Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisSmart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don''t: The exhilaration of the act. The New YorkerUnder the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama''s Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.Trade ReviewA fresh, exciting portrait of a brilliant mind. * Ben Brantley, The New York Times *Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act. * The New Yorker *Plays about painters are fraught with difficulty. Either the hero preaches about art without practicing it, or the Bohemian lifestyle supersedes the work. But John Logan's play about Mark Rothko overcomes these obstacles with finesse... It's a measure of the play's success that it makes you want to rush out and renew acquaintance with Rothko's work.' * Michael Billington, The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisIn Migdalia Cruz'sMacbeth, the Witches run the world.TheMacbeths live out a dark cautionary tale of love,greed,and power,falling from glory into calamityas the Witches spin their fate.Translating Shakespeare's languagefora modernaudience, Nuyorican playwright Migdalia CruzrewritesMacbethwith all the passion of the Bronx.This translation ofMacbethwaspresented in 2018as part ofthe Play On!Shakespeareproject,an ambitious undertakingfromthe Oregon Shakespeare Festivalthat commissioned new translations of 39 Shakespeare plays.These translations present the Bard's work in language accessible to modern audienceswhile never losing the beauty of Shakespeare's verse.Enlisting thetalentsofa diverse group ofcontemporary playwrights, screenwriters, and dramaturges from diverse backgrounds,this projectreenvisionsShakespeare for thetwenty-firstcentury.These volumes make these works available for the first time in printanewFirst Folio fora new era.

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Book SynopsisStudies alternative concepts to received theories and practices of poetry in early modern England

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Arthur Miller''s classic tragedy brings the play alive for students whether in the classroom or drama studio. With activities that target exactly the right level plus in-depth biographical and contextual information to deepen students'' understanding of the play, this edition provides comprehensive, relevant and engaging support for 14-16 students. The brand new design ensures that the text and supporting materials are the clearest and most accessible available. Set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible exposes the tensions caused by gossip and rumour within a tight-knit community, where eventually no one is safe from accusation and vengeance. Seen as a parallel to McCarthyism and the fear of communism in 1950s America, the play''s themes of truth, justice, honour, mass hysteria and individuality still resonate with audiences around the world today.

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Book SynopsisExam Board: AQALevel: GCSE Grade 9-1Subject: English LiteratureSuitable for the 2024 examsEverything you need to revise for your GCSE 9-1 set text in a snap guideEverything you need to score top marks on your GCSE Grade 9-1 English Literature exam is right at your fingertips! Revise The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare in a snap with this new GCSE Grade 9-1 Snap Revision Text Guide from Collins. Refresh your knowledge of the plot, context, characters and themes and pick up top tips along the way to ace your AQA exam. Each topic is explained in an easy-to-read format so you can get straight to the point. Then, put your skills to the test with plenty of practice questions included in every section. The Snap Text Guides are packed with every quote and extract you need. We've even included examples of how to plan and write your essay responses! For more revision on Shakespeare, check out our Snap Revision Text Guides on Macbeth (9780008247089) and Romeo and Juliet (9780008247072).

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Book SynopsisA reticent personnel manager living with his mother, Mr Newman shares the prejudices of his times and of his neighbours - and neither a Hispanic woman abused outside his window nor the persecution of the Jewish store owner he buys his paper from are any of his business. Until Newman begins wearing glasses, and others begin to mistake him for a Jew.Arthur Miller''s chilling novel displays the same searing moral precision and emotional intensity of his plays, as the intensity of anti-Semitism in 1945 New York mounts, and the prejudices Newman shares begin to turn threateningly against him.

