Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisFor this updated critical edition of King Lear, Lois Potter has written a completely new introduction, taking account of recent productions and reinterpretations of the play, with particular emphasis on its afterlife in global performance and adaptation. The edition retains the Textual Analysis of the previous editor, Jay L. Halio, shortened and with a new preface by Brian Gibbons. Professor Halio, accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare''s rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, chooses the Folio as the text for this edition. He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the Introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the quarto.Trade Review'Only Lois Potter is capable of writing an introduction like this: she combines her vast experience of performance history with her unparalleled ability to read plays dramaturgically. As a result the introduction is as penetratingly astute on theme and structure as it is stimulating and eye-opening about theatre. No mere performance history, the introduction uses moments from production choices across the centuries to illustrate precise critical points, from the play's tragic crises to its general tone, from individual character to political atmosphere. Using her encyclopaedic knowledge of drama in performance, Lois Potter provides a brilliant hands-on guide to the play and an effortless introduction to theatre history.' Professor Laurie Maguire, University of Oxford'Lois Potter combines her unparalleled knowledge of Shakespeare in theatrical performance and her scrupulously scholarly attention to detail in the NCS King Lear. Her new introduction provides up-to-the-minute accounts of the play in performance while also offering a clear historical perspective. Potter describes the way productions of King Lear have changed over the course of the centuries and especially how current efforts to create more diverse theatrical casts have valuably added further dimension to the key issues of the play. Invaluably too, she provides an account of recent developments both critical, imaginative, and political, including eco-criticism and feminist criticism, re-writings of Shakespeare, as well as Lear in the global context. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the play.' Dympna C. Callaghan, University Professor and William L. Safire Professor in Modern Letters, Syracuse University'The updated New Cambridge critical edition of The Tragedy of King Lear provides a sensitive analysis of the afterlife of the play in a brand-new Introduction written by Lois Potter. There is … plenty in this Introduction to inspire new work on Lear … Potter's Introduction brings the edition and the play into the twenty-first century, and Gibbons' preface to Halio's 'Textual Analysis' helps to translate an edition ideal for graduate students and scholars of the play into an edition that will also appeal to readers approaching textual criticism for the first time.' Emma Depledge, Shakespeare SurveyTable of ContentsIntroduction; Textual Analysis; Preface by Brian Gibbons; Textual Analysis, Part 1; A Note on the Text; List of Characters; The Play; Textual Analysis, Part 2; Appendix: Passages Unique to the First Quarto; Reading List.

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Book SynopsisWhat would Pindar and Aeschylus have talked about had they met at some point during their overlapping poetic careers? How do we map the space shared by these two fifth-century choral poets? In the first book-length comparative study of Pindar and Aeschylus in over six decades, Anna S. Uhlig pushes back against the prevailing tendency to privilege interpretive frames that highlight the differences in their works. Instead, she adopts a more inclusive category of choral performance, one in which both poets are shown to be grappling to understand how the vivid here and now of their compositions are in fact a reenactment of voices and bodies from elsewhere. Pairing close readings of the ancient texts with insights from modern performance studies, Uhlig offers a novel perspective on the ''song culture'' of early fifth-century BC Greece.Trade Review'… should prove worthwhile and fascinating for specialists in both early fifth-century literature and classical performance studies.' David Studdard, Classics for All'… a distinctive and ambitious book …' David Fearn, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: Pindar and Aeschylus in dialogue; 1. Voices of others: embedded speech in Pindar and Aeschylus; 2. Anachronistic harmonies: Agamemnon parodos, Pythian 4; 3. Vocal tools: Pythian 12, Olympian 13, Seven Against Thebes; 4. Somatic semblances: Choephoroi, Olympian 8, Pythian 2; 5. Locating the revenant: Pythian 8, Persians.

