Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books
Edinburgh University Press Immateriality and Early Modern English Literature
Book SynopsisExamines literary engagement with immateriality since the ?material turn? in early modern studiesProvides six case studies of works by Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert, offering new readings of important literary texts of the English Renaissance alongside detailed chapters outlining attitudes towards immateriality in works of natural philosophy, medicine, and theologyEmploys an innovative organization around three major areas in which problem of immaterial was particularly pitched: Ontology, Theology, and Psychology (or Being, Believing, and Thinking)Includes wide-ranging references to early modern literary, philosophical, and theological textsDemonstrates how innovations in natural philosophy influenced thought about the natural world and how it was portrayed in literatureEngages with current early modern scholarship in the areas of material culture, cognitive literary studies, and phenomenologyImmateriality and Early Modern English Literature explores how early modern writers responded to rapidly shifting ideas about the interrelation of their natural and spiritual worlds. It provides six case studies of works by Shakespeare, Donne and Herbert, offering new readings of important literary texts of the English Renaissance alongside detailed chapters outlining attitudes towards immateriality in works of natural philosophy, medicine and theology. Building on the importance of addressing material culture in order to understand early modern literature, Knapp demonstrates how the literary imagination was shaped by changing attitudes toward the immaterial realm.
£29.45
Edinburgh University Press Shakespeare and Montaigne
Book SynopsisIntroduces and explores a wide range of fresh approaches to comparative study of Shakespeare and Montaigne.Trade Review"Describing books as 'this world's theatre', Montaigne admitted his curiosity to read and thereby 'discover and know the mind of my authors'. This book's dynamic discoveries about the shared literary, historical and psychological sympathies of Shakespeare and Montaigne illuminates the mind and work of both. It is a field-changing collection. " -Emma Smith, University of Oxford
£28.49
Edinburgh University Press ShakespeareS Essays
Book SynopsisThrough sustained close-readings of Montaigne's essays and Shakespeare's plays, Platt explores both authors' approaches to self, knowledge and form that stress fractures, interruptions and alternatives.
£19.94
Edinburgh University Press Irish Studies Now
Book SynopsisThis volume reflects on the pressing questions for Irish literary studies now. Contributors challenge assumptions within the field, seek to displace the canon, and define alternative paths. The collection reflects on where we have come from and the development of Irish studies both in the Irish University Review and internationally.
£19.94
Edinburgh University Press The Gentle Shepherd
Book SynopsisThe first full and consistent edition of Allan Ramsay's most influential text, The Gentle Shepherd.
£147.25
Edinburgh University Press Variable Objects
Book SynopsisDrawing on new materialism and object-oriented ontology, Variable Objects proposes that Shakespeare is a vibrant object replete with a variable energy that accounts for its infinite meaning-making capacity.Trade Review"This extraordinary collection will have a profound impact on Shakespeare and appropriation studies. Using object-oriented methodology, the authors develop a speculative approach that refigures Shakespeare as a vibrant, multifarious thing" that actively participates in the creation of limitless interpretations and appropriations. The volume opens up new possibilities for the field. "" -Lisa S. Starks, University of South Florida
£24.69
Edinburgh University Press Performing Conversion
Book SynopsisThis volume asks, how did theatrical practice shape the multiplying forms of conversion that emerged in early modern Europe?
£85.50
Edinburgh University Press Performing Conversion
Book SynopsisThis volume asks, how did theatrical practice shape the multiplying forms of conversion that emerged in early modern Europe?
£19.94
Edinburgh University Press Samuel Beckett and Translation
Book SynopsisProvides valuable insight into one of the most exciting developments in Beckett Studies in recent years.
£85.50
Edinburgh University Press Reanimating Shakespeares Othello in PostRacial
Book SynopsisTraces the history of Othello's contemporary citations, adaptations, and appropriations across genres?Trade Review"Brilliant, stunning and illuminating, Reanimating Shakespeare's Othello in Post-Racial America provides vital interventions in Shakespeare studies and adaptation studies. Corredera's argumentation and prose are clear, compelling and very convincing. You will never read or see Othello in the same way again. A must read for all scholars and students of Shakespeare!" -Ayanna Thompson, Arizona State University
£80.75
Edinburgh University Press Sexual Desire and Romantic Love in Shakespeare
Book SynopsisAnalyses how far Shakespeare succeeds in reconciling two polarised areas in the early modern period: sexual desire, or will, and idealised approaches to romantic love.Trade Review"Joan Lord Hall opens a kaleidoscope in this riveting book, which combines sharp historical focus with a vista onto the endlessly moveable erotic possibilities in the poems and plays. This is a true labour of love, the distillation of a lifetime thinking through Shakespeare in his time and our own." -Richard Wilson, Kingston University
£29.45
Edinburgh University Press Hazarding All
Book SynopsisDemonstrates how theatre and theatricalisation serve as the indispensable means for creating a kind of consciousness that exits as an unmediated encounter with actuality.
