, tradition of romantic comedy. It draws out the complexities of Merry Wives as a multi-plot play, and takes a fresh and challenging look at both textual and dating issues; a facsimile of the first Quarto is included as an appendix. The play's extensive performance history, both dramatic and operatic, is fully explored and discussed.'This is a significant and substantive edition, in that nothing has been taken for granted, everything has been opened to reconsideration. The commentary is exceptionally detailed and attentive to questions of language and meaning.'John Jowett, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Shakespeare QuarterlyTrade Review'This is a significant and substantive editoin, in that nothing has been taken for granted, everything has been opened to reconsideration. The commentary is exceptionally detailed and attentive to questions of language and meaning.' * Shakespeare Quarterly *'Shakespeare genially celebrates his own middle class English provincial background and seeks to do nothing more than entertain- which he does, splendidly.' * Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 21.08.10 *

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Book SynopsisIn All’s Well That Ends Well, Helen, a lowly ward, risks her life to satisfy her boundless love for Bertram, a count and ward to the King of France. Following him to Paris, she concocts an endangering plan to win the King of France’s favour and induce Bertram’s hand in marriage. In the comprehensive introduction to this new, fully-illustrated Arden edition, Suzanne Gossett takes a transformative look at the play’s critical and performance history by offering fresh perspectives on the conundrum of genre, sexuality and moral dilemmas with masculinity and the structures of family. The authoritative play text is amply annotated to clarify its language and allusions, and two appendices debate the play’s authorship and review its casting. Offering students and scholars alike a wealth of insight and new research, this edition maintains the rigorous standards of the Arden Shakespeare.Trade ReviewThe best edition available with a particularly thoughtful and undogmatic introduction. * Paul Hartle, University of Cambridge, UK *Table of ContentsList of illustrations General editors’ preface Preface Introduction ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL Appendix 1: Casting All's Well That Ends Well Appendix 2: The Authorship Debate Abbreviations and references Index

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Book SynopsisWith its explorations of sexual ambivalence, As You Like It speaks directly to the twenty-first century. Juliet Dusinberredemonstrates that Rosalind's authority in the play grows from new ideas about women and reveals that Shakespeare's heroine reinvents herself for every age. But the play is also deeply rooted in Elizabethan culture and through it Shakespeare addresses some of the hotly debated issues of the period."This will be the definitive edition of As You Like It for many years to come" - Phyllis Rackin, University of PennsylvaniaTrade Review'An Arden editor must present an overview of the play's criticism [and] must also take into account the play's ongoing dissemination through performance on stage and screen. Despite these arduous demands, Dusinberre's edition, with its editorial apparatus, its substantial introduction (142 pages), its notes, and its various appendices, fulfills the above requirements admirably...Dusinberre addresses a theatre history that bears witness to the impact that various social movements, especially feminism and gay/lesbian (and now queer) activism, have had on the performance of one of Shakespeare's most gender-bending plays...It inscribes the feminist, queer, and historicist criticism of the past thirty years into the historical memory of Shakespeare studies.' * Shakespeare Quarterly *'If As you Like It is rich in human feeing, a highly conceptualised Tempest seems to exist in the threshold between walking and dreaming.' * Claire Allfree, Metro, 25.6.10 *'This is one of Shakespeare's most sophisticated comedies, an ironic fairy tale of love and sex, sincerity and pretension, betrayal and loyalty.' * John Peter, Sunday Times, 3.10.10 *

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Book SynopsisDavid Scott Kastan lucidly explores the remarkable richness and the ambitious design of King Henry IV Part 1 and shows how these complicate any easy sense of what kind of play it is. Conventionally regarded as a history play, much of it is in fact conspicuously invented fiction, and Kastan argues that the non-historical, comic plot does not simply parody the historical action but by its existence raises questions about the very nature of history. The full and engaging introduction devotes extensive discussion to the play's language, indicating how its insistent economic vocabulary provides texture for the social concerns of the play and focuses attention on the central relationship between value and political authority.Trade Review'It is the superbly generous girth of Shakespeare's Henry IV plays that makes them so remarkable' * Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 15.07.10 *'Shakespeare's story of a troubled usurper, a rebel age, a dissolute prince and his Falstaff.' * Libby Purves, The Times, 16.07.10 *'This is Shakespeare's masterpeice where diseaeses are turned to commodity, the hostess is eaten out of house and home, citizens are urged to construe the time to their neccessities, and white hairs ill become a fool and jester.' * Michael Coveney, Independent, 16.07.10 *