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Book SynopsisNo Hamlets is the first critical account of the role of Shakespeare in the intellectual tradition of the political right in Germany from the founding of the Empire in 1871 to the ''Bonn Republic'' of the Cold War era. In this sustained study, Andreas Höfele begins with Friedrich Nietzsche and follows the rightist engagement with Shakespeare to the poet Stefan George and his circle, including Ernst Kantorowicz, and the literary efforts of the young Joseph Goebbels during the Weimar Republic, continuing with the Shakespeare debate in the Third Reich and its aftermath in the controversy over ''inner emigration'' and concluding with Carl Schmitt''s Shakespeare writings of the 1950s. Central to this enquiry is the identification of Germany and, more specifically, German intellectuals with Hamlet. The special relationship of Germany with Shakespeare found highly personal and at the same time highIy political expression in this recurring identification, and in its denial. But Hamlet is not the only Shakespearean character with strong appeal: Carl Schmitt''s largely still unpublished diaries of the 1920s reveal an obsessive engagement with Othello which has never before been examined. Interest in German philosophy and political thought has increased in recent Shakespeare studies. No Hamlets brings historical depth to this international discussion. Illuminating the constellations that shaped and were shaped by specific appropriations of Shakespeare, Höfele shows how individual engagements with Shakespeare and a whole strand of Shakespeare reception were embedded in German history from the 1870s to the 1950s and eventually 1989, the year of German reunification.Trade ReviewIn taking this long view, Höfele rectifies any misconceptions we might have that 'right-wing Shakespeare' is purely a phenomenon of the Second World War, and in doing so he sheds fascinating light on less familiar aspects of German history in relation to right-wing politics and ideals and Shakespeare's role within these ... The position of Shakespeare comes full circle, from serving anti-democratic, racist, and fundamentalist causes, only to re-emerge as a powerful force in the midst of liberating and forward-thinking voices. Shakespeare, Hamlet, and to some extent Othello, thus become the keys to understanding German history, psyche, and identity in this powerful study. Höfele's work has all the potential to become an instant classic, a standard work for academics and teachers alike. * Alessandra Bassey, Modern Language Review *I cannot remember reading so compelling, important, and revelatory a Shakespeare book as this one ... This is a wonderfully, indeed movingly well-written book but the quality which particularly singles out No Hamlets is its intellectual and moral honesty. * Shakespeare Jahrbuch *Höfele tells a remarkable story about the way Shakespeare provides imaginative resources for some of the most challenging and troubling thought of the modern era ... also very much engaged with current conversations in early modern studies. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations A Note on Texts and Translations Introduction 1: Highest Formula: Nietzsche's Shakespeare 2: Shakespeare in the Master's Circle: Stefan George and the 'Secret Germany' 3: In the Master's Circle (II): Ernst Kantorowicz 4: Millions of Ghosts: Weimar Hamlets and the Sorrows of Young Goebbels 5: Little Otto: Carl Schmitt and the Moor of Venice 6: Third Reich Shakespeare 7: 'But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue': Hamlet in Inner Emigration 8: Hamlet in Plettenberg: Carl Schmitt and the Intrusion of the Time 9: Epilogue: Welcome to the Machine. Berlin 1989 Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMacbeth before Shakespeare is a history of the medieval King Macbeth and his legend that was the basis for William Shakespeare's Tragedie of Macbeth. It traces the life of the real man and his important innovations, while showing how different legends were created in subsequent eras.Trade ReviewBenjamin Hudson's Macbeth before Shakespeare is a very entertaining and educating read. It succeeds very well in bringing out the man behind the myth, as well as explaining how the man became the myth. Hudson is a master of all the materials and languages required for the job, and he knows the history of Ireland and Britain around the year 1000 intimately. * Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, National University of Ireland, Galway *Here at last we have a solid and detailed account of the historical Macbeth. Ben Hudson is the historian of Celtic Scotland in the central Middle Ages, and he provides us with a readable narrative of the origins of the kingdom of the Scots and Macbeth's role as one of its most energetic and effective kings prior to Scotland's vassalage to their Anglo-Norman neighbor to the south. We see here the process by which Shakespeare inherited the history and legends surrounding Macbeth and the 'three weird sisters,' how Scots were generally perceived in Tudor England, and whether or not there could have been surviving children of Macbeth and his Lady. This is a meticulously constructed history of Scots, Viking, and English relations in the tumultuous eleventh century and a fascinating glimpse into how this particular Scottish monarch—called by one contemporary poet 'the red king'—made his way onto the Elizabethan stage. * Christopher A. Snyder, author of The Britons *This fascinating examination is an important contribution to medieval and early modern Scottish and British history, literature, folklore, and drama. Combining an unrivalled mastery of a complex array of sources with expert use of multiple methodologies, Benjamin Hudson deftly unveils the story of one of Scotland's most enigmatic figures across half a millennium as he explores the evolution of Macbeth from an historical, eleventh-century ruler of Scotland to the infamous Shakespearean literary villain of five-and-a-half centuries later. * R. Andrew McDonald, Brock University *Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsNote on Methodology List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: A Man and a Legend Chapter 1: Macbeth: Place and Past Chapter 2: Macbeth Emerges Chapter 3: King of All the Scots Chapter 4: Fame and Defamation Chapter 5: Not the Beginning of the Legend Chapter 6: Weird Sisters and the Prior of Loch Leven Chapter 7: Macbeth and Renaissance Scotland Chapter 8: The Scot in Tudor England Chapter 9: Macbeth before Shakespeare Conclusion Appendix 1: Children of Macbeth Appendix 2: Andrew of Wyntoun's Macbeth Episode: A Translation Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a book about Greek culture. It explains why Greek comedy picked out food in particular as a cultural marker. Hundreds of comic fragments are quoted in translation. The development of comedy is explored together with comic creativity as poets sought to represent 'reality' (figs or cooking-pots) on the stage.Trade ReviewThis is a fascinating and original book, spiced with liberal quotations (all translated) from comic fragments alongside discussion of the plays of Aristophanes and Menander * Greece & Rome *Offers a more multi-sided approach to ancient cooking and its practitioners than any other available * Simon Goldhill, Times Literary Supplement *A scholarly book * Simon Goldhill, Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms expands the scope of modernism beyond its traditional focus to explore the contributions of artists from regions like Spain, the Balkans, China, Japan, India, Vietnam, and Nigeria. Together, these essays offer the most comprehensive worldwide examination of modernist studies available. Topics covered include: Richard Wright and photographic modernism; poetry of the Caribbean; Chinese modernism and Lu Xun''s Ah Q-The Real Story; Ben Okri and magical realism; aesthetic autonomy in Paris, Italy, Russia; Cuba''s avant-gardes; geography of Hebrew and Yiddish modernism in Europe; Japanese modernism in works by Kitagawa Fuyuhiko and Yokomitsu Riichi; and South African cinema.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Mark Wollaeger ; Part I : Opening Places, Opening Methods ; 1. The Balkans Uncovered: Towards Historie Croisee of Modernism ; Sanja Bahun ; 2 . Caribbean Modernism: Plantation to Planetary ; Mary Lou Emery ; Part II : Temporality ; 3. Berber Poetry and the Issue of Derivation: Alternate Symbolist ; Trajectories ; Edwige Tamalet Talbayev ; 4. The Temporalities of Modernity in Spanish American Modernismo : ; Dario's Bourgeois King ; Gerard Aching ; 5. Nation Time: Richard Wright, Black Power, and Photographic ; Modernism ; Sara Blair ; 6. Chinese Modernism, Mimetic Desire, and European Time ; Eric Hayot ; Part III : Whose Modernism? ; 7. The Will to Allegory and the Origin of Chinese Modernism: ; Rereading Lu Xun's Ah Q-Th e Real Story ; Xudong Zhang ; 8. Neither Mirror nor Mimic: Transnational Reading and Indian ; Narratives in English ; Jessica Berman ; 9. Modernism and African Literature ; Neil Lazarus ; Part IV: Forms and Modes ; 10. " Petro-Magic Realism": Ben Okri's Infl ationary Modernism ; Sarah L. Lincoln ; 11. Little Magazines, World Form ; Eric Bulson ; 12. Poetry, Modernity, Globalization ; Jahan Ramazani ; Part V: Comparative Avant-Gardes ; 13. Futurist Geographies: Uneven Modernities and the Struggle for ; Aesthetic Autonomy: Paris, Italy, Russia, 1909-1914 ; Harsha Ram ; 14. Modernity's Labors in Latin America: Th e Cultural Work of Cuba's ; Avant-Gardes ; Vicky Unruh ; 15. Queer Internationalism and Modern Vietnamese Aesthetics ; Ben Tran ; Part VI: Forms of Sociality ; 16. Cosmopolitanism and Modernism ; Janet Lyon ; 17. Jean Rhys: Left Bank Modernist as Postcolonial Intellectual ; Peter Kalliney ; 18. The Urban Literary Cafe and the Geography of Hebrew and Yiddish ; Modernism in Europe ; Shachar Pinsker ; Part VII : Locating the Transnational ; 19. Th e Circulation of Interwar Anglophone and Hispanic ; Modernisms ; Gayle Rogers ; 20. Scandinavian Modernism: Stories of the Transnational ; and the Discontinuous ; Anna Westerstahl Stenport ; 21. World Modernisms, World Literature, and Comparativity ; Susan Stanford Friedman ; Part VIII : Translation Zones: Culture, Language, Media ; 22. Modernism Disfi gured: Turkish Literature and the "Other West" ; Nergis Erturk ; 23. Modernism's Translations ; Rebecca Beasley ; 24. Japanese Modernism and "Cine-Text": Fragments and Flows at ; Empire's Edge in Kitagawa Fuyuhiko and Yokomitsu Riichi ; William O. Gardner ; Part IX : Film as Vernacular Modernism ; 25. T racking Cinema on a Global Scale ; Miriam Bratu Hansen ; 26. Visions of Modernity in Colonial India: Cinema,Women, and the City ; Manishita Dass ; 27. Vernacular Modernism and South African Cinema: Capitalism, ; Crime, and Styles of Desire ; Rosalind C. Morris ; Part X : Afterword ; 28. Modernist Studies and Inter-Imperiality in the Longue Duree ; Laura Doyle ; Notes on Contributors ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains the four plays by Thomas Middleton which have most impressed the modern world: A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is the most complex amd effective of the city comedies; Women Beware Women and The Changeling (with William Rowley) are two of the most powerful Jacobean tragedies outside of Shakespeare -- studies in lust, power, violence, and self-delusive psychology; A Game at Chess was the single most popular play of the whole Shakespearean era, a satirical exposé of Jesuit plotting and Anglo-Spanish politics which played tp pacifist houses at the Globe until King James and his ministers banned it. The best-value collection available with the most officially up-to-date introduction; all the play texts are newly edited with richly informative annotation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most aTrade ReviewDutton presents an accessible and balanced assessment of the particular difficulties which Middleton poses for a modern audience (and critics) * Years Work in English Studies *Table of ContentsA Chaste Maid in Cheapside ; Women Beware Women ; The Changeling ; A Game at Chess