£76.00
Edinburgh University Press Hazarding All
Book SynopsisDemonstrates how theatre and theatricalisation serve as the indispensable means for creating a kind of consciousness that exits as an unmediated encounter with actuality.Trade Review"In this brilliant pairing of plays, Sanford Budick demonstrates how Shakespeare achieves genuine intersubjectivity by negating the theatricalizing impulses of the ego. On every page of this profound and moving book, knowledge ripens into wisdom, which Budick has earned in a lifetime of serious dialogue with philosophy and literature." -Julia Reinhard Lupton, The University of California, Irvine
£19.94
Edinburgh University Press The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in
Book SynopsisExplores modernism's complex relationship with contemporary theatreTrade Review"The playful spirit of modernism is alive and well in this multi-faceted consideration of that movement's aftershocks on the contemporary stage. If modernism was a provocation and a rupture, this impressive assemblage makes it clear that it is one that is with us still, as theatre artists the world over continually strive to 'make it new'." -David Kornhaber, The University of Texas at Austin
£135.00
Edinburgh University Press Cormac Mccarthy Philosophy and the Physics of the
Book SynopsisExplains Cormac McCarthy's consistent philosophical preoccupations across the span of his literary output.
£85.50
Edinburgh University Press Cormac Mccarthy Philosophy and the Physics of the
Book SynopsisExplains Cormac McCarthy's consistent philosophical preoccupations across the span of his literary output.Trade Review"O'Connor's navigation of the sea of philosophical themes across McCarthy's corpus is exactly the intervention McCarthy studies needed. This lucid, path-breaking book does more than simply codify our sense of McCarthy's personal philosophy. It also helps to clarify what it means for any writer to write philosophical literature." -Chris Eagle, Editor of Beyond Reckoning: Philosophical Approaches to Cormac McCarthy
£18.99
Edinburgh University Press Touching at a Distance
Book SynopsisStudies the capacity of Shakespeare's plays to touch and think about touchTrade Review"Many distances are touched on in Johannes Ungelenk's brilliant new book: distances between actors onstage, between actors and audiences, between men and women, between political authorities and political minorities, between scholars and texts, between control and openness within one's self. Ungelenk's philology of touch" offers an inviting new approach to the practices of contemporary academic writing."" -Bruce R. Smith, University of Southern California
£85.50
West Margin Press All's Well That Ends Well
Book SynopsisAll’s Well That Ends Well (1607) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. All’s Well That Ends Well was likely inspired by the tale of Giletta di Narbona from Boccaccio’s Decameron. Unpopular during Shakespeare’s lifetime, the play remains one of his least staged works to this day. Despite this, scholars praise All’s Well That Ends Well for its moral ambiguity. “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherish’d by our virtues.” For his wit and wordplay alone, William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer to ever work in the English language. Where he truly triumphs, however, is in his ability to portray complex human emotions, how these emotions contribute to relationships, and how these relationships interact with politics, culture, and religion. In All’s Well That Ends Well, as in so many of Shakespeare’s works, love is the center of attention. When Helena heals the King of France, who had been suffering from a persistent illness, he allows her to choose a husband from among his closest advisors. She selects the handsome Bertram, who disdains her for her lowborn social status. Although they marry, he leaves for Italy before consummating their union, failing to suspect the lengths to which Helena will go to get what she desires. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.
£14.69
Hodder & Stoughton Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of
Book Synopsis'Invigorating ... engaging ... thrilling' Samantha Ellis, GUARDIAN'An astonishing tour-de-force . . . Juliet has found the biographer she deserves' Marion TurnerA cultural, historical, and literary exploration of the birth, death, and legacy of the ultimate romantic heroine - Shakespeare's Juliet CapuletJuliet Capulet is the heartbeat of the world's most famous love story. She is an enduring romantic icon. And she is a captivating, brilliant, passionate teenage girl who is read and interpreted afresh by each new generation.Searching for Juliet takes us from the Renaissance origin stories behind William Shakespeare's child bride to the boy actor who inspired her creation onstage. From enslaved people in the Caribbean to Italian fascists in Verona, and real-life lovers in Afghanistan. From the Victorian stage to 1960s cinema, Baz Luhrmann, and beyond.Sophie Duncan draws on rich cultural and historical sources and new research to explore the legacy and reach of Romeo and Juliet far beyond the literary sphere. With warmth, wit, and insight, she shows us why Juliet is for now, for ever, for everyone.'Deeply researched and wryly written, Searching for Juliet makes us think again about a character and a story we thought we knew' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst'Original, stylish, and compelling . . . It's a marvellous book, and one that delivers a powerfully inspiring message to the young Juliets of our own troubled times' Miranda Seymour'A powerful, witty, and provocative exploration of sex and gender, youth and age, love and