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Book SynopsisPART I: PERFORMANCE EFFECTS Introduction: Materializing the Immaterial Theorizing Theatrical Privilege: Rethinking Weimann's Concepts of Locus and Platea PART II: THEATRICAL WAYS OF KNOWING Staging Sight: Visual Paradigms and Perceptual Strategies in Love's Labor's Lost Imaginary Forces: Allegory, Mimesis, and Audience Interpretation in The Spanish Tragedy PART III: EXPERIENCING EMBODIED SPECTACLE Dancing and Other Delights: Spectacle and Participation in Doctor Faustus and Macbeth Artful Sport: Violence, Dismemberment, and Games in Titus Andronicus , Cymbeline , and Doctor FaustusTrade Review"Shakespeare and the Materiality of Performance powerfully redirects our attention as scholars of early modern drama to the fact that the plays we discuss were performed before audiences carrying specific cultural assumptions about what it meant to engage in watching and listening to theatrical spectacle. This book is of value to scholars interested in performance theory more broadly but will also be useful to historicist scholars seeking to understand the nuances of bodies, actors, and representational drama converging in particular moments upon the early modern stage . . . Lin's analyses are sharp, provocative, and helpful for scholars seeking to approximate early modern ideological and social conditions of interpretative strategies in theater." - Journal of the Northern Renaissance "Lin's close-readings of the play are often penetrating . . . [Lin] does not overstate the claims she makes; she is cautious with numbers in particular. She is precise with her examples." - Shakespeare Jarhbuch "Lin's reading of early modern performance traditions and spectatorship serves as a valuable working model for scholars of drama seeking to marry rigorous historical investigations with critical theory. For those interested in reception theory, material studies, and early modern stage practices, Shakespeare and the Materiality of Performance can be read productively alongside other studies in historical phenomenology as well as early modern audience and reception studies." - Theatre Survey ". . . Lin establishes that our theatrical experiences are radically different and how we enter into, perceive, and understand the dramatic stage has little in common with our ancestors . . . In assessing this 'theatrical language', Lin turns to the notion of materiality itself, something which she rightly points out has become a significant focus of Shakespearean studies . . . She emphasizes the role of the theatre and 'entertainment' in the construction of early modern lives, a role - and a visual vocabulary - that we need to learn in order to fully appreciate the differences, rather than the similarities of our play-words" Shakespeare Survey "In comparing [Cymbline's] representations of mutilation and dismemberment onstage with other accounts, such as the execution of criminals, accounts of martyrdom, and violent murders, Lin establishes the importance of the body, and how it (and its parts) may have been viewed by the audience." Year's Work in English Studies "...This is an important book for scholars of early modern drama in performance. It could also enrich the work of practitioners, and its examination of the psychology of audiences could benefit cognitive studies as well. Lin's work is engaging and at times even exciting: there is a sense that she is revealing hidden mysteries of the past, that the reader is entering the early modem playhouse as it once was. I wish that more scholars would engage in such meticulously informed speculation about practices that we can never fully recover through other means. Lin also provides convincing explanations for a number of puzzling spots in the plays. She is especially good at pointing out the blinders that modem scholars and practitioners wear because of their own cultural and theatrical assumptions." Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England "Although Lin examines an impressive range of documents to construct historically situated interpretive paradigms, most astute are her analyses of episodes that critics have either ignored or explained through 'elaborate conjectures', such as the witches' dance in Macbeth and the irreverent stage play of bodily mutilation in Titus Andronicus (p. 157). Lin's work intervenes in the study of early modern drama and culture and shifts the conversation toward a focus on those who populated the offstage world of the play. These interpreters might well have considered Hamlet as the show with the exciting 'swordfight in the final act' and understood Doctor Faustus as a play that 'sports with severed limbs' (p. 164), and so, perhaps, should we." Theatre Research InternationalTable of ContentsPART I: PERFORMANCE EFFECTS Introduction: Materializing the Immaterial Theorizing Theatrical Privilege: Rethinking Weimann's Concepts of Locus and Platea PART II: THEATRICAL WAYS OF KNOWING Staging Sight: Visual Paradigms and Perceptual Strategies in Love's Labor's Lost Imaginary Forces: Allegory, Mimesis, and Audience Interpretation in The Spanish Tragedy PART III: EXPERIENCING EMBODIED SPECTACLE Dancing and Other Delights: Spectacle and Participation in Doctor Faustus and Macbeth Artful Sport: Violence, Dismemberment, and Games in Titus Andronicus , Cymbeline , and Doctor Faustus

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Trade ReviewBesides interrogating the very idea of madness, Blue/Orange explores the connection between ethnicity and perceptions of mental health . . . With a real deftness of touch, the play probes notions of authority. It illuminates the way psychiatry can be strategic - and anatomises the politics of medical care. * Evening Standard *Operating as a play of ideas, it unleashes raw emotion on all sides, exposing layers of male egotism and neurosis * Daily Telegraph *Exuberant . . . Penhall has the gift of making serious points in a comic manner and of conveying moral indignation without preaching . . . Stinging satire * Guardian *Funny and irreverent . . . Penhall's writing is vibrant throughout * Independent on Sunday *