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Book SynopsisThomas Middleton (1580-1627) was a writer of great versatility, and his career as a London dramatist spans the most productive, innovative, and exciting period of theatrical activity in the history of English drama. Best known for his tragedies, he also wrote many successful comedies of city life. This volume brings together the greatest among them: A Mad World, My Masters, Michaelmas Term, A Trick to Catch the Old One, and No Wit, No Help Like a Woman''s. The first three plays, written between 1604 and 1606, are witty and rambunctious satires on the predatory life of the aspiring London citizen. Sex and money are the characters'' obsessions; their caustic exposure Middleton''s. In the later play, No Wit (1612), satire shades into romance, prose into verse. Together the four plays reveal the range and exuberance of Middleton''s writing for the comic stage. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner of the University of York, the plays have been newly edited and are presented witTable of ContentsA Mad World, My Masters ; Michaelmas Term ; A Trick to Catch the Old One ; No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's

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Book SynopsisThis work explores Shakespeare's deep fascination with dangerous and disorderly forms of speaking - especially rumour, slander, insult, vituperation and curse - and through them offers a vision of the work of words in his plays.

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Book SynopsisThrough dreams and shadows and strangeness, through blinding charms and eye-opening counter-charms, through moments of mortification and laughterthus Stuart M. Tave traces the journey of the lovers, clowns, and fairies who populate comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Waiting for Godot. Tave avoids the pitfalls of theory, taking instead a close look at particular works to give us a sense of the relations between certain dramas and novels that are called comedies. The result is a wonderfully readable book that renews our delight in the enchanting possibilities of literature. A Midsummer Night's Dream, in its perfection, is Tave's point of departure. Its characters fall neatly into the three groups of Tave's title and fulfill to perfection their functions of desire, foolishness, and power. From the magical concord of Shakespeare's resolution, Tave moves to works whose character face ever greater difficulties in reaching a happy conclusion. From Jonson and Austen to Chekhov and Beck

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Book SynopsisJoseph Westlund brings recent developments in psychoanalytic thought to his elegant and sensitive readings of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure. Westlund departs from the usual preoccupation in psychoanalytic criticism with conflict and guilt to rely instead on Melanie Klein's theory of reparation, which emphasizes the impulse in life to resolve and transcend conflict. Through interpretations that are new and convincing, Westlund views the interactions of characters in the six comedies as attempts to work through anger and guilt to effect reparations for themselves and for us.