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Book SynopsisThe Island Princess is a tragicomic romance set in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Fletcher rewrites Shakespeare's The Tempest through the encounter of Islam and Christianity and the fierce European competition for wealth at the farthest reaches of empire. The play also stages the degeneration of religious tolerance into fanaticism. This ground-breaking edition explores the play in its gendered, political, social and religious contexts whilst also finding its resonances for a twenty-first century audience. The critical introduction and on-page commentary notes create an ideal teaching text giving a comprehensive account of the play from both literary and performance perspectives.Trade ReviewClare McManus has produced a fine edition of this important play, which has emerged from neglect in recent years. The text has been authoritatively established; the notes are always helpful; and the introduction, in line with this series, is serious, useful and a pleasure to read. -- Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex * Around the Globe *Clare McManus's edition is to a large extent organised around what she sees as the play's 'striking topicality in the post-9/11 moment' ... [and] McManus works hard to ground the play's native characters in Islamic culture. * London Review of Books *I gladly recommend McManus’ edition of his work […] I am pleased to see a new, scholarly, well-annotated edition of this old work. -- Kenneth Tucker, Murray State University * The Shakespeare Newsletter *Table of ContentsIntroduction - The Island Princess - Appendices - Further Reading - Index

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Book SynopsisThe Renegado is one of the most shamelessly entertaining plays of its age, fetching its inspiration from a number of works by Cervantes, based on his own experiences as a captive in Algiers. Introducing the eroticized captivity narrative to the English stage, Massinger's tragicomedy combines it with the long-popular romance motif of a Christian hero's conquest of an exotic princess. But even as it indulges in romantic fantasy, The Renegado engages with contentious issues of national and international politics, offering a provocative response to the sectarian feuds dividing England in the 1620s, while exploiting wider European fears of the expansionist Muslim empire of the Ottomans. Through its treatment of religious confrontation and conversion, Massinger's play offers important insights into early modern constructions of the Islamic world, and emerges as a piece with unexpected resonances for our own time.Trade Review‘Fascinating reading' * Times Literary Supplement, June 2010, on the Arden Early Modern Drama series *

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Book SynopsisThe Jew of Malta, written around 1590, can present a challenge for modern audiences. Hugely popular in its day, the play swings wildly and rapidly in genre, from pointed satire, to bloody revenge tragedy, to melodramatic intrigue, to dark farce and grotesque comedy. Although set in the Mediterranean island of Malta, the play evokes contemporary Elizabethan social tensions, especially the highly charged issue of London's much-resented community of resident merchant foreigners. Barabas, the enormously wealthy Jew of the play's title, appears initially victimized by Malta's Christian Governor, who quotes scripture to support the demand that Jews cede their wealth to pay Malta's tribute to the Turks. When he protests, Barabas is deprived of his wealth, his means of livelihood, and his house, which is converted to a nunnery. In response to this hypocritical extortion, Barabas launches a horrific (and sometimes hilarious) course of violence that goes well beyond revenge, using murderous tactics that include everything from deadly soup to poisoned flowers. The play's sometimes complex treatment of anti-Semitism and its relationship to Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice remain matters of continuing scholarly reflection. This new edition is expertly edited with an accompanying introduction that addresses issues of performance, cultural and historical context, interpretation and the key themes explored by the play. Arden Early Modern Drama editions offer the best in contemporary scholarship, providing a wealth of helpful and incisive commentary and guiding the reader to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the play. This edition provides: A clear and authoritative text Detailed on-page commentary notes A comprehensive, illustrated introduction to the play’s historical, cultural and performance contexts A bibliography of references and further readingTrade ReviewA farce of terribly serious, even savage comic humour. * T.S Eliot *Table of ContentsIntroduction List of Illustrations The Jew of Malta Appendices Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisCelebrating the Beckett Centenary. Awarded third prize by The Art Newspaper/Axa Art Prize for best catalogue of the year published in the UK - "admiired for the quantity of new material it presented about Beckett himself and the worlds of literature and visual arts". The National Gallery was one of Samuel Beckett's favourite haunts. He whiled away many hours there among the Old Masters. He was particularly drawn to works by Perugino, Poussin, Rembrandt and Rubens. Encouraged by his friend Thomas Macgreevy, who later became Director of the Gallery (1950-63), Beckett developed a life-long passion for art. Published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Samuel Beckett: a passion for Paintings', this catalogue traces Beckett's interest in art from its origins in the National Gallery, through his admiration for the work of Jack B. Yeats, to his art criticism and associations with contemporary artists including Bram van Velde, Alberton Giacometti and Avigdor Arikha. The catalogue contains four essays examining aspects of Beckett's interest in the visual arts, plus an introduction to the exhibition and the proceedings of 'Samuel Beckett and the Visual Arts: A Round Table Discussion' held in the National Gallery of Ireland on April 9th 2006. 265 x 225 mm, paperback 128 pages, 50 colour illustrations