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Trade ReviewIt’s an elegy to an invisible class ... This is character-driven theatre at its purest ... It’s a play about what unremitting poverty does to the soul, where poverty is not starvation, but life without dignity. * Spectator on "Beyond Caring" *Beyond Caring seethes. It brings your blood to boiling point. * Time Out *Totally compelling ... This understated 90 minutes is quietly devastating ... As time moves, slowly, the whole thing gradually becomes more and more heightened, emotionally and theatrically. The beauty of the piece ... is that it eschews sob stories in favour of genuine tragedy. Just as these people keep themselves pretty much to themselves until the final, desperate moments, so the play always slyly shows and never tells. There are no big speeches. There is much awkward silence. People reveal themselves in small gestures ... There are gusts of sadness; moments of pure desolation. But mostly there is work, with people struggling to survive: to the end of the shift, the end of the day, to the end of life itself. * Guardian on "Beyond Caring" *This desolate, quietly intense devised drama gets under your skin and into your bones ... it's a ringing condemnation of an economic practice that puts profit before people and turns the basic business of earning a living into a barely sustainable, soul-destroying hell. Unforgettable. * The Times on "Beyond Caring" *Alexander Zeldin's devised drama gives an unforgettable taste of life at the bottom of the employment pile ... it has a rare quality of gripping authenticity. * Daily Telegraph on "Beyond Caring" *Zeldin boldly sticks to unostentatious naturalism and draws the audience into this world ... this raw, unsentimental piece has immense cumulative power and quietly conveys just what it means to live with such a crippling lack of security. * Financial Times on "Beyond Caring" *Beyond Caring is beyond praise * International New York Times *

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Trade ReviewCowhig speaks bitterness and makes us sit up and listen. -- Lyn Gardner * Guardian on Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "The World of Extreme Happiness" *Fearless, zippily-paced, and satirical . . . Cowhig forces us down the long hard look path. * Independent on Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "The World of Extreme Happiness" *Fiercely intelligent . . . powerful stuff * Guardian on Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "Lidless" *An excellent new play . . . a very strong script . . . The story grips and the characters are well drawn, demonstrating the complexities of human nature and the ability people have to put morals to one side. * Daily Telegraph on Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "Lidless" *Vital new writing from a talented new voice * Independent on Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "Lidless" *

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Book Synopsis'I have no name for the thing which is in my head. It is not envy. It is more than envy. It does not scare me. I must look close enough to look at what it is.'A ploughman and his wife live a simple existence in a pre-industrial time until they, along with the hated local miller, are drawn into a struggle of knowledge, power and attraction.David Harrower's haunting play established him as one of the UK's leading contemporary playwrights. This new edition is published to coincide with the new production of this tense modern classic at the Donmar Warehouse in August 2017, directed by Yaël Farber.Trade ReviewAn outstanding . . . play, David Harrower's Knives in Hens is set in a God-fearing, pre-industrial world and deals, passionately and intelligently with a woman's discovery of a language that corresponds with her feelings . . . A remarkable debut. * Guardian *David Harrower's remarkable debut as a professional dramatist creates a haunting, poetic and entirely individual world of its own. I have never seen a play quite like it. . . You leave the theatre in no doubt that you have watched one of the year's most heartening and accomplished debuts. Harrower already seems like a writer built to last. * Daily Telegraph *If one definition of a classic is that it constantly yields new meanings, then David Harrower's play deserves the title...**** -- The GuardianIt is an atmospheric, powerful piece. -- Sarah Crompton, What's On StageI was awed by its linguistic verve...So watertight is the writing, though, that its profundity and mystery remain intact. -- The Telegraph...the language is taut and visceral and the dramatic impetus slow but inexorable. -- Neil Norman, Express.com...stark, strange modern classic...Harrower's language is curt and harsh: the cast hack the story out with it, carving the air with terse, hard, poetic interactions. -- Time Out

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Book SynopsisTheatre has a funny way of getting to the heart of who we are now and particularly in the case of Connections who we are going to be.Drawing together the work of nine leading playwrights, National Theatre Connections 2018 features work by some of the most exciting contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays offer young performers an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study.From friends building bridges and siblings breaking down walls; girls making their voice heard and boys searching for home; and not forgetting a band of unlikely action heroes taking control of the weather.The anthology contains nine play scripts along with imaginative production notes and exercises, as well as a short introduction to the writing process for the tenth Connections play [ BLANK ] by Alice Birch.National Theatre Connections is an annual festival which brings new plays for young people to schools and youth theatres across the UK and Ireland. CommisTable of ContentsThe Blue Electric Wind by Brad Birch The Changing Room by Chris Bush The Free9 by In-Sook Chappell Ceasefire Babies by Fiona Doyle These Bridges by Phoebe Eclair Powell When They Go Low by Natalie Mitchell Want by Barney Norris The Sweetness of a Sting by Chinonyerem Odimba Dungeness by Chris Thompson