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Book SynopsisA timely book that identifies the practice of '(syn)aesthetics' in artistic style and audience response, which helps to articulate the power of experiential practice in the arts. This exciting new approach includes interviews with leading practitioners in of theatre, dance, site-specific work, live art and technological performance practice.Trade Review'The diversity of voices [in part 2 of the book] is a real strength...[and] provides a rich array of primary source material for all readers from undergraduates to professors...' - Patrick Duggan, New Theatre QuarterlyTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Interview Contributors Introduction: Redefining Visceral Performance PART I Defining (Syn)aesthetics Connecting Theories (Syn)aesthetics in Practice PART II Introduction – A (Syn)aesthetic Exchange Felix Barrett& Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk: In the P rae-sens of Body and Space - the (syn)aesthetics of Site-sympathetic Work Lizzie Clachan& David Rosenberg of Shunt Theatre Collective: A Door into Another World - The Audience and Hybridity Akram Khan: The Mathematics of Sensation - The Body as Site/Sight/Cite and Source Marisa Carnesky: Trapping the Audience in the Fantasy – Instinct, the Body& the Magic of the Experiential Naomi Wallace& Kwame Kwei-Armah: Desire, the Body and Transgressive Acts of Playwriting – on Writing and Directing Things of Dry Hours Linda Bassett: Bypassing the Logical – Performing Churchill's Far Away Jo McInnes: A Text That Demands to be Played With – Performing Kane's 4.48 Psychosis Graeae's Jenny Sealey& Playwright Glyn Cannon: Seeing Words and (Dis)comfort Zones – the Fusion of Bodies, Text and Technology in On Blindness Sara Giddens& Simon Jones of Bodies In Flight: The In-betweens, Where Flesh Utters and Words Move – On Flesh, Text, Space and Technologies Leslie Hill& Helen Paris of Curious: Embodied Intimacies - On (the) Scent, Memory and the Visceral-Virtual Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSIR JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as 'the best modern book on Shakespeare.' In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in

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Book SynopsisJONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as the best modern book on Shakespeare. In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama< and has edited volumes in both Trade Review'A triumphant addition to our times.' - Fiona Shaw, The TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction About the Text Key Facts The Two Gentlemen of Verona Textual Notes Scene-by-Scene Analysis The Two Gentlemen of Verona in Performance: The RSC and Beyond Four Centuries of The Two Gentlemen of Verona : An Overview At the RSC The Director's Cut: Interviews with David Thacker and Edward Hall Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre Shakespeare's Works: A Chronology Further Reading and Viewing References Acknowledgements and Picture Credits

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Book SynopsisEPUBTrade Review'The diversity of voices [in part 2 of the book] is a real strength...[and] provides a rich array of primary source material for all readers from undergraduates to professors...' - Patrick Duggan, New Theatre QuarterlyTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Interview Contributors Introduction: Redefining Visceral Performance PART I Defining (Syn)aesthetics Connecting Theories (Syn)aesthetics in Practice PART II Introduction – A (Syn)aesthetic Exchange Felix Barrett& Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk: In the P rae-sens of Body and Space - the (syn)aesthetics of Site-sympathetic Work Lizzie Clachan& David Rosenberg of Shunt Theatre Collective: A Door into Another World - The Audience and Hybridity Akram Khan: The Mathematics of Sensation - The Body as Site/Sight/Cite and Source Marisa Carnesky: Trapping the Audience in the Fantasy – Instinct, the Body& the Magic of the Experiential Naomi Wallace& Kwame Kwei-Armah: Desire, the Body and Transgressive Acts of Playwriting – on Writing and Directing Things of Dry Hours Linda Bassett: Bypassing the Logical – Performing Churchill's Far Away Jo McInnes: A Text That Demands to be Played With – Performing Kane's 4.48 Psychosis Graeae's Jenny Sealey& Playwright Glyn Cannon: Seeing Words and (Dis)comfort Zones – the Fusion of Bodies, Text and Technology in On Blindness Sara Giddens& Simon Jones of Bodies In Flight: The In-betweens, Where Flesh Utters and Words Move – On Flesh, Text, Space and Technologies Leslie Hill& Helen Paris of Curious: Embodied Intimacies - On (the) Scent, Memory and the Visceral-Virtual Bibliography Index

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Trade ReviewThrough a timeless character of legend and literature, we are allowed a ringside view of our most fascinating cultural--and gendered--history. India Today Thapar shows how it is possible to express complex ideas, rooted in philosophy and hermeneutics, without recourse to jargon. This book is a frontrunner for the prize of the best book on Indian history. Telegraph As fascinating as Sakuntala's journey is Thapar's retelling of it and her careful assumption of the role of a literary detective. Hindu Thapar's wide-ranging essays and monographs make a strong case for the urgency to historicize traditions and highlight the changing meanings of texts and oral cultures. Hindustan Times A virtuoso feat of historical and cultural analysis. Biblio Professor Thapar's book is not only significant in uncovering the historical impulses, often multiply driven, that empower certain readings or receptions of the story but also gives us in the process many of those forgotten stories -- Saswati Sengupta Religions of South AsiaTable of ContentsPreface 1. Preliminaries 2. The Narrative from the Mahabharata 3. The Abhijnana-sakuntalam of Kalidasa Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection-the play by Kalidasa 4. Popular and high culture as historical parallels 5. Adaptations: another popular tradition and its role in another court 6. Translations: Orientalism, German romanticism and the image of Sakuntala 7. Translation: colonial views 8. Sakuntala from the perspective of middle-class nationalism 9. Conclusion Endnotes