death' Anna BeerTrade ReviewWitty and scholarly -- Jonathan Bate * Sunday Telegraph *Roving, animated . . . Duncan approaches her subject from all angles, turning Juliet like a gem in the light . . . [and] remains passionately alive to her subject, driven by a genuine affection for a teenager who has survived many attempts at clumsy marketing -- Sophie Elmhirst * Sunday Times *Invigorating . . . Duncan is an engaging guide to Juliet's complex afterlives . . . This book is crammed with interesting nuggets . . . What makes Searching for Juliet so thrilling is the way Duncan weaves all these threads into a compelling history of a singular heroine -- Samantha Ellis * Guardian *Witty and illuminating . . . Duncan is a genial guide and an excellent storyteller with an obvious devotion to her subject . . . Duncan's verve and curiosity, combined with her intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's play, carry the reader along. She has written a history of Juliet that is as vital and provocative as the character herself -- Kirsten Tambling * Literary Review *A buoyant account of Juliet's varied presence on stage and screen but also in real-life contexts as unlikely as Afghan warzones and Jamaican plantations . . . "We each see our own Juliet", Duncan maintains, and her book is richly informed by the ideological, commercial, political and personal motivations behind the many viewpoints she uncovers -- Margreta de Grazia * Times Literary Supplement *Deft, compelling and thoroughly researched * Prospect *I love the combination of authority, research, anger, and dry wit. Sophie Duncan shows us that Juliet has created templates for young women that are both enabling and stifling - and traces that paradox unflinchingly across slave plantations, teenage mental health, and the erotics of the beautiful dead girl. Searching for Juliet offers the play and its reception a fresh kind of attention: a sort of tough love which avoids sentimentality without becoming cynical. Really eye-opening -- Emma Smith, author of This Is ShakespeareShakespeare's Juliet represents far more than passionate but doomed teenage love, and in her brilliant new book Sophie Duncan shows us why. Deeply researched and wryly written, Searching for Juliet makes us think again about a character and a story we thought we knew -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of The Turning PointSophie Duncan's wonderful new book tells the story of the most famous love story of Western literature as you've never seen it before. This story is an astonishing tour-de-force . . . Duncan does not shy away from the dark side of this story but her absolute passion for the subject shines through on every page. Juliet has found the biographer she deserves -- Marion Turner, author of The Wife of Bath: A BiographyIn Verona, an office answers letters posted to Juliet from all over the world. At college, Romeo and Juliet is the top Shakespeare pick by students for their studies. Tracing Juliet's afterlife through many an enthralling by-way, Sophie Duncan begins this original, stylish and compelling narrative with the enthralling and sometimes poignant story of the boy actors and young women who first took on the role of Shakespeare's first eponymous - and wonderfully spirited - heroine. It's a marvellous book, and one that delivers a powerfully inspiring message to the young Juliets of our own troubled times -- Miranda Seymour, author of I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean RhysBreathtaking in its range, this is far more than a deep dive into an ocean of Juliets (although it is, gloriously, that): it is a powerful, witty, and provocative exploration of sex and gender, youth and age, love and death -- Dr Anna Beer, author of Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English LiteratureBursting with energy, wit, and page-turning satisfaction, Sophie Duncan's book unpacks the rich, and sometimes uncomfortable cultural history of Shakespeare's Juliet -- Gilli Bush-Bailey, author of Treading the Bawds: Actresses and Playwrights on the Late Stuart StageSophie Duncan uses her expertise in theatre history to give us both a biography of Shakespeare's Juliet and a capacious cultural study of people and politics. Duncan takes us from Shakespeare's stage through plantation slaves to Mussolini's Italy. She writes with wit and acumen, so that the story of Juliet across the centuries is imbued with personality and compassion. This is an extraordinary achievement -- Laurie Maguire, author of The Rhetoric of the Page
£22.50
Theatre Communications Group Inc.,U.S. Thinking Shakespeare: A working guide for actors,
Book Synopsis
£21.84
Africa World Press Ngugi Wa Thiong'o Drama And The Kamiriithu
Book SynopsisAn in-depth study of the African activist theater and the context of the Ngugi plays.
£29.71
Africa World Press Emerging Perspectives On Akinwumi Isola
Book SynopsisAn in-depth examination of one of Nigeria's leading creative writers - Akinwumi Isola.
£31.96
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc How and Why Stories for Readers Theatre
Book SynopsisHow did the bee get his bumble? How do birds get their feathers? Why is the bluebird blue? Curious first through fifth graders want to know how and why things happen! Judy Wolfman has created 40 Readers Theatre scripts based on imaginative and creative porquoi stories that stem from multicultural folktales as well as Native American Indian legends that attempt to give the answers to these how and why questions. An introduction explains what Readers Theatre is, where, and when it may be used, and suggestions for using it. The 40 scripts are short, with appropriate vocabulary and sentence structure for young readers.