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the development of pastoral drama as it evolved over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Italy. It considers how writers of pastoral drama responded to social, cultural and intellectual pressures and innovations, regarding critical attitudes towards theatre and the arts.Trade ReviewHandsomely produced (a tribute to its publishers and copy-editor), meticulously researched, agreeably written,with copious notes, a generous bibliography, and English translationsof all the original quotations, it is packed full with fascinating and thought-provoking information. -- Modern Language Review Modern Language Review Vanno complimentati, infine, anche gli editori di Legenda (la fruttuosa collaborazione tra Maney Publishing e la Modern Humanities Research Association) che hanno curato questa pubblicazione impeccabile, e che hanno dato ampio spazio - scelta felice - ai citati originali in italiano (provveduti sempre di una traduzione inglese della stessa studiosa). In aggiunta alle note concise poste alla fine di ogni capitolo, la bibliografia e l'indice generale che concludono il libro costituiranno un utile strumento di consultazione ai molti studenti e ricercatori che troveranno una ricchissima fonte d'informazioni preziose (dalla descrizione meticolosa delle innumerevoli opere individuali, al contesto sociale, culturale e politico sempre ottimamente documentato) in questa monografia, la quale combina una chiarezza di argomentazione con un'analisi sfaccettata di un fenomeno significativo - se non proprio determinante - nel campo culturale della prima epoca moderna. -- Italian Studies Italian StudiesTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. The Earliest Examples of Pastoral Drama: The Self-Conscious Evolution of a New Genre 3. Tasso's Aminta: Raising the Profile of the Pastoral Play 4. Imitations and Innovations after Tasso's Aminta: Accommodating a Female Voice 5. Guarini's Pastor fido: The Establishment of an Ethical and Political Model of Pastoral Drama 6. Performing Pastoral Drama 7. Pastoral Drama in the Seventeenth Century and Beyond

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Book SynopsisEight leading contemporary interpreters of Classical Greek tragedy here explore its relation - convergence and divergence - with ideas of the Archaic Period. Prominent are the nature and possibility of divine justice, the influence of the gods on humans, fate and human responsibility, the instability of fortune, the principle of alternation, hybris and ate , the inheritance of guilt and suffering. Other themes are tragedy's relation with Presocratic philosophy, and the interplay between 'Archaic' features of the genre and fifth-century ethical and political thought. Here is a powerful case for the importance of Archaic thought not only in the evolution of the tragic genre but also for developed features of the Classical tragedians' art. Along with three papers on Aeschylus, four on Sophocles, and one on Euripides, there is an extensive introduction by the editor.Trade Review"...of these papers are useful and interesting...[...]The volume is attractive and cleanly produced..." -- Jennifer Starkey, University of Colorado Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.08.37