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Book SynopsisLearning to Kneel locates noh drama’s influence on American and European writers, dancers, and composers. Carrie J. Preston’s work has been profoundly shaped by her training in noh performance. While her subjects are often criticized for Orientalist tendencies, Preston’s own journey reflects a more nuanced understanding of cultural exchange.Trade ReviewWhat drew Western writers to an arcane, highly stylized form of Japanese court theater? As a scholar, Carrie J. Preston answers this question by way of the archive, unearthing a global network of dancers and writers. But she also pursues this question as a student, subjecting herself to the rigors of noh training. The result is an unusual blend of both approaches, a magisterial study in cultural history that is also a compelling story of teaching and learning. -- Martin Puchner, Harvard University Eloquently, movingly, and persuasively, Preston traces modernism's fascination with noh through European and Japanese histories of poetry, drama, and performance. She asks us to reflect on the project of cross-cultural learning, what it means to know another culture as well as what it means to know one's own. A tour de force of memoir and scholarship, at once entertaining and erudite, Learning to Kneel shows us why mistranslation, partial fluency, and failing to understand have been crucial to the transnational history of modernism. -- Rebecca Walkowitz, Rutgers University Kneel before this humbling account of submission and, at times, personal but never sentimental antidote to both easy celebrations of multiculturalism and easy critiques of cultural appropriation. Sitting with calm strength at the intersections of performance, pedagogy, and the politics of 'global modernism,' Preston successfully reinvents the modernist reinvention of noh as a timely, urgent topic by asking what it means to succeed or fail. Don't fail to read it. -- Christopher Bush, Northwestern University In Learning to Kneel, Preston tells the story not only of the influence of Japanese culture and noh theater on modernist writers from Yeats to Beckett but also of her personal experience as a neophyte practitioner of noh. Together, these narratives brilliantly reframe received ideas about cross-cultural aesthetic transformation, the relation of success and failure in art, and the tension between subversion and tradition that underlies any form of training or pedagogy. -- Scott Klein, Wake Forest UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction to Noh Lessons 1. Ezra Pound as Noh Student 2. Theater in the "Deep": W. B. Yeats's At the Hawk's Well 3. Ito Michio's Hawk Tours in Modern Dance and Theater 4. Pedagogical Intermission: A Lesson Plan for Bertolt Brecht's Revisions 5. Noh Circles in Twentieth-Century Japanese Performance 6. Trouble with Titles and Directors: Benjamin Britten and William Plomer's Curlew River and Samuel Beckett's Footfalls/Pas Coda Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to the mysterious theater role of a dramaturg by a legend in the fieldTrade ReviewReceived Honor Mention for the 2022 Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama and TheatreHonorable Mention for the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher EducationCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2022“Anne Cattaneo creates a toolbox for dramaturgs, producers, and emerging arts leaders on how to be an exemplar in dramaturgy. This incredible work will be a fixture for this generation and future ones.”—Kristin Leahey, Boston University“Anne Cattaneo has had a very distinguished career, and this wise book will be in print for years and years.”—Adrienne Kennedy“Anne Cattaneo has written a fascinating and invaluable book on the theater from the dramaturg’s perspective. Whether you are a would-be dramaturg, a theater professional, or just a theater aficionado you will learn first-hand how productions come together from the page to the stage.”—James Lapine, winner of Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize“Cattaneo demystifies dramaturgy with the mastery of a great storyteller. This inspiring work reminds us why we need theater now more than ever. A must read for all thinkers, makers, and lovers of art.”—Rubén Polendo, New York University Tisch School of the Arts/Theater Mitu“Cattaneo’s love—and wide-ranging knowledge—of her subject shines through on every page. This is a book not just for dramaturgs, but for all makers and lovers of theater.”—Evan Yionoulis, Juilliard School

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Book Synopsis''Hasa Diga Eebowai''In 2011, a musical full of curse words and Mormon missionaries swept that year's Tony Awards and was praised as a triumphant return of the American musical. This book explores the inherent achievements (and failures) of The Book of Mormonone of the most ambitious, and problematic, musicals to achieve widespread success. The creative team membersMatt Parker, Trey Stone and composer Robert Lopezwere collectively known for their aggressive use of taboo subjects and crude, punchy humor. Using the metaphor of boxing, Granger explores the metaphorical punches the trio delivers and ruminates over the less-discussed ideological wounds that their style of shock absurdism might leave behind. This careful examination of where The Book of Mormon succeeds and fails is sure to challenge discussion of our understanding of musical comedy and our appreciation for this cultural landmark in theatre.Table of ContentsPreface: The Biggest Man-Balls on Broadway Introduction: Fit for the Ring—A Training Montage 1. Tradition versus Originality: Musical Theatre’s Titleholder and Its Number One Challenger (A Win) 2. The Fight America Wanted: Faith as Creative Self-Guidance Versus Faith as Dutiful Collective Obedience (A Win) 3. Cheap Shots: Western Representations of Africa Versus African Diaspora Realities (A Loss) 4. A Caution: Putting LGBTQ Advocacy on Queer Street Conclusion: Split Decision—Defending the Offending Champions

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Book SynopsisThe One-Hour Shakespeare series is a collection of abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays, designed specifically to accommodate both small and large casts. This volume, The Tragedies, includes the following plays: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello and Romeo and Juliet.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. One-Hour projects in performance: money-saving suggestions to consider with a minimal budget 3. Lesson Plan and Editing Exercise 4. Cross-gender casting suggestions 5. Hamlet 6. Hamlet: suggested cast list and character assignments for a small cast 7. Julius Caesar 8. Julius Caesar: suggested cast list and character assignments for a small cast 9. Macbeth 10. Macbeth: suggested cast list and character assignments for a small cast 11. Othello 12. Othello: suggested cast list and character assignments for a small cast 13. Romeo and Juliet 14. Romeo and Juliet: suggested cast list and character assignments for a small cast

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Book SynopsisIn this sustained full length study of Marlowe's plays, Andrew Duxfield argues that Marlovian drama exhibits a marked interest in unity and unification, and that in doing so it engages with a discourse of anxiety over social discord that was prominent in the 1580s and 1590s. In combination with the ambiguity of the plays, he suggests, this focus produces a tension that both heightens dramatic effect and facilitates a cynical response to contemporary evocations of and pleas for unity. This book has three main aims. Firstly, it establishes that Marloweâs tragedies exhibit a profound interest in the process of reduction and the ideal of unity. Duxfield shows this interest to manifest itself in different ways in each of the plays. Secondly, it identifies this interest in unity and unification as an engagement in a cultural discourse that was particularly prevalent in England during Marloweâs writing career; during the late 1580s and early 1590s heightened inter-confessional tension, the Trade Review"Christopher Marlowe and the Failure to Unify represents an original, well researched thesis investigating overlooked historical and critical sources. Undergraduates, academics, and interested readers will find in Duxfield’s book invaluable and entertaining insights into Marlowe’s plays."- Frank Swannack, University of Salford, UK"Duxfield’s argument that the plays of Christopher Marlowe show a tendency towards and an ultimate subversion of unity remains strong throughout the monograph and in his extensive coverage of the entirety of Marlowe’s dramatic works. While drawing on past scholarship in order to situate the thesis, Duxfield’s argument remains strong and clear throughout, and adds a fresh texture to the scholarly conversation on Marlowe’s plays."- Hayley Coble, University of Minnesota, USA"This is a significant and welcome addition to the canon of key critical interventions on the work of Christopher Marlowe."- Adam Hansen review: English, 66:252 (2017), pp. 88–91Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Building a Statelier Troy: Dido, Queen of Carthage2 Reduced to a Map: Tamburlaine the Great, Parts One and Two3 "Resolve me of all ambiguities": Doctor Faustus4 Individual and Multitude: The Jew of Malta and The Massacre at Paris5 True Contraties: Edward IIAfterword