£25.00
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 'What May Words Say . . . ?': A Reading of the
Book Synopsis"What May Words Say…?" A Reading of The Merchant of Venice contains, in a form resembling a running commentary, a comprehensive and in many respects unconventional interpretation of The Merchant of Venice. The play's development of ideas is unfolded in a literary analysis that focuses on the poet's words in their philological, historical, and philosophical contexts. What the words say is that the play is dominated by the three Delphic maxims, Know thyself, Nothing too much, and Give surety and harm is at hand. Within the intellectual and ethical compass of these tenets the two-stranded action of the play is developed, and the question why Shakespeare added the story of the caskets to the story of the bond is answered by the words law and choice, which are as closely connected semantically as the two stories are interrelated in the dramatic structure. The self-knowledge achieved in the musical cadence of the play is everyone's seeing God's image in the other person, and the law finally chosen is forgiveness.Trade ReviewAsks political and moral questions useful for students. * American Behavioral Scientist *Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Beginning to read Chapter 3 Act 1. The Merchant and the Maxims Chapter 4 Act 2. Departure Chapter 5 Act 3. The Choice Chapter 6 Act 4. The Trial Chapter 7 Act 5. Homecoming Chapter 8 Retrospect Chapter 9 Bibliography Chapter 10 Index
£87.00
53rd State Press Particle and Wave: A Conversation
Book SynopsisIn a roving, shimmering conversation that took place in May 2021, scholar, poet, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs and playwright, songwriter, performance artist, and educator Daniel Alexander Jones discuss love as a foundational principle of artistic practice and societal change. Reflecting on Love Like Light, Daniel Alexander Jones's collection of seven plays and performance texts (published by 53rd State in July 2021), DAJ and APG illuminate the ways in which an attention to care, community, nuance, invitation, perceptual particularities, and embodied conditions can resist the profoundly extractive context in which life is lived and art is made. As they discuss the work of Audre Lorde, Billie Holiday, Beah Richards, Bayard Rustin, and Malcolm X, as well as that of DAJ's grandma Daisy Mae and APG's grandmother, aunt, and niece, DAJ and APG propose that love, like light, suffuses everything, and that love, like light, creates a field in which transformation, justice, healing, and radical beauty are not just possible—they are already, now.
£13.15
Aurora Metro Publications The Trial, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony:
Book SynopsisThree distinctive adaptations from a master of total theatre, Steven Berkoff fuses all the elements of drama together in a whole theatrical experience. Combining movement and mime with text to achieve a heightened dramatic intensity, Berkoff takes Kafka's stories and transforms them into a powerful dramatic expression of the inhumanity which plagued the twentieth century and continues unchecked today.Trade Review"Berkoff has a master's ear for vocabulary and rhythm. Everything is heightened - physically, emotionally, intellectually... There's so much to work with and draw from." - Theatre Weekly; "Throughout the play, you find yourself relating to both Gregor, as the one being isolated, but also to his family members who are the cause of that. That makes the show eerily relatable, and it's this quality that allows you to ponder the topic on a deeper level." - everything-theatre.co.uk; "The totality of alienation was stressed through the theatre of shadows. [The family's] greed and stupidity were the forces that concealed, distorted and destroyed what was essential in human nature." - Theatre JournalTable of ContentsSteven Berkoff Author biography Bibliography of Steven Berkoff Foreword by Cheryl Robson preface to The Trial by Steven Berkoff The Trial by Franz Kafka adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff preface to Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff preface to In the Penal Colony by Steven Berkoff In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff Awards
£14.24
Benediction Classics Romeo and Juliet
£13.87
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Rosalind: A Biography of Shakespeare's Immortal
Book SynopsisAngela Thirlwell explores the fictitious life and the many after-lives of Rosalind, Shakespeare's progressive new heroine, and her perennial influence on drama, fiction and art. The book ranges widely across Tudor history, theatre history, sexual politics, autobiography, art history and filmography. This highly original 'biography' of Rosalind - Shakespeare's greatest female creation - contains exclusive new interviews with Juliet Rylance, Sally Scott, Janet Suzman, Juliet Stevenson, Michelle Terry, award-winning director Blanche McIntyre, as well as insights from Michael Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Greg Doran, Rebecca Hall, Adrian Lester, Pippa Nixon, Vanessa Redgrave and Fiona Shaw.
£24.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Shakespeare: The Theatre of Our World
Book SynopsisIn 1623 the actors John Heminges and Henry Condell assembled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, better known as The First Folio. In doing so they preserved literature's most dramatically vital and poetically rich account of our human world. Endlessly reinterpreted by critics and performers, Shakespeare's inexhaustible work has remained abreast of contemporary concerns ever since, and it continues to hold a mirror up to the nature of our troubled society and our contradictory selves. The plays accompany us through the ages of mankind, from comic springtime to wintry age, compressing our life in time into the three hours' traffic of the stage; the characters in them have shaped the way we think about politics and war, consciousness and morality, love and death. Peter Conrad examines the world-view of the plays, their generic originality and their astonishingly inventive language. He goes on to explore Shakespeare's global legacy as his characters migrate to every continent and are reinvented by later writers, painters, composers, choreographers and film-makers.Trade ReviewThe success of Peter Conrad's Shakespeare [...] lies in the balance it strikes between personal, confessional, emotional responses such as Flaubert's, and more critical perspectives * TLS *
£17.09
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Dear Mr. Shakespeare: Letters to a Jobbing
Book SynopsisA wonderful book for aficionados, actors, academics, and audiences alike. This is a unique introduction and guide to Shakespeare’s life and times, a uniquely modern take on Shakespeare by a man uniquely qualified to write about him. Imagines Shakespeare having to deal with the attitudes of modern times.
£14.87
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Whiter than Snow & Diary of an Action Man
Book SynopsisTwo plays for young people by one distinctive voice. Diary of An Action Man and Whiter Than Snow reveal an imagination that has raised the writer Mike Kenny onto the international stage. Renowned for producing multi-layered, stimulating children’s plays, his work often also appeals to adults. Refreshingly bold, adeptly sculpted and highly original, these texts draw audiences into the real myths of childhood and challenge our perceptions of normality. Whiter than Snow opened at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich in March 2009 in a production by Graeae.