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Book SynopsisB. J. Sokol is a Professor Emeritus of English Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.Trade ReviewAn enthralling peek at the lives and cultures of the named (or near-named) artists in Shakespeare…For those who took for granted a bleak English Renaissance art scene, his world of three-man songs, injurious bagpipes, imprese, paragone, and whited statuary is likely to be a revelation. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One. Painters and Sculptors in Shakespeare’s Poems Chapter Two. Painters and Sculptors in Shakespearian Plays Chapter Three. Poets in Shakespeare’s Plays Chapter Four. Poets in Shakespeare’s Poems Chapter Five. Shakespeare’s Musicians: Mimetic Chapter Six. Shakespeare’s Mythical Musicians Afterword Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisPaul Menzer is Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Mary Baldwin University, where he is a professor and the director of the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).Trade ReviewWritten with verve, this biography is as breezy as it is illuminating. * Laurie Maguire, Fellow, Magdalen College, and Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford, UK *As wry and witty as it is thorough and thoughtful, Menzer’s eminently readable study is the most fun you will ever have with a biography of Shakespeare. * Andrew Hartley, Robinson Distinguished Professor of Shakespeare, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Preface: The Complete Life of William Shakespeare Chapter 1. Shakespeare’s Dead Chapter 2. Earth Unto Earth Chapter 3. Shakespeare at School Chapter 4. Anne Hathaway, aka Chapter 5. The Lost Years Chapter 6. Stratford in the Rear View Chapter 7. Enter London Chapter 8. Shakespeare, playwright Chapter 9. Shakespeare, poet Chapter 10. Shakespeare’s Company Chapter 11. William Shakespeare, gent. Chapter 12. Shakespeare at Court Chapter 13. Shakespeare’s Globe? Chapter 14. Shakespeare’s Properties Chapter 15. The King’s Man Chapter 16. The Plague Years Chapter 17. Shakespeare’s Daughters Chapter 18. The Returning Point Chapter 19. Shakespeare’s Head Epilogue: Yellow Leaves Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFarah Karim-Cooper is Head of Higher Education & Research at Shakespeare's Globe and Visiting Research Fellow, King's College London, UK.Table of ContentsList of illustrations List of contributors Series preface Introduction, Farah Karim-Cooper (Shakespeare's Globe, UK) Part 1: Genre, style and sources 1. Senecan belatedness and Titus Andronicus, Curtis Perry (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA) 2. Titus Andronicus: Elizabethan Classicism and the Styles of New Tragedy, Goran Stanivukovic (Saint Mary's University, Canada) 3. Soliloquies in Titus Andronicus: An Empirical Approach, James Hirsh (Georgia State University, USA) Part 2: Critical approaches: Race, culture and politics 4. “I have done thy mother”: Racial and sexual geographies in Titus Andronicus, John Kunat (Sonoma State University, USA) 5. Remixing the family: Blackness and domesticity in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, David Sterling Brown (Binghampton Universty, SUNY, USA) 6. 'If I might have my will': Aaaron's affect and race in Titus Andronicus, Carol Mejia LaPerle (Wright State University, USA) Part 3: Critical approaches: Bodies, emotions and metaphor 7. Metaphorically Speaking: Titus Andronicus and the Limits of Utterance, Jennifer Edwards (Shakespeare's Globe, UK) 8. Granular Reading: Texture, Language and Surface Marks in Titus Andronicus, Whitney Sperrazza (University of Kansas, USA) Part 4: Performance and adaptation 9. 'Did you see that?!': Titus Andronicus and Theatrical Transgression, Ralph Alan Cohen (Mary Baldwin University, USA) 10. In/di/gestion: Seneca-->Shakespeare-->South Park, Lizz Angello (University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, USA) 11. 