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Book SynopsisWidely studied at A level, "Across Oka" was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. This volume also includes a chronology of Holman's life and work, the background to the play, a discussion of themes and characters, and a selection of production photographs.

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Book SynopsisThis Student Edition of Chekhov's last and most elusive play, a study of the effect of social change on the values of individuals, includes notes on the life and career of the playwright, an introduction giving the background to the play and a guide to its interpretation.Trade Review'Frayn's translation, which strikes me as splendidly lucid and alive ... will be acted again and again' New Statesman

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Book SynopsisWronged and discarded by her husband, Medea gradually reveals her revenge in its increasing horror, while the audience is led to understand the incomprehensible. This Student Edition contains a full introduction, commentary and questions for study and includes J. Michael Walton's classic translation.

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Book SynopsisDavid Mamet was born in Chicago in 1947. He studied at Goddard College, Vermont - later becoming Artist in Residence - and at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York. His first and many subsequent plays were first performed by the St Nicholas Theatre company, Chicago, of which he was a founding member and Artistic Director. In 1978 he became Associate Artistic Director of the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, where American Buffalo had been first staged in 1975, subsequently winning an Obie Award and opening on Broadway in 1977 and at the National Theatre in 1978. His greatest hits, Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna followed in 1983 and 1993 respectively.Trade ReviewThe finest American playwright of his generation Sunday Times A chillingly funny indictment of a world in which you are what you sell Guardian Nobody alive writes better American...Here at last, carving characters out of language, is a play with real muscle Observer David Mamet, screenwriter of The Verdict and The Postman Always Rings Twice, is alongside Sam Shepard and Michael Weller, one of the most distinctive voices on the contemporary American stage Michael Coveney, Financial Times

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Book SynopsisOscar Wilde (1854-1900). British dramatist whose works and wit often attracted scandalized protest. Writings include: The Happy Prince, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest.Table of ContentsGENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, PREFACE, INTRODUCTION, Poems (1881) Vera; or the Nihilists (1883), The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) (first version), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) (second version), The Duchess of Padua (1891), Intentions (1891), Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories (1891), A House of Pomegranates (1891), Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), Salomé (1893), A Woman of No Importance (1893), The Sphinx (1894), An Ideal Husband (1895), The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), On the occasion of Wilde’s death (1900), De Profundis (1905), Collected Works (1908), BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX

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Book SynopsisTheatre's materiality and reliance on human actors has traditionally put it at odds with modernist principles of aesthetic autonomy and depersonalization. Spectral Characters argues that modern dramatists in fact emphasized the extent to which humans are fictional, made and changed by costumes, settings, props, and spoken dialogue.Trade ReviewAimed at scholars of theatre and of comparative literature, Spectral Characters convincingly argues that the modern stage, through its roots in nineteenth-century melodrama, inherited a number of features related to the supernatural that deeply influenced the making of character in this period." - Giuliano D'Amico, Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo"Spectral Characters offers a fresh way to think about realism and modernism, about literary and dramatic character, and about the relationship between narration and performance. It both situates those aesthetic concerns within the ideas of the authors' day and relates them to present-day theories that are shaping scholarship across the humanities and social sciences." - Sharon Marcus, Columbia University

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Book Synopsis''Believe me, my young friend, there is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In them or out of them, it doesn''t matter. Whether you get away or you don''t, whether you arrive at your destination or whether you never get anywhere at all, you''re always busy.''Ever since the publication of Kenneth Grahame''s novel in 1908, the characters of Ratty, Mole, Toad and Badger have delighted generations of readers. Now Alan Bennett has written an adaptation for the stage, a version which is both true to the original and yet carries that distinctive Bennett hallmark.Alan Bennett introduces this edition, writing about the history of the project and the staging of the production.''Bennett is even able to inject the odd sly joke for the adult without bewildering the tots... the result is a delightful evening, a treat for anyone.'' The Times