£12.58
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Mapping Shakespeare: An exploration of
Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare’s lifetime (1564–1616) spanned the reigns of the last of the Tudors, Elizabeth I and the first of the Stuart kings, James I and the changing times and political mores of the time were reflected through his plays. This beautiful new book looks at the England in which Shakespeare worked through maps and illustrations that reveal the way that he and his contemporaries saw their land and their place in the world. It also explores the locations of his plays and looks at the possible inspirations for these and why Shakespeare would have chosen to set his stories there.
£18.75
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Women Beware Women: A critical guide
Book SynopsisThis is a comprehensive introduction to Thomas Middleton's "Women Beware Women" - introducing its critical history, performance history, the current critical landscape and new directions in research on the play. Thomas Middleton's intense study of betrayal, corruption, lust and violence, "Women Beware Women", is one of the revenge tragedies most commonly studied and performed today. This guide offers students an introduction to its critical and performance history, including notable stage productions, TV, audio and film versions and dramatic and text adaptations. It includes a keynote chapter outlining major areas of current research on the play and four new critical essays. Finally, a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further individual research. "Continuum Renaissance Drama" offers practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performative contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Each guide introduces the text's critical and performance history but also provides students with an invaluable insight into the landscape of current scholarly research through a keynote essay on the state of the art and newly commissioned essays of fresh research from different critical perspectives.Trade ReviewThis comprehensive collection of essays, beginning with Andrew Hiscock's historical account of Women Beware Women, combines fresh research, provocative new interpretations and a useful account of performances of one of Middleton's most powerful plays. Such established scholars as Helen Wilcox, Robert C. Evans and Coppelia Kahn join new voices for pioneering work on a major English playwright. -- Arthur F. Kinney, Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary History and Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amhers, USAWomen Beware Women: A Critical Guide provides a comprehensive critical and historical overview of the play, as well as views on the genre, the teaching of the text, and the performance techniques employed in staging the play. -- Gul Kurtulus * Sixteenth Century Journal *Table of ContentsSeries Introduction; Timeline; Introduction; 1. The Critical Backstory, Robert Evans (Auburn University at Montgomery, USA); 2. Performance History, Paul Innes (University of Glasgow, UK); 3. The State of the Art - Current Critical Research, Joost Daalder (Flinders University, Australia); 4. New Directions 1: Edward Gieskes (University of South Carolina, USA); 5. New Directions 2: Coppelia Kahn (Brown University, USA); 6. New Directions 3: Anne McLaren (University of Liverpool, UK); 7. New Directions 4: Helen Wilcox (University of Wales Bangor, UK); Resources. Liz Oakley-Brown (University of Lancaster, UK); Notes on Contributors; Index.
£31.99
Nick Hern Books I Am Shakespeare
Book SynopsisA fascinating, witty and characteristically exuberant dramatic exploration of the Shakespeare authorship debate. Is it possible that the son of an illiterate tradesman, from a small market town in Warwickshire, could have written the greatest dramatic works the world has ever seen? It’s a question that has puzzled scholars, theatre practitioners and theatregoers for many years. The philosopher, Francis Bacon; the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere; and Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: all of them have been put forward as the real author of the plays. But why would they hide behind an anonymous actor? Who was the real Bard of Stratford? Why should we care? Mark Rylance is one of a number of leading actors who seriously question the idea that William Shakespeare was the man behind the thirty-seven plays that have moved, inspired and amazed generations. First performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2007, and subsequently on tour, Rylance’s provocative play introduces us to four candidates and their respective claims – whilst asking fundamental questions about what makes a genius, and why it all matters anyway.Trade Review'Witty, gloriously funny and wonderfully well-written… the best thing I have seen for years' * The Stage *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Shakespeare in 100 Objects: Treasures from the
Book SynopsisWithin the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's leading museum of art and design, there lies an extraordinary wealth of material relating to a single individual: the playwright William Shakespeare. This book presents a fascinating selection of one hundred objects – often surprising, always delightful – chosen by the museum’s curators for the insight each affords into the world of Shakespeare and his plays. The objects are drawn from across the V&A's rich and varied collections. There are paintings, sculptures, pieces of jewellery, engravings and figurines. There are posters and playbills, costume designs, photographs, illustrations and film stills. Also included are original costumes worn by Henry Irving, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Rudolf Nureyev and Ian McKellen. Amongst the more unexpected objects are a bed (the Great Bed of Ware, which Shakespeare mentions in Twelfth Night), a sword (presented to Edmund Kean after his performance as Macbeth) and a real human skull (Yorick to Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet). Some of the greatest Shakespearean performances and productions of all time are memorialised, including Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet, Ellen