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Book SynopsisThere are many books about William Shakespeare but few written for the visitor which deal so thoroughly with his life, works and associated sites. Keith Cheetham, historian, dramatist and lifelong fan of the Bard, sets off in search of the places that shaped Shakespeare's life. From cottage to mighty castle, royal palace to battlefield, country village to vibrant metropolis, Keith investigates the locations that informed some of the greatest plays and poetry the world has ever known.Trade ReviewThere are many books about William Shakespeare, but none that follows so closely his journey. - METHODIST RECORDERTable of ContentsContents Map Index Map A - Central London Map B - Southern England Map C - Stratford-upon-Avon Map D - Warwickshire and environs Map E - Wales, Northern and Central England Map F - Scotland and Border Country Introduction part one the life of william shakespeare Chronology of Shakespeare's Times chapter 1 Shakespeare's Ancestral Influences chapter 2 A Stratford Boyhood chapter 3 Religious Unrest chapter 4 The 'Lost' Years chapter 5 Family Responsibilities chapter 6 London and the Theatre chapter 7 The Globe Theatre chapter 8 The King's Men chapter 9 The Final Years part two the works of william shakespeare Chronology of Shakespeare's Works chapter 10 Shakespeare the Traveller chapter 11 Shakespearean Renaissance and Legacy chapter 12 Play Locations and Other Sites Useful Addresses Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAnd now I will unclaspe a Secret booke, And to your quicke conceyving Discontents, Ille reade you Matter, deepe and dangerous As full of peril and adventurous Spirit...- William Shakespeare, "King Henry IV", Part I. Whilst Shakespeare's genius is universally recognized, there is a hidden, secretive side to his work that is little known: the fact that he made use of a mysterious code that figures widely in the esoteric literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The Bard of Avon was a master of such encoding, and his methods were continued, in the Folio of 1623 and in his various memorials, by those who had known him. However, Shakespeare was not the inventor of this code. Among the many arcane authors who made use of it before him was Michel Nostradamus, the famous French prophet and savant. As David Ovason reveals, many leading esoteric writers - alchemists, occultists and Rosicrucians - contributed to this 'Secret booke'. Among the more outstanding English literary figures who used the code were the mysterious adviser to Elizabeth I, John Dee, the turbulent author of "The Alchemist, Ben Jonson", and the more classically-minded Edmund Spenser, whose poem "The Faerie Queene" is the best-known esoteric work of the period. "Shakespeare's Secret Booke" reveals many other literary figures who together form a remarkable underground literary movement, including the most influential esotericist of the period, Jacob Boehme, and alchemists such as the English polymath Robert Fludd. Another was Shakespeare's contemporary, the youthful Johann Valentin Andreae, credited as author of "The Chymical Wedding" - a Rosicrucian work replete with sophisticated examples of encoding. The fact that all these writers used the same or similar encoding points to a secret teaching designed to be recognized by initiates. Ovason explores and, for the first time, reveals what Shakespeare alluded to as 'a Secret booke'.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One The Secret Number Hamlet and ghosts - The Sonnets - The Tempest - Authors of the Secret booke - George Sandys - Four encoded portraits - Abraham Cowley - Love's Labour's Lost - William Blake - Robert Fludd - The two cupids Chapter Two Shakespeare's Curse Stone Shakespeare's tomb - Washington Irving - Ben Jonson - Francis Bacon - The curse-stone code - Samuel Ireland - The code unravelled Chapter Three Some Rosicrucian WorkS Ethan Allen Hitchcock - Shakespeare's tomb code - Liber M Mysterium Magnum - D.L.S. - Magica - Khunrath's Amphitheatrum - The Mystic Rose - The Phoenix, or Hermes Bird - Flaming Rose - Robert Fludd - Tabula Smaragdina - Atalanta fugiens Chapter Four The Sacred Monas of John Dee John Dee - Monas Hieroglyphica - John Milton - The Alchemist of Jonson - Alpha, Omega and Crux - Daniel Mylius - Saint Luke and Saint Matthew - Two Children - Michelangelo Chapter Five The Rosicrucian Code The Rosicrucian Temple of Schweighardt - Johann Valentin Andreae - Ezechiel Foxcroft - The Chymical Wedding - Pearls before swine - The Fifth Day - Naked Venus - The encoded script above the Venus - The Tree and the Fruit - The code within a code - Atman, Buddhi and Manas - Fludd's diagram of the secret Ternary - The Paracelsian Three Principles - Salt - Sulphur - Mercury - A Rosicrucian diagram of the secret Ternary Chapter Six Nostradamus his Codes Nostradamus - Propheties - First two quatrains - Iamblichus - Language of the Birds - Michael Maier - Jocus Severus - Quatrain 3:3 - The Battle of Lepanto - Pierre l'Estoile - Urbanus VIII - Bees - A 33-encoded quatrain Chapter Seven The Ego in Strife: Law & Boehme Portrait of Jacob Boehme - William Law - The Clavis - An Illustration of the Deep - Thomas Heywood - Michelangelo's Creation of Adam - Charles Bovelles - Das Auge and the A - Reincarnation diagram - Der Weeg zu Christo - Vesica Piscis Conclusion Picture section

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Book SynopsisThis biography provides the historical background to all the Shakespeare plays and sets his life in the context of his times.Trade Review'This brief account works wonders at elucidating Shakespeare's astounding oeuvre. The 'dire combustion and confused events' in Macbeth are a clear reference to the gunpowder plot, uncovered while it was written.' The Independent

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Book SynopsisSue Glover (1943 - ) began writing plays in the 1970s, making her stage debut at the Little Lyceum in 1980 with The Seal Wife, her first full-length play, in which many of the recurring features and concerns of her work are to be found: the influence of oral culture and folklore, and the re-examination of history, legend and myth from a female perspective. John Hodgart''s Scotnote examines two of Sue Glover''s plays, Bondagers and The Straw Chair. Both plays can be seen in the context of a very strong tradition of modern Scottish feminist drama which includes the work of Ena Lamont Stewart, Joan Ure, Liz Lochhead, Rona Munro and others. Bondagers is a powerful and moving drama about a band of brave, vulnerable women struggling to survive hardship, exploitation and injustice. The Straw Chair is set on St Kilda, and tells the story of Lady Grange''s exile on that distant island. In both plays, Glover gives voices to exploited or alienated women whose identity has been determined by their domestic or working role or their social status in a hypocritical patriarchal society. Issues of set and staging are explored as well as the themes of the plays.This guide is suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

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Book SynopsisEna Lamont Stewart (1912-2006) had a keen sense of the appalling poverty and deprivation suffered by the residents of Glasgow''s slum tenements in the first half of the twentieth century. A member of the radical group of young writers and artists gathered around Glasgow''s Unity Theatre in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, she is today most noted for her play Men Should Weep, set in the East End of Glasgow in the 1930s. John Hodgart''s Scotnote explores how the play deals with issues of poverty and sexual and social inequality. This study guide examines the roles of the individual characters and outlines the major themes in an approachable and accessible way, and also explores issues of set, dramatic technique and staging. This guide is suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