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Book SynopsisThe comedies of Plautus, who brilliantly adapted Greek plays for Roman audiences ca. 205–184 BC, are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Molière to modern times. Twenty-one of his plays are extant.Trade ReviewWolfgang de Melo has established an updated text and rendered Plautus into smooth, pleasantly readable prose for the Loeb Classical Library...De Melo makes the world of Plautinopolis intelligible without becoming too familiar. Footnotes succinctly explain references to Greek and Roman allusions. Sometimes the translation presents a clear modern analogue with the literal meaning footnoted...Several enhancements improve the presentation of the new edition...The overall product is quite impressive. -- Fred Franko * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2020""Finalist for the PROSE Award in Literature, Association of American Publishers""Shortlisted for the Parnassus Prize, Memoria College""Clever. . . . An incisive commentary on the pitfalls of contemporary American education. . . . A smart and valuable new book."---Daniel Blank, Los Angeles Review of Books"A wonderful new book."---Martha Barnette, public radio's A Way with Words"Newstok argues persuasively for a return to some of the pedagogical methods that proved so effective in the 1500s."---Paul Muldoon, Times Literary Supplement"With crisp, lapidary prose, Newstok writes authoritatively about the educational norms and practices that helped shape Shakespeare’s mind. . . . As Newstok essays the contours of a Renaissance education, he demonstrates with verve the effect it’s had on his own thinking. Put otherwise, the book is Newstok’s essay at thinking—and it’s a sterling attempt. . . . It will be of interest to any reader or teacher of Shakespeare—and it should be of interest to any serious reader or teacher. Watching Newstok think with Shakespeare is inspiring, and he proves an amiable guide."---Nathan M. Antiel, Principia: A Journal of Classical Education"Eminently sensible. . . . An emphatic appreciation of just how valuable the pedagogical insights of four centuries ago remain today."---David McInnis, Australian Book Review"Even in giving concrete, practical advice, Newstok displays a flexible virtuosity; he is a practiced craftsman at home in the workshop of language."---Joshua P. Hochschild, First Things"A delightful book. . . . Intelligent, perceptive, readable, useful."---Matthew Stewart, University Bookman"In 14 short, pithy chapters, Newstok shows how to recover the lost art of thinking."---Casey Chalk, American Conservative"Newstok convinces the reader that Shakespeare was indeed a great critical thinker, and was more creative, not less so, than we initially thought. What’s more, his many real-life examples show that the creativity and meaningful scrutiny attributed to Shakespeare are not only beneficial, but possible for all of us. How to Think like Shakespeare is a unique analysis of both Shakespeare’s formative education and his art, and will be useful for both educators seeking to break from current, quantitative, test-based pedagogical strategies and for creatives aspiring to hone their craft. It is also an insightful manual on how we can all improve our ability to think deeper and think better."---Melissa Johnson, Teachers College Record"This delightful book is an odd treasure. . . . [How to Think like Shakespeare is] an educational manifesto that should make for better people, better schools, colleges and universities, and better social relations between and among free citizens. There is a potential revolution in this odd treasure of a little book. Give it to some of your colleagues, if you think it isn't too late for them, but give it to all of your students. Let them know what they may have been missing – before it is too late."---Scott Crider, Ben Jonson Journal"An engaging, witty, wide-ranging critique of contemporary pedagogical fads and a spirited provocation to return to classical and Renaissance models. . . . A book of heavy import, lightly tossed, it is at once instructive and amusing, elucidating why and how Shakespeare is good to think with."---Louis J. Kern, Key Reporter"An absolutely delightful new book . . . a luscious and stimulating read."---Michael Cathcart, Stage Show, ABC Radio National"Scott Newstok’s latest book, How to Think like Shakespeare, could be just the game changer the teacher (and administrator should have) ordered. . . . I couldn’t help but be won over by his earnest enthusiasm for the subject and ended up wanting to hear still more."---Robert M. LoAlbo, PlayShakespeare.com"As a concise history of Western pedagogical development, How to Think like Shakespeare succeeds beautifully. . . . By the end of How To Think like Shakespeare, [Newstok] has us thoroughly convinced. To think and create effectively requires one to train and practice. By apprenticing ourselves to the past, we can ourselves become links in the glorious chain of human intellectual achievement."---Fernanda Moore, Chapter 16"How to Think like Shakespeare is not the work of an activist militating for his cause but a thinker reveling in his work. Newstok reminds us that this work is, above all, fun, and the calling on display is infectious."---Karl Schuettler, Patient Cycle"A lively and evocative new volume . . . a beautifully written, succinct description of educational principles derived from the best features of a renaissance education. The book is 'deliberately short,' but packed with quotations from the Bard and scores of great authors, all combined to make us think – and, with a little luck, to think more like 'our myriad-minded Shakespeare.' I highly recommend Newstok’s book for its pith, clarity, and insight – and the sheer breadth of its bibliography, including delightful footnotes, a bibliographic essay, and an index of Shakespearean cornucopia."---Rob Jackson, Institute for Classical Education"How to Think like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok attempts to capture what education really is, as well as what it ought to be, while also arguing where our modern system falls short, creating a disconnection from a life that is well-ordered and well-lived. . . . In an age of so much technology and lack of time for thoughtfulness, a conversation with the past might prove helpful, or at the very least expand our vocabulary."---Axie Barclay, San Francisco Book Review"Scott Newstok’s How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education really is a feel good book. A thick lather of the author’s enthusiasm, a comprehensive coverage of his subject matter, and the common sense inherent in his value judgments, work together to whip up a likeminded enthusiasm in his readers . . . I found the experience of reading Newstok nothing short of exhilarating"---Ian Lipke, Queensland Reviewers Collective"A playful, quote filled romp into the mind of Shakespeare." * Fourteen Lines blog *"Part humanist manifesto, part commonplace book, [How to Think like Shakespeare] combines erudition and accessibility in an inviting package that is a joy to read." * Sententiae Antiquae Reviews *"How to Think like Shakespeare is a book that does not fit neatly into any established genre. Above all it’s about how to think and how to teach people to think, but it’s not a how to manual. At a time when higher education is stampeding toward everything shiny, new, and up to date, this book is deliberately backward looking. It looks unapologetically to the past for ideas, models, and habits of mind that Newstok contends are just as relevant now as they were in Shakespeare’s time."---Erik Gilbert, BadAssessment.org"A clever new book."---Ian Warden, Canberra Times"[How to Think like Shakespeare is] a serious history of thinking, and although serious, it’s very readable, and even playful. . . . How To Think like Shakespeare is a refreshing book and a stimulating read. The lively writing is a great treat, with things to smile at as you read."---Ralph Goldswain, No Sweat Shakespeare"Great energy and clarity . . . [How to Think like Shakespeare] is entertaining throughout: the writer convinces us that he is learning with us, that we are learning with him… One of the great features of this eloquent, uplifting, enthusiastic yet realistic and beautifully produced book is its strong sense of moment."---Tony Voss, Shakespeare in Southern Africa"In fourteen concise essays, Scott Newstok endeavors to diagnose and treat, if not to cure, the most persistent and pernicious ills of American education. . . . Newstok is always gracious and never polemical . . . [How to Think like Shakespeare’s] most remarkable trait is its form, which is a multi-layered figure for the kind of education that Newstok hopes to revive. . . . Teachers will be refreshed to learn about the commonsense principles and practices of their lost intellectual heritage."---Christopher D. Schmidt, Moreana"What a joy it was to read a book about Renaissance literature and education that not only describes these things with full respect for their historical peculiarities, but also entertains the idea that they belong (or could belong) to us in the present, as equipment for living. . . . I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend that anyone who cares about teaching and learning read it again and again."---Sean Keilen, Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies"Clever"---John Warner, Chicago Tribune"The chief advantage of this book is the author’s replication of the Renaissance style he advocates. He makes his case with a hurricane of citations, references, and analogies that would have made Erasmus proud. . .This may be the strongest argument for rhetorical education: the Renaissance model may prepare students for the rough and tumble of social media far more effectively than the privatized, isolated pedagogy of the media based classroom."---John D. Schaeffer, Style"A bracing, witty argument for a pedagogy that is at once old and new. . . . What he demonstrates in his playful, infectiously enthusiastic pages is a more modest and more proximate idea of freedom: the kind that appears in the sheer joy of reading and learning. That joy, and the freedom it brings, come when we care about what we study. And no one has ever cared—not really—about a test."---Samuel Fallon, Renaissance Quarterly"Heavily but delightfully peppered with great quotes from great minds throughout history, How to Think like Shakespeare makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. . . . through metaphor and wit, it makes just as compelling an argument as you’d expect from a mathematical proof. . . . All in all, this is a book I couldn’t do justice in any way in a simple review. Newstok has a deep and wide-ranging knowledge of literature, insight into why words have power, and an understanding of how to craft them. It presents valuable ideas in an engaging format, and will help you understand both our education systems and your own mind better."---Alexandru Micu, ZME Science"How to Think Like Shakespeare playfully juxtaposes early modern and contemporary habits of thought by way of wide-ranging examples. . . . Thought-provoking and enjoyable. . . . it is the type of book that I would like to recommend to my university students to read for pleasure—precisely because it is brief and lively and could easily engender serious reflection about how we think."---Michael Cop, Parergon"Newstok has a deep and wide-ranging knowledge of literature, insight into why words have power, and an understanding of how to craft them. [The book] presents valuable ideas in an engaging format, and will help you understand both our education systems and your own mind better. It will also give you the tools you need to guide the latter one better, and the insight as to where you want it to go. I thoroughly recommend you give this one a try."---Alexandru Micu, ZME Science"Newstok explains how Shakespeare’s generation was educated, and how we can return to these methods in this surprisingly enjoyable read. He romps through the world’s greatest thinkers and artists, drawing on their words and a good deal of humor to make his case. Think of Newstok as an erudite guide giving you a themed tour of his commonplace book. This was a great read."---Andrew Perlot, The Monthly Reading List