Terry's Lady Macbeth, John Gielgud's Lear, Olivier's Richard III, Paul Robeson's Othello, many of Henry Irving's performances, David Garrick's celebratory Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 and Peter Brook's iconic 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Each object is illustrated in full colour and is accompanied by a compact essay on its history, its provenance, and what it has to tell us about Shakespeare and his plays, particularly in performance. The result is a book that not only underlines Shakespeare's infinite variety, but also reveals his astonishing legacy in material things, a substantial pageant that has not faded.Trade Review'An attractive book containing lots of gems of information about our national playwright from across history... an easy, enjoyable and informative read' * British Theatre Guide *'Beautiful... This book not only illuminates the reader's understanding of Shakespeare but highlights this extraordinary wealth of material in the [V&A's] collections. It's the sort of book you will come to again and again to dip into.' * Drama Resource *'A glorious, serendipitous tour around Shakespeare's life, work and times' * The Stage *'A wonderful and fascinating collection of material… The accompanying commentary is always very well informed. The book will appeal to anybody interested in Shakespeare in performance' * Mature Times *
£17.99
Nick Hern Books Year of the Fat Knight (Hardback): The Falstaff
Book SynopsisThirty years ago a promising young actor published his account of preparing for and playing the role of Richard III. Antony Sher's Year of the King has since become a classic of theatre literature. In 2014, Sher, now in his sixties, was cast as Falstaff in Gregory Doran's Royal Shakespeare Company production of the two parts of Henry IV. Both the production and Sher's Falstaff were acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, with Sher winning the Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance. Year of the Fat Knight is Antony Sher's account - splendidly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches - of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare's best-known and most popular characters. He tells us how he had doubts about playing the part at all, how he sought to reconcile Falstaff's obesity, drunkenness, cowardice and charm, how he wrestled with the fat suit needed to bulk him up, and how he explored the complexities and contradictions of this comic yet often dangerous personality. On the way, Sher paints a uniquely close-up portrait of the RSC at work.Year of the Fat Knight is a terrific read, rich in humour and with a built-in tension as opening night draws relentlessly nearer. It also stands as a celebration of the craft of character acting. All in all, it is destined to rank with Year of the King as one of the most enduring accounts of the creation of a giant Shakespearean role. Praise for Year of the King: 'This is a most wonderfully authentic account of the experience of creating a performance' Sunday Times 'The most exciting actor of his generation and an eloquent writer on the side' Observer Praise for Sher's Falstaff: 'A magnificent, magnetic performance - Sher plays down the fatness to emphasise the knight's upper-class origins. But, just as you start to warm to this Falstaff, you are reminded of his rapacity' Guardian 'It is Sher's irrepressible Falstaff that will linger in the memory - a lord of misrule who's absurd, delightful and in the end deeply sad' Evening StandardTrade Review'A fascinating book, whether you love Shakespeare, whether you love theatre, even if you don't... unfailingly honest... a brilliant portrayal of a character actor' - Claudia Winkelman, The BBC Radio 2 Arts Show 'A brilliantly full-bodied account that mixes the practicalities of a performance with artistic ambitions. You learn as much about Sher himself as you do about Falstaff... far more instructive about acting than any number of how-to guides' - WhatsOnStage 'Far from simply a primer on the art of acting... [Sher's] tone is relaxed, intimate, even confidential, open about his personal foibles and relationships... a book about life as well as about acting' - The Spectator 'One of the most compelling non-fiction books I've read in a long time... chatty, frank, funny and enlightening... anyone wanting to know exactly how a show is created from beginning to end will find it all here... I enjoyed Sher's earlier book, Year of the King, about his journey to create Richard III, but this is even better' - The Stage 'A joyful outpouring of a man at the top of his game... totally enthralling from start to finish' - Books Monthly
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Jessica Swale's Blue Stockings: A guide for
Book SynopsisJessica Swale's Blue Stockings is the empowering and surprising story of four young women fighting for their right to a university education in a world that assumed women belonged at home. First produced professionally at Shakespeare's Globe in 2013, and a sell-out success, it is now regularly performed by theatre groups in the UK and beyond, and widely studied by GCSE Drama students. This Page to Stage guide, written by the playwright, who also directed the first production at RADA, along with her assistant director Lois Jeary, is packed with contextual information, scene-by-scene and character breakdowns, and personal insights into the world of the play and the real lives that inspired it. An invaluable resource for those studying and staging the play, it takes you through the entire production process, considering each of the elements in turn, from sound and music to design and rehearsals. You'll also find notes from the original rehearsal process, extracts from working diaries, and interviews with key members of the creative team. Throughout, there are hints and tips on staging, and helpful games and exercises to bring the play to life on the stage and in the classroom. Highly accessible and uniquely authoritative, it is the indispensible guide for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play.Trade Review'Extremely helpful… offers great detail, whilst also offering space to explore and be creative… this is a book that many will pick up and use as an exemplar of how to prepare any play, not just Blue Stockings' * Drama Magazine *'Very accessible… the suggested games and exercises are excellent… you certainly need this book if you're teaching and / or directing Blue Stockings. There's also plenty here for the students themselves to read and reflect on' * Ink Pellet *'For anyone working on or studying the play, this book is invaluable' * Word Matters - Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Euripides