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Book SynopsisCompared to Gaelic poetry, the history of Gaelic theatre has not been a particularly long one, with the first examples appearing in the eighteenth century. However, drama in Gaelic began to thrive in the twentieth century, and modern Gaelic drama has the power to break down barriers and to touch people across linguistic and cultural divides.This collection is a celebration of this often-overlooked genre, bringing together eight Gaelic plays from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. Accessible to non-Gaelic speakers, this book contains English translations as well as an introduction to the history of Gaelic theatre, and to the playwrights whose skill and commitment to their art deserves much wider recognition.ContentsRèiteach Mòraig (Morag's Betrothal) Iain M. MacLeòidAm Fear a Chaill a Ghàidhlig (The Man Who Lost His Gaelic) Iain MacCormaigCeann Cropic Fionnlagh MacLeòidTog Orm Mo Speal (Give Me My Scythe) Iain Mac a' GhobhainnÒrdugh na Saorsa (Order of Release) Tormod Calum DòmhnallachSequamur Dòmhnall S. Moireach (Gaelic by Catrìona Dunn)Scotties Muireann Kelly with Francis PoetBana-Ghaisgich (Heroines) Màiri Nic'IlleMhoire

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Book SynopsisEdwin Morgan's brilliant Glasgow-based Scots translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the most successful productions in modern Scottish theatre. Fresh, clever and dynamic, Morgan's refashioning of the play establishes a cultural bond between the classic French play and Scotland's own dramatic and literary heritage.John Corbett's SCOTNOTE provides a succinct background to Edmond Rostand and his original play first performed in Paris, 1897 as well as to Edwin Morgan and his 1992 Scots verse translation, and is a perfect introduction for senior school pupils and students of all ages.

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Book SynopsisRona Munro's 1991 play Bold Girls is a tale of four Belfast women during the Troubles, exploring personal and communal history, and what it means when aspects of a community ideologies, relationships, and spaces, for example are threatened. Despite being set in a very specific time and place, the themes are universal: how societies are warped by male violence, dominance, and social privilege, and female subservience to that behaviour. Bold Girls is a case-study of the victims rather than the perpetrators of conflict: an unsentimental portrait of women's lives under psychological siege.Gillian Sargent's Scotnote Study Guide provides a comprehensive overview to the characters and themes of Munro's play, as well as its artistic and cultural influences, and is an excellent guide for senior school pupils and teachers alike.

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Book SynopsisIn his first tetralogy of history plays (Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, and Richard III), Shakespeare offered the most extensive dramatic sequence since the great days of ancient Greek drama in Athens.                  Critics have sometimes disparaged this first tetralogy as episodic and amateurish. There are various lively scenes, and some characters radiate vitality – in Richard III, Shakespeare (defying historical fact) created a superbly memorable monster, the grotesque and arrogant villain whom audiences love to hate. But if the Shakespeare of the first tetralogy blithely embarrasses his modern fans by the abundance of jingoistic propaganda, his second tetralogy (Richard II, Henry IV Parts One and Two and Henry V) is much more sophisticated and ambiguous. Indeed, in view of the problems of censorship which he faced, Shakespeare provides remarkably incisive insights into the beh

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Book SynopsisWinner of The Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021 Luke Kennard recasts Shakespeare's 154 sonnets as a series of anarchic prose poems set in the same joyless house party. A physicist explains dark matter in the kitchen. A crying man is consoled by a Sigmund Freud action figure. An out-of-hours doctor sells phials of dark red liquid from a briefcase. Someone takes out a guitar. Wry, insolent and self-eviscerating, Notes on the Sonnets riddles the Bard with the anxieties of the modern age, bringing Kennard's affectionate critique to subjects as various as love, marriage, God, metaphysics and a sad horse. 'Luke Kennard has the uncanny genius of being able to stick a knife in your heart with such originality and verve that you start thinking "aren't knives fascinating... and hearts, my god!" whilst everything slowly goes black.' - Caroline Bird A Poetry Book Society RecommendationTrade Review'Joyously unclassifiable.' -The Guardian, 'Kennard's book, this endless party talk, is as riddling and enjoyable as the old sonnets on which it riffs. Think of it as the ideal cabaret: it never coheres, it never wants to, and it'll never leave you at a loss for fun.' - Five stars, The Telegraph, 'Consistently entertaining ... (Kennard's) most mature and emotionally vulnerable collection yet.'-Tristram Fane Saunders, TLS, 'Luke Kennard has the uncanny genius of being able to stick a knife in your heart with such originality and verve that you start thinking "aren't knives fascinating... and hearts, my god!" whilst everything slowly goes black.'- Caroline Bird, 'Family life, doubt and faith, society, people, writers, social commentary, dark matter and string theory, the world at large, are all covered at some pace, each poem containing laugh-aloud ideas but also deep and considered moments which sneak up and surprise you ... extraordinary and original.'- Rupert Loydell, International Times