'My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth': Framing, Feasting and Speaking Sexual Violence in Titus Andronicus, 2006-2017, Emma Whipday (University of Newcastle, UK) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis new introduction to Euripides'' fascinating interpretation of the story of Electra and her brother Orestes emphasizes its theatricality, showing how captivating the play remains to this day. Electra poses many challenges for those drawn to Greek tragedy students, scholars, actors, directors, stage designers, readers and audiences. Rush Rehm addresses the most important questions about the play: its shift in tone between tragedy and humour; why Euripides arranged the plot as he did; issues of class and gender; the credibility of the gods and heroes, and the power of the myths that keep their stories alive. A series of concise and engaging chapters explore the functions of the characters and chorus, and how their roles change over the course of the play; the language and imagery that affects the audience''s response to the events on stage; the themes at work in the tragedy, and how Euripides forges them into a coherent theatrical experience; the later reception of the plaTrade ReviewRush Rehm does a fine job of making Euripides’ complicated and unsettling play more appreciable and enjoyable, ... This volume will prove accessible as a study-guide for students who know little of Greek theatre, but also contains plenty of meaty information for their teachers to savour. I recommend this volume not just for students studying the text in translation, but for anyone considering a performance or rehearsed reading of Euripides’ play. * Journal of Classics Teaching *A thorough and thought-provoking overview ... It excels at providing readers with the grounding necessary to appreciate the play and work with it further. * The Classical Review *Admirable ... impeccably edited and produced. * Greece & Rome Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Theatrical and Performance Background 2. What Happens and How: The Unfolding of Euripides' Electra 3. Euripides and Myth: Reflecting and Re-Fashioning Tradition 4. Language 5. Characters and Actors 6. Props and Costumes, Bodies and Corpses 7. Gender and Sex, Children and Childbirth 8. Highs and Lows: Class Issues in Electra 9. Gods and Mortals 10. Afterlife Conclusion Glossary Guide to Further Reading Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisArden Early Modern Drama Guides offer students and academics practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performance contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Essays from leading international scholars give invaluable insight into the text by presenting a range of critical perspectives, making the books ideal companions for study and research. Key features include: Essays on the plays' critical and performance history A keynote essay on current research and thinking about the play A selection of new essays by leading scholars A survey of resources to direct students' further reading about the play in print and onlineThe blockbuster Tamburlaine plays (1587) instantly established Marlowe's reputation for experimenting with subversive, outrageous and immoral material. The plays follow the meteoric rise of a Scythian shepherd-turned-warlord, whose conquests of eastern emperors soon sees him established as the most poTrade ReviewThe true genius of this collection is in its Janusian perspective ... Tamburlaine: A Critical Reader serves as a concise but impressive review of Tamburlaine’s history in past decades, a time capsule recording the current state of the field, and an optimistic forecast of what we may see in decades to come. * Marlowe Society of America *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Series Introduction Notes on Contributors Introduction David McInnis, University of Melbourne, Australia 1 Tamburlaine, 1587-2000: A Reception History M. L. Stapleton, Purdue University, USA 2 ‘The Critical Landscape, 2000-Present’ Sarah Wall-Randell, Wellesley College, USA 3 ‘High astounding terms’: Tamburlaine and Tamburlaine on stage Peter Kirwan, University of Nottingham, UK 4 New Directions: Mending Tamburlaine Claire M. L. Bourne, Pennsylvania State University, USA 5 New Directions: Tamburlaine the Weather Man Tom Rutter, University of Sheffield, UK 6 New Directions: Towards a Racialized TamburlaineSydnee Wagner, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA 7 New Directions: Retooling Timür Matthew Dimmock, University of Sussex, UK 8 Three Tents for Tamburlaine: Resources and Approaches for Teaching the Play Liam E. Semler, University of Sydney, Australia Works Cited and Selected Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThis anthology contains scholarly and annotated editions of six major Elizabethan and Jacobean plays: The Spanish Tragedy Doctor Faustus Sejanus Women Beware Women The White Devil 'Tis Pity She's a Whore