Book SynopsisSophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama, Euripides is characterized as the interloper and the innovator: the man who put tragic verse into the mouths of slaves, women and the socially inferior in order to address vital social issues such as sex, class and gender relations. It is perhaps little wonder that his work should find such resonance in the modern day. In this concise introduction, Isabelle Torrance engages with the thematic, cultural and scholarly difficulties that surround his plays to demonstrate why Euripides remains a figure of perennial relevance. Addressing here issues of social context, performance theory, fifth-century philosophy and religion, textual criticism and reception, the author presents an astute and attractively-written guide to the Euripidean corpus – from the widely read and celebrated Medea to the lesser-known and deeply ambiguous Alcestis.Trade ReviewThis book was a pleasure to read. Torrance throughout presents the reader with densely packed information, clearly written, laced with good scholarly judgement and ample citation of recent secondary sources … Students and instructors, not just in Classics, will find this an excellent and reliable book that provides a fine introduction to Euripides' dramatic themes … Torrance's enthusiasm for her subject shines throughout the volume. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *An excellent general introduction to Euripides – well-written, stimulating and full of ideas. Torrance brings the plays to life and manages to convey a real sense of what was so distinctive about Euripidean drama. -- Matthew Wright, Professor of Greek, University of Exeter, UKA book of very high quality, which offers a large audience a highly intellectual introduction. This study indeed pays homage to the many facets of a body of work which is not only well constructed, but which, as Torrance puts it, "has the power to present a very wide range of questions on the human condition". * Revue des Etudes Anciennes (Bloomsbury Translation) *Table of ContentsI. Life and Works II. Spectacular Theatre III. Religion and Philosophy IV. Rhetoric and Relevance V. Literary Sophistication VI. Conflicts: Ancient and Modern Conclusion Bibliography Index
£22.29
Benediction Classics The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar - with Footnotes and Indexes
£23.57
Oneworld Publications Shakespeare: A Beginner's Guide
Book SynopsisWhether the fault of tedious teachers or hammy actors, Shakespeare is often seen as dry and impenetrable. In this fast-paced introduction, Ros King sets out to remind us of the sheer beauty and sophistication that can make Shakespeare's works a joy for any audience. Exploring his invention, wit, along with his uncanny characterisation, King argues archaic language should be no barrier to the modern reader. With summaries of The Bard's life and background, explanations of the plays' origins, and instructions on how to read his poetry, Shakespeare: A Beginner's Guide provides all the tools the general reader needs to embrace our greatest writer.
£9.49
Bloodaxe Books Ltd Reading Paul Muldoon
Book SynopsisPaul Muldoon is one of the most exciting and accomplished poets writing in English. Few authors display such mastery of the language, form and measure of poetry, while at the same time opening poetry up to all the contemporary forces of disorder, contingency and confusion. But for this very reason, Muldoon’s is a complex and demanding body of work. Clair Wills's study, which covers the first 25 years of Muldoon's poetic output, is written both for the general poetry reader as well as those with a professional interest in poetry. In this highly readable book, Clair Wills takes the measure of Muldoon’s poetic gifts. She offers close readings of many of the major poems, while also assessing the general features of his unmistakeable style, and his relation to ] this is a repetitive device beyond anything which an attentive reader of the individual poem could be expected to grasp.?cant predecessors such as Robert Frost and Seamus Heaney. Her book also highlights the major themes in Muldoon’s poetry, such as autobiography and the question of origins, sexuality, Irish myth and legend, history and political violence in Northern Ireland, and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters. Clair Wills tracks Muldoon’s poetic development, exploring the key concerns of each of his books, from New Weather (1973) to Hay (1998). Concluding with an evaluation of Muldoon’s then most recent collection, Hay, her study will be an essential reference point for discussions of this important poet. Her chapter on Hay was the first critical essay to note that Muldoon's long poem ‘Third Epistle to Timothy’ in Hay not only rhymes with two other long poems in that collection, ‘The Mud Room’ and ‘The Bangle (Slight Return)’, but also that these poems in turn "rhyme" with the two long poems in Muldoon's previous collection, Annals of Chile (1994), ‘Yarrow’ and ‘Incantata’: 'Each poem uses the same ninety rhyme words, and in the same order as they ?rst occur in ‘Yarrow’, but in different verse forms, so that the repetition is undetectable unless you are looking for it. […] this is a repetitive device beyond anything which an attentive reader of the individual poem could be expected to grasp.'
£10.95
Headline Publishing Group British Dramatists
Book SynopsisPart of the "Writers' Britain" series, first published in the 1940s. This work offers Graham Greene's evaluation of British drama, from its roots in the Mystery and Miracle plays of the market carnival through Shakespeare and the Restoration to the 20th century.