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Book SynopsisJ. M. Barrie (1860 - 1937) is today known almost exclusively for one work: Peter Pan. Yet he was the most successful British playwright of the early twentieth century, and his novels were once thought equal to those of George Meredith and Thomas Hardy. Although in recent years there has been a revival of interest in Barrie''s writing, many critics still fail to include him in surveys of fin de siecle literature or drama. Perhaps Barrie''s remarkable variety of output has prevented him from being taken to the centre of critical discussions in any one area of literary criticism or history. Is Barrie predominantly a novelist or a playwright? Is he Victorian, Decadent, Edwardian or Modernist? Gateway to the Modern is the very first collection of essays on Barrie which attempts to do justice to the extraordinary range of his literary achievement. What emerges is a significant writer, fully immersed in the literary and intellectual culture of his day.

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Book SynopsisIrish-language theatre has at times been on the fringes of Ireland's cultural landscape - invisible and underground - but its influence can be seen all over the island of Ireland. An Underground Theatre is the first full-length study of playwrights working in the Irish language in the pivotal 1930-80 period. In this landmark volume Philip O'Leary analyses the works of Mairead Ni Ghrada, Seamus O Neill, Eoghan O Tuairisc, Sean O Tuama, and Criostoir O Floinn and discusses the production history of their plays and the critical reception of first productions and major revivals. O'Leary also outlines the beginnings of drama in Irish in the early twentieth century and provides important historical context. The developments in Irish-language theatre since 1980 are also discussed in this important contribution to Irish theatre studies. Using a wide range of sources, O'Leary gives a thorough evaluation of five of the most significant Irish-language playwrights and charts the monumental influence and reach of their work.Trade Review''Any of the case studies in the present book would be a substantial work of scholarship in its own right, and their publication together makes for a thought-provoking comparative survey. The author wears his erudition lightly, and his good humor and ability to summarize ideas in clear and often pithy statements make this work accessible for a wide range of readers.' Roísín Ní Chairbhí, Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2019 ||||| 'Philip O’Leary takes the time and care to bring us deep into the heart of the plays he discusses, honouring their ambitions and achievements while not shrinking from discussing shortcomings. Irish Catholic, 14 Sept 2017Table of ContentsAbbreviations; Foreword; Introduction. An Underground Theatre; chapter 1: Unlikely Iconoclast. Mairead Ni Ghrada (1896-1971); chapter 2: A Northern Voice. Seamus O Neill (1910-1981); chapter 3: A Theatre of Ideas. Eoghan O Tuairisc (1919-1982); chapter 4: Knocking Down Old Walls. Sean O Tuama (1926-2006); chapter 5: Questions of Conscience. Criostoir O Floinn (b. 1927); Afterword; Select Bibliography; Endnote; Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1919 Rudolf Steiner spoke about the future physical incarnation of the being of Ahriman. This would take place before 'a part' of the third millennium had passed, and was inevitable - but it was also necessary that people were aware of this event and recognized it, for earthly culture would be destroyed if the world were to fall completely to Ahriman. The situation we find ourselves in today shows Ahriman's unmistakable signature: the rapid destruction of nature, zoonotic diseases and pandemics, huge social inequalities, and the overall dominance of high finance. In this short book Peter Selg presents a timely overview of the challenges we face, beginning with a pithy and concise survey of Steiner's commentary on Ahriman's incarnation and the conditions that would characterize it. This is followed by a study of Ahriman's depiction in the mystery drama The Souls' Awakening. Steiner's remarkable personification of Ahriman on stage - portraying his strategies and activities - provides vital instruction for humanity. Selg concludes with an evaluation of 'the Battle for Human Intelligence' taking place in contemporary culture through materialistic ideas such as transhumanism. In their recent book Covid-19: The Great Reset, for example, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret propose wholesale economic, geopolitical, environmental and technological revisions to society - ideas that need to be understood and confronted in human thought and consciousness. The Future of Ahriman is a crucial aid to comprehending our times.Table of ContentsForeword - 1. 'The Incarnation of Ahriman', Rudolf Steiner's lectures from October to December 1919 - 2. 'The Awakening of Souls', Ahriman in the Mystery Dramas, 1910-1913 - 3. The Battle for Human Intelligence, The Leading Thoughts of 1924/25, and the present - Notes