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Book SynopsisDr Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a Reader in Drama at Rose Bruford College and author of The Theatre of Martin Crimp and seminal study of British playwriting of the 1990s, In Yer Face Theatre.Trade ReviewSierz's fluent, up-to-date new study is further proof that he is one of British theater's leading critics. * André Naffis-Sahely, Times Literary Supplement *As a theatre studies teacher, this book is a relative breath of fresh air and may make you exclaim: 'Yes at last, someone is writing about contemporary plays, playwrights and performances!'...The beauty of this book is that it gives some of the theory behind the shift in the writing: giving us a social, cultural and political context...In order to understand the context behind new writing, this book is a must read! * Teaching Drama *

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Book SynopsisSimon Palfrey is Fellow in English, Braesnose College, Oxford University.

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Book SynopsisPatrick Lonergan is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He writes about theatre for The Irish Times and Irish Theatre Magazine. His first book, Theatre and Globalization, was awarded the 2008 Theatre Book Prize. He has authored two Student Editions of plays by Martin McDonagh, is editor of The Methuen Drama Anthology of Irish Plays and series editor of the Critical Companions series. Trade ReviewPatrick Lonergan - as enthusiastic as a true film buff ought to be, yet as defensive as a proud father - seeks to soothe the hostilities, and to show that the sheer force of the reactions to McDonagh's work has provoked only prove his momentous talent... [the book provides] a wealth of information and resources. -- Ruth Gilligan * Times Literary Supplement *As Patrick Lonergan's entertaining and enjoyable study of the playwright and film-maker points out, academics have frequently been more hostile [than critics]. Lonergan attempts to re-address this...By shifting the focus of his debate away from perennial debates surrounding the authenticity of Irish representation, Lonergan is able to pose much more interesting questions about the relationship between the author and his work...each section includes a very useful section of production analysis. The book also includes an extremely detailed glossary offering readers explanations of all the terms and major historical events dis cussed in McDonagh’s plays...Lonergan’s easy conversational tone and knowledgeable discussion of the plays will, though, be of interest to a general readership interested in McDonagh’s work, and this book offers a comprehensive account of his varied and occasionally controversial career to date. -- Catherine Rees * New Theatre Quarterly *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: ‘MARTIN MCDONAGH: FACTS AND FICTIONS' 1 THE LEENANE TRILOGY Introduction: The Murder Capital of Europe? The Beauty Queen of Leenane A Skull in Connemara The Lonesome West Druid Theatre and The Leenane Trilogy in production 2 THE ARAN ISLANDS PLAYS Introduction The Cripple of Inishmaan The Lieutenant of Inishmore The Aran Islands Plays Staging The Lieutenant and The Cripple 3 WORLD PLAYS The Pillowman A Behanding in SpokaneThe Plays in production 4 THE FILMS Six Shooter In Bruges McDonagh and cinema 5 CRITICAL AND PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVESGarry Hynes in conversation: Monstrous Children‘Like Tottenham': Martin McDonagh's Postmodern Morality Tales (José Lanters)A Symbiotic Relationship: The Works of Martin McDonagh and Ecocriticism (Karen O'Brien)McDonagh and Postcolonial Theory: Practices, Perpetuations, Divisions, and Legacies (Eamonn Jordan)McDonagh's Gender Troubles (Joan Dean) 6 CONCLUSION 7 RESOURCESChronology of the life and work of Martin McDonaghA note on languageGlossary of Irish words and slangCultural, Political, Literary and Historical References Further Reading

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Book SynopsisAward-winning writer Joe Penhall was described by the Financial Times as 'one of the finest playwrights of his generation.' His debut at the Royal Court, Some Voices, won the John Whiting Award for best new play. His National Theatre play Blue/Orange won an Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Award and the Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Joe wrote and produced the BAFTA winning BBC serial Moses Jones and his feature film of Some Voices starred Daniel Craig and premiered in competition at the Cannes Film festival . This was followed by Enduring Love, also starring Daniel Craig, based on Ian McEwan's novel; and his adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, starring Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen, which premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2009.Trade Review'Besides interrogating the very idea of madness, Blue/Orange explores the connection between ethnicity and perceptions of mental health....With a real deftness of touch, the play probes notions of authority. It illuminates the way psychiatry can be strategic - and anatomises the politics of medical care.' * Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard (London), 5.11.10 *'In the way of great comedy, Blue/Orange touches on great themes: self-advancement at the expense of others, perceptions of sanity' * Claudia Pritchard, Independent on Sunday, 7.11.10 *

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Book SynopsisBrenda Murphy is the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA. Besides her many books and articles on American theatre, she is the editor of the Student Edition of After the Fall by Arthur Miller (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2011).Trade Review[Murphy] brings together ... useful information from Williams' work, writings and correspondence to make this a valuable academic work for anyone studying the playwright or American theatre ... A useful and well-written work -- David Chadderton * British Theatre Guide *Brenda Murphy’s The Theatre of Tennessee Williams is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The book describes the genesis and major themes of all of Williams’s best-known plays and many of those that are less familiar; it provides, as well, an illuminating account of the plays’ first productions and the ways in which they were inflected by their cultural contexts. Murphy writes with lucidity and an eye for the engaging detail, the telling quotation that will appeal to a broad audience. Her book serves as both a useful guide to Williams’s work and an important contribution to the ongoing re-evaluation of that work -- Verna A. Foster, Loyola University * Modern Drama *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1 The 1930s Plays: The Magic Tower, Candles to the Sun, Fugitive Kind, Not About Nightingales, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof 2 Battle of Angels and Orpheus Descending 3 The Glass Menagerie 4 Summer and Smoke and Eccentricities of a Nightingale 5 A Streetcar Named Desire 6 Camino Real 7 Cat on Hot Tin Roof 8 Suddenly Last Summer and Sweet Bird of Youth 9 The Night of the Iguana 10 The Later Plays, 1961-1983: The Two-Character Play/Outcry, The Gnädiges Fräulein, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, The Mutilated, Small Craft Warnings, Vieux Carré, Something Cloudy, Something Clear 11. Critical Perspectives All in the timing: the meanings of Streetcar in 1947 and 1951 by Bruce McConachie (University of Pittsburgh, USA) A broken romance: Tennessee Williams and America’s mid-century theatre culture by John S. Bak (Université de Lorraine, France) ‘A vast traumatic eye’: culture absorbed and refigured in Tennessee Williams’s transitional plays by Felicia Hardison Londré (University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA) ‘There’s something not natural here’: grotesque ambiguities in Kingdom of Earth, A Cavalier for Milady, and A House Not Meant to Stand by Annette Saddik (City University of New York, USA) Chronology Further reading Index Notes on contributors