£8.50
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Four Greek Authors
Book Synopsis
£25.99
Nick Hern Books Performing Shakespeare: Preparation, Rehearsal,
Book SynopsisAn authoritative, hands-on guide through the practical challenges involved in performing Shakespeare. Drawing on a lifetime's experience of playing Shakespearean roles, Oliver Ford Davies offers practical advice to actors, directors and drama students on a wide variety of scenes, characters, speeches and individual lines from almost every one of the plays. The three core sections of Performing Shakespeare take us through the whole process of Preparation, Rehearsal and Performance, preceded by discussions of the Elizabethan actor and Shakespeare's language. Also included are revealing interviews with other notable Shakespearean actors including Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Harriet Walter, Simon Russell Beale and Juliet Stevenson. 'An invaluable guide to those who act and to all those who wish to gain deeper insights into the performance of Shakespeare's plays' Stanley Wells from his ForewordTrade Review'Terrific... should be read by anyone who wants to understand more about the Bard, his players, his times and today's interpretations of his stupendous creations... a great book for anyone who loves the theatre' * Observer *'It is hard to offer enough praise to this book... a tremendous knowledge of the canon... the writing is always practical and never dry or dull... might become definitive guidance for many who wish to follow in the author's footsteps' * British Theatre Guide *
£12.34
Rudolf Steiner Press The Mystery of the Portal: A Guide to Rudolf
Book SynopsisThe philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner was also a radical dramatist who wrote four lengthy and complex plays. The first of these, The Portal of Initiation, is rich in content and artistically presented, but leaves us with questions: Why is the first scene so long and many speeches so lengthy? Why are our usual expectations of drama not met? Was Steiner really a competent dramatist? In this essential guide, Trevor Dance suggests that the first step to appreciating The Portal of Initiation is to understand Steiner's methods. The play belongs to the tradition of Mystery Dramas from ancient times - artistic works intended as vehicles for inner development. Steiner thus combines aspects of Goethe's alchemical fable The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily with the spiritual growth of contemporary individuals - all in the broader context of reincarnation and karma. With accessibility in mind, the author provides a clear synopsis of each scene and introduces us to the characters - a collection of rustics, sophisticates, hierophants and spiritual entities. Their dilemmas and challenges take place on many layers of reality: from a room in Sophia's house to the exalted Sun Temple. Revealing the enigmas behind the creation and content of The Portal of Initiation, Dance enables us not only to enjoy the play, but also to love it. His lucid guide - the first of its kind - is an ideal introduction for both individual readers and study groups.
£14.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Pinter and the Object of Desire: An Approach
Book SynopsisHarold Pinter was fascinated by film long before the theatre, but the importance of his screenplays, based on the work of other writers, has been overlooked. Renton shows him working from manuscript to final text to engage the spectator in a relationship of desire, or anxiety, with what is unseen. A newly discovered poem links Pinter to the Surrealists, and through the Surrealists to their contemporary, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-81). The present study shows Pinter working differently from mainstream cinema, places him at the forefront of film theory, and offers a fresh insight into his entire output.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements, Note on Manuscripts, Abbreviations, 1 Vision and the Object of Desire, 2 The Object of Desire in the Screenplay Adaptations, 3 The Remains of the Day: The Lost Object of Desire, 4 The Handmaid's Tale: The Object Almost Achieved, 5 Victory: The Object of Anxiety, 6 The Object of Desire in the Plays and Other Works, Conclusion, Bibliography, Index
£39.99
The Lilliput Press Ltd Interpreting Synge: Essays from the Synge Summer
Book SynopsisJohn Millington Synge, controversial in his own time and long established as a major figure of world theatre, has nonetheless suffered relative critical neglect. Where his great contemporaries Yeats and Joyce and his outstanding successor Beckett have attracted whole industries of scholarly attention, Synge, by reason of his short life and limited output, has been relegated to the unconsidered category of minor classic. This volume of essays, arising from lectures given at the Synge Summer School by some of the most distinguished writers and scholars of Irish literature, sets about the necessary task of interpreting Synge: his relation to cultural and theatrical contexts; the significance of his plays; the distinctive quality of his language and the thematic matrices of his work. Four original poems, specially commissioned for the book, provide an imaginative counterpoint to the critical interpretation of the essays.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Nicholas Grene, on the margins: Synge and Wicklow; R.F.Foster, good behaviour: Yeats, Synge and Anglo-Irish etiquette; Frank McGuinness, John Millington Synge and the King of Norway; Angela Bourke, Keening as theatre; Tom Pualin, riders to the sea: a revisionist tragedy; Antionette Quinn, staging the Irish peasant woman: Maud Gonne v. Synge; Christopher Morash, all playboys now: the audience and the riot; Martin Hilsky, re-imagining Synge's language: the Czech experience; Declan Kiberd, the making and unmaking of myth: Synge as anthropologist; Anthony Roche, Synge: the woman and the tramp; Ann Saddlemyer, Synge's soundscape
£26.96
Maney Publishing Playing with Gender: The Comedies of Goldoni
Book SynopsisThis work takes gender as its point of entry into the comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1707-93). The dramatization of femininity and masculinity is explored in conjunction with that of other social categories (class, the family, and age). The plays reinforce the patriarchal association of femininity with the body, with spectacle, and with theatricality, while the dramatic backdrop of Venice and carnival provides a context for the staging of issues relating to identity, disguise and fashion. In the plays, pretence and theatricality vie with bourgeois Enlightenment values of morality, honesty and respectability to produce dramatic tension with distinct gender implications.Table of ContentsIntroduction; I: Honest Women: Morality and Idealized Femininity; II: Off Limits: Femininity and the Stage; III: A Woman's Place: The Angel in the House; IV: Artful Women: Staging Subversion; V: Surface Mobilities: Identity, Disguise and Fashion; VI: Masculinity and Materialism: Money, Sex and Power; VII: Class Acts: The Drama of Difference; VIII: Fear of Fiction: Theatricality, Pretence and Femininity
£52.20