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Book SynopsisThe True Performing Of It places the two writers side by side and examines the resultant analogies in their work that spring from this positioning. After a teasing prologue, the book begins by reflecting on the significance of Dylan's remarks on Shakespeare when accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, before examining their shared Bardic qualities, and their position of being feted for their undoubted literary qualities despite both being primarily artists of live performances of drama and music. The movement from 'low' to 'high' art is traced and its implications explored in depth and detail, as is the fierce opposition that the parallel theatrical and musical transitions from communal folk art to professional entertainment engendered. The parallels in their approaches to performing art, use of language and source material form core chapters of the book. The last section of the book is an in-depth focus on The Tempest and Tempest as specific examples of the theories and generalitie

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Book SynopsisGwyn Thomas was born, the last of twelve children, into a Rhondda mining family in 1913. After a childhood marked by the strikes of the 1920s, he went off to study Spanish at Oxford University and in Madrid, where he met the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and witnessed the turmoil which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. On his return, amidst the economic mire of the 1930s and his own burgeoning teaching career in Barry in the 1940s, he picked up his pen and began to write. For more than forty years, until his death in 1981, as novelist, screenwriter, master of the short story, and prizewinning playwright, Gwyn Thomas delivered compelling and comedic portraits of his world of South Wales. His creative genius earned enduring fame on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the European Cold War divide. As a provocative and insightful broadcaster, he embraced the possibilities of radio and television, whilst leaving his hosts and guests alike in fits of knowing laughter. This landmark biography, enriched with unrivalled access to private papers and international archives, tells the remarkable story of one of modern Wales's greatest literary voices.Trade Review'This punchy portrait of a real Welsh literary heavyweight hits home with the brutal realism of Thomas' jabbing prose and mordant wit.' - Jon Gower, Nation.Cymru; 'Leeworthy knows his subject intimately, sympathises with him entirely, and locates him globally in such a way as to leave the reader with no doubt as to his importance as a writer' - Bethan Jenkins, Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisIn London in 1770 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) remarked, ‘What a work could be written on Shakespeare, Hogarth and Garrick! There is something similar in the genius of all three.’ Two-and-a-half centuries on, Robin Simon’s highly original and illuminating book takes up the challenge.William Hogarth (1697–1764) and David Garrick (1717–1779) closely associated themselves with Shakespeare, embodying a relationship between plays, painting and performance that had been understood since Antiquity and which shaped the rules for history painting drawn up by the Académie royale in Paris in the seventeenth century.History painting was considered the highest form of art: a picture illustrating a moment drawn from just a few lines in a revered text. Hogarth’s David Garrick as Richard III (1745) transformed those ideas because, although it looked like a history painting, it was also a portrait of an actor in performance. With it, Hogarth established the genre of theatrical portraiture, a new and distinctively British kind ofhistory painting.This book offers a fresh examination of theatrical portraits through close analysis of the pictures and of the texts used in performance. It also examines the central role of the theatre in British culture, while highlighting the significance of Shakespeare, Hogarth and Garrick in the European Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism. In this context another trio of genius features prominently: Lichtenberg, GottholdEphraim Lessing and Denis Diderot.Familiar paintings and performances are seen in an entirely new light, while unfamiliar pictures are also introduced, including major paintings and drawings that have never been published.The final chapter shows that the inter-relationship between plays, painting and performance survived into the age of cinema, revealing the pictorial sources of Laurence Olivier’s legendary film Richard III.

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Book SynopsisOn a wasted island in perpetual sun, the Father practices magic, laments his lost kingdom and commands a ragtag army of three: the passionate and damaged Daughter, the winged Spirit and an indigenous being known only as C. Behind their uniforms — white suits and full-face paper masks — the soldiers seethe with rebellion.The arrival of the Boy, a hapless prince, and the Brother, the Father’s rival, unleashes desire, betrayal, insanity and revenge — all of it witnessed by an irate sea.Paper Crusade is a bold reinvention of Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. Michelle Penn’s vivid imagery and startling, sensual language create an unforgettable dystopia for our own time.Trade Reviewreview by @shoutaboutbooks on instagram"There must be something of Prospero in @mich_penn, because #PaperCrusade is utterly mesmeric & captivating."​ -- shoutaboutbooks * instagram *

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Book SynopsisThis Play Guide is specifically written for A Level students who are studying Antigone as part of the AQA A Level Drama & Theatre specification. It provides structured support for Component 1: Section A - Drama and theatre. / This book is divided into three sections: How to explore a text for A level Drama and Theatre, with vocabulary-building sections on acting, directing and design; An extended exploration of the play to enrich students' understanding and response to the text; Targeted examination preparation to improve writing and test-taking skills. / Fully supports the written examination and helps students develop their key knowledge and understanding of key A Level drama & theatre skills. / Knowledge and understanding of the play are developed with a synopsis, character and scene studies, contextual and practical exploration. / Includes a wide range of practical drama tasks, activities, and research and revision exercises. / Advice on how to interpret and prepare for exam questions with examples of effective responses.