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Book SynopsisThe Series Editors are Professor Ann Thompson, King's College London and Professor Lena Orlin, Georgetown University. Ann Thompson is a Professor of English and Director of the London Shakespeare Centre, King's College London. She is a General Editor of the Arden Shakespeare Third Series. Lena Orlin is Chief Executive of the Shakespeare Association of America.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION Ann Thompson THE TEXT AND ITS STATUS Notes and Queries Concerning the Text of Macbeth Anthony B. Dawson Dwelling ‘in doubtful joy’: Macbeth and the Aesthetics of Disappointment Brett Gamboa HISTORY AND TOPICALITY Politic Bodies in Macbeth Dermot Cavanagh ‘To crown my thoughts with acts’: Prophecy and Prescription in Macbeth Debapriya Sarkar Lady Macbeth, First Ladies and the Arab Spring: The Performance of Power on the Twenty-First Century Stage Kevin A. Quarmby CRITICAL APPROACHES AND CLOSE READING ‘A walking shadow’: Place, Perception and Disorientation in Macbeth Darlene Farabee Cookery and Witchcraft in Macbeth Geraldo U. de Sousa The Language of Macbeth Jonathan Hope and Michael Witmore ADAPTATION AND AFTERLIFE The Shapes of Macbeth: The Staged Text Sandra Clark Raising the Violence while Lowering the Stakes: Geoffrey Wright’s Screen Adaptation of Macbeth Philippa Sheppard The Butcher and the Text: Adaptation, Theatricality and the ‘Shakespea(Re)-Told’ Macbeth Ramona Wray

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Book SynopsisMark Taylor-Batty is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the Workshop Theatre, School of English, University of Leeds, UK. He is co-author with Juliette Taylor-Batty, of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (Continuum, 2009), has authored two further books on Harold Pinter's writings, and is co-series editor with Enoch Brater of Methuen Drama's Engage series.Trade Review[The Theatre of Harold Pinter] offers some valuable original insights and its close analysis of the development of Pinter's dramatic themes and aesthetics will be informative to students and general readers alike. -- D. Keith Peacock * Studies in Theatre and Performance *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Invasion and Oppression 2. The Company of Men and the Place of Women 3. Present Continuous, Past Perfect 4. The Impossible Family 5. Politics and the Artist as Citizen 6. Critical Perspectives: The Curse of Pinter, by Harry Burton Revisting Pinter's Women, by Ann Hall Pinter's Memory Plays of the 1970s, by Chris Megson Pinter’s Political Dramas: Staging Neoliberal Discourse and Authoritarianism, by Basil Chiasson Notes Index Notes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisEnoch Brater is Kenneth T. Rowe Collegiate Professor of Dramatic Literature & Professor of English and Theater University of Michigan, USA.Toby Zinman is Professor of English, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, USA.Susan C. W. Abbotson is Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature at Rhode Island College, USA. Stephen Marino is the founding editor of the Arthur Miller Journal and is adjunct professor of English at St Francis College, New York, USA. He is a former president of the Arthur Miller Society.Alan Ackerman is Professor of English at the University of Toronto, Canada.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements A chronology of Miller's life and work Introduction 1. All My Sons 2. Death of Salesman 3. The Crucible 4. A View from the Bridge 5. Broken Glass 6. Questions for study 7. Further reading