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Book SynopsisAnthony Burgess was an energetic writer and composer, whose work for the stage is widely admired. In Two Plays, we see him tackling major monuments of French and Russian theatre: The Miser by Molière and Chatsky by Alexander Griboyedov. Miser, Miser! is a bold reworking of Molière’s classic comedy of 1668. Harpagon the miser is hoarding a pile of gold, which he has buried in his garden. As he tries to sell off his daughter, catch himself a beautiful young bride and outwit his scheming household of clever servants, the comedy of errors intensifies. Although the original French play is written in prose, Burgess remakes it in a mixture of verse and prose, in the style of his famous adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. This translation, discovered in the author’s archive, is the work of a writer at the height of his powers, reinventing Molière for modern audiences. Chatsky, subtitled ‘The Importance of Being Stupid’ is another verse comedy. The theme is that of the intellectual hero who rebels against the smug, philistine society in which he finds himself. First performed in 1833, Griboyedov’s play was so heavily cut by Russian censors that it was barely recognisable. The play is a virtuoso vehicle for male actors, and the source of many famous quotations. It is also notoriously difficult to translate. In Chatsky, Burgess remakes a classic Russian play in the spirit of Oscar Wilde. It is a great feast of language and invective. The complete texts of both plays are published here for the first time. Two Plays confirms Anthony Burgess’s reputation as a gifted writer for the stage, and as a translator of great wit and sophistication. MISER, MISER! CASTING: 7 men, 3 women CHATSKY CASTING: 9 men, 7 women

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Book SynopsisThe plays of Seneca the Younger, minister and philosopher under Nero, are today increasingly studied, appreciated - and performed. Here, in a collection of papers from an international cast, scholars explore both established questions, such as the playwright's subtleties of characterisation, his relation to contemporary Roman spectacle and art - and the problems arising in translating him to modern text or stage.Table of ContentsIntroduction Seneca on the Ancient Stage 1. Playing Seneca? - John G. Fitch 2. Production of Seneca's Trojan Women, Ancient and Modern - Elaine Fantham 3. Location! Location! Location! Choral Absence and Theatrical Space in the Troades - C.W. Marshall 4. Nothing Within Which Passeth Show: Character and Color in Senecan Tragedy - Brian S. Hook Contemporary Roman Social Influences on Seneca 5. A New Look at Seneca's Phaedra - Hanna M. Roisman 6. The Spectacle of Death in Seneca's Troades - Jo-Ann Shelton 7. Grotesque Vision: Seneca's Tragedies and Neronian Art - Eric R. Varner 8. Semper Ego Auditor Tantum?: Performance and Physical Setting of Seneca's Plays - George W.M. Harrison Modern Translation and Staging 9. Seneca and Chaucer: Translating Both Poetry and Sense - Frederick Ahl 10. Seneca's Trojan Women: Identity and Survival in the Aftermath of War - Gyllian Raby 11. Putting Andromacha on Stage: A Performer's Perspective - Katharina Volk 12. Going for Baroque: Seneca and the English - Sander M. Goldberg Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisGwyn Thomas was born, the last of twelve children, into a Rhondda mining family in 1913. After a childhood marked by the strikes of the 1920s, he went off to study Spanish at Oxford University and in Madrid, where he met the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and witnessed the turmoil which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. On his return, amidst the economic mire of the 1930s and his own burgeoning teaching career in Barry in the 1940s, he picked up his pen and began to write. For more than forty years, until his death in 1981, as novelist, screenwriter, master of the short story, and prizewinning playwright, Gwyn Thomas delivered compelling and comedic portraits of his world of South Wales. His creative genius earned enduring fame on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the European Cold War divide. As a provocative and insightful broadcaster, he embraced the possibilities of radio and television, whilst leaving his hosts and guests alike in fits of knowing laughter. This landmark biography, enriched with unrivalled access to private papers and international archives, tells the remarkable story of one of modern Wales's greatest literary voices.

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Book SynopsisBetween 1959 and 2005, David Wood (‘the national children’s dramatist’) corresponded with his mentor, Frank Whitbourn, teacher, writer and theatre practitioner. Frank Exchanges opens with a letter from Whitbourn, praising a young Wood following a performance in one of his plays, and documents an almost fifty-year correspondence before Whitbourn’s death in 2005. Wood sent Whitbourn the first draft of every play he wrote, and Whitbourn commented constructively and often came to see and ‘review’ the plays in production. The letters chronicle Wood’s development as a playwright, director and producer, and Whitbourn’s memories of pre-war theatre-going and meeting Sybil Thorndike, Harcourt Williams and other eminent theatre folk. It is a reflection on the provision, content and status of theatre for young audiences, and ultimately a testimony to the man who Wood considered a friend and mentor.

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