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Book SynopsisAbigail Rokison is Lecturer in Drama and English in the Education Faculty in Cambridge and Director of Studies in English and Drama at Homerton College, Cambridge, UK. She is Chair of the trustees of the British Shakespeare Association.Trade ReviewAbigail Rokison provides a comprehensive review of some of the many approaches taken by theatre and film directors, publishers and writers to shape the plays to teenagers and provides sharp, pertinent and knowledgeable evaluations of the successes and shortcomings of this body of work ... Rokison's excellent analysis of the plethora of work designed to entice young people into Shakespeare makes this an invaluable book that educators in schools and arts organisations would benefit from reading. -- Georghia Ellinas, Head of Learning with Globe Education * Around the Globe *Abigail Rokison’s new book is an overview of the myriad interesting and dynamic ways in which recent texts have attempted to make Shakespeare and his works, understandable, relatable, and entertaining for young people . . . I found Rokison’s book most engaging in the examination of stage productions of Shakespeare targeted at young people, offering invaluable audience responses, detailed description, and in-depth analysis of these productions . . . The interviews that follow each chapter on the various stage productions are a fascinating insight into the creative process of adapting Shakespeare for young people . . . The variety of films, comics, and other works discussed throughout is a highlight. -- Marina Gerzic, School of Humanities, The University of Western Australia * Parergon *Well written and doesn’t have too much of a critical research project feel, in spite of the numerous quotes and the extensive bibliography. Rokison certainly knows her stuff. -- Ali Warren * Teaching Drama *Offers a wealth of information on adaptations, graphic novels, animations, and original plays based on Shakespeare. -- Roland Greene, Stanford University * Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama *Table of ContentsIntroduction \ 1. Full-scale Stage Productions for Young People - Shakespeare's Globe: 'Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bankd' - Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth \ 2. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Michael Almereyda's Hamlet and Christine Edzard's The Children's A Midsummer Nights Dream \ 3. 'Shakespeare's Stories': Prose Narratives and Picture Books \ 4. Shakespeare and the Graphic Novel \ 5. Cut-down Stage Versions for Young Children \ 6. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales \ 7. Novel Adaptations of Shakespeare: Hamlet \ 8. Original Plays Based on Shakespeare \ 9. Film Adaptations of Shakespeare - 'Romeo and Juliet the cartoon' and 'High School Dreams' \ Bibliography \ Index

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Book SynopsisPaul Yachnin is Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (IPLAI) at McGill University, Canada.Trade ReviewThis impressive and wide-ranging volume brings together a variety of perspectives to consider the expansive world of words that unfolds on Shakespeare’s stage. One of the most welcome features of Shakespeare’s World of Words is its diverse body of contributors. Essays from literary scholars appear alongside those by theater practitioners and performance scholars … The “opening up” of interpretive possibilities is one of this volume’s best gifts. Readers come away with a renewed perspective on the many elements that render Shakespeare’s world of words so rich. * Shakespeare Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction 1. Well-Won Thrift Michael Bristol (McGill University) and Sara Coodin (University of Oklahoma) 2. Proper Names and Common Bodies: The Case of Cressida David Schalkwyk (Folger Shakespeare Library) 3. Antique/Antic: Archaism, Neologism and the Play of Shakespeare’s Words in Love’s Labor’s Lost and 2 Henry IV Lucy Munro (University of Keele) 4. Learning to Color in Hamlet Miriam Jacobson (University of Georgia) 5. Recasting ‘Angling’ in The Winter's Tale J. A. Shea (Dawson College) 6. ‘What may be and should be’: Grammar Moods and the Invention of History in 1 Henry VI Lynne Magnusson (University of Toronto) 7. Othello and Theatrical Language Sarah Werner (Folger Shakespeare Library) 8. Slips of Wilderness: Verbal and Gestural Language in Measure for Measure Paul Yachnin and Patrick Neilson (McGill University) 9. ‘Captious and Inteemable’: Reading Comprehension in Shakespeare Meredith Evans (Concordia University) 10. ‘Time is their master’: Men and Meter in The Comedy of Errors Jennifer Roberts-Smith (University of Waterloo) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisContributors: Roger Brock (Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Leeds); Chris Carey (Professor of Greek, University College, London); Maria de Fatima Silva (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Maria do Ceu Fialho (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Edward M. Harris (Professor of Greek History, Durham University); Delfim F. Leao (Professor of Classics, University of Coimbra); Douglas M. MacDowell (Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Glasgow); F.S. Naiden (Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill); P.J. Rhodes (formerly Professor of Ancient History, now Honorary Professor, University of Durham); Alan H. Sommerstein (Professor of Greek, University of Nottingham).Trade ReviewEn effet, les auteurs se sont donné pour projet de montrer non seulement comment les pratiques judiciaires permettent de comprendre le théâtre, mais aussi comment le théâtre permet de connaître la justice athénienne. -- BMCR (2010.12.09)

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Book SynopsisMarlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but not least Patient Griselda, an obedient wife out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill's play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights. It was premiered by the Royal Court in 1982."Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell liTrade Review"Top Girls has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind." * The Sunday Times, John Peter *

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Book SynopsisHedda is an intelligent and ambitious woman, trapped in the stifling environment of a bourgeois 19th-century marriage. When writer Eilert Loevborg, an old flame returns to Hedda's life with a masterpiece that might threaten her husband's career, Hedda decides to take drastic and fatal action.

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