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Book SynopsisThomas Middleton (1570-1627) was an English dramatist, who excelled in both comedy and tragedy. Whilst his so-called 'city comedies' provide insight into 17th-century London life and manners, his tragedies are noted for their richly poetic verse, their emphasis on guilt and corruption, and their understanding of feminine psychology. He often worked in collaboration with other dramatists for the theatre owner Philip Henslowe, including Thomas Dekker and William Rowley. Middleton's works include A Trick to Catch the Old One (1604-05), A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1619), the tragedy Women Beware Women (1621) and the political satire A Game of Chess (1624).Trade ReviewThomas Middleton's Jacobean drama spreads like a web around the the black- widow figure of Livia... it is clear that Livia's deviousness is a profoundly cynical response to the hipocrisy of a society in which women are powerless and men do as they please.' Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, 29.04.10 'Thomas Middleton's 17th- century study of self- survival and the destruction of innocence' Clare Allfree, Metro (London), 29.04.10 'A sardonic masterwork that admits one to the world of fuliginous cruelty.' Michael Billington, Guardian, 29.04.10 'Dark, decadent and immensely stylish, Women Beware Women makes you laugh even as you shiver.' Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 29.04.10 'A fiercely felt, finely wrought, seldom-seen play by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries.' Susannah Clapp, Obcerver, 02.05.10

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Book SynopsisThis text is part of the New Mermaids series of modern spelling, fully-annotated editions of English plays. Each volume includes a critical introduction, biography of the author, discussions of dates and sources, textual details, a bibliography and information about the staging of the play.

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Book SynopsisThe Editor, Jean Chothia, is a Fellow of Selwyn College and Reader in Drama and Theatre in the University of Cambridge. Her books include Forging a Language: A Study of the Plays of Eugene O'Neill; English Drama of the Early Modern Period, 1890-1940, and, as editor, The New Woman' and Other Emancipated Woman Plays.

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Book SynopsisThe Editor, Brian Gibbons has been a General Editor of The New Mermaids since 1974 and also a General Editor of The New Cambridge Shakespeare since its inception. He is the author of many articles about English Drama, of two books, Jacobean City Comedy and Shakespeare and Multiplicity, and editor of editions in The New Mermaids as well as The Arden Shakespeare and The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Trade Review"How well our barbarous and sex-crazed times relate to the horrors and refined cruelties of Thomas Middleton's extraordinary Jacobean masterpiece...A drama that makes grim, poetic fun of lust-filled aristocrats and lesser folk up to plenty of bad, some of them steaming hot for sex, adultery, murder and revenge." Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 05.06.08 "There's a sardonic and even sadistic glee in his poetry and...a lot of dark, dangerous laughter to be found in the play." Benedict Nightingale, The Times, 06.06.08 "Middleton certainly had a sardonic eye for twisted and compromised morals...His poetry is a vibrant mix of the ornate and the blunt. His so-called tragedy boldly veers into morbid farce, sparking explosive laughter." Kate Bassett, Independent on Sunday, 08.06.08 "The Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedies had more nasty killings and a higher body count than almost anything written by today's young pretenders, as well as a similarly steamy interest in perverse sex, too." Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 06.06.08 "[Middleton] is black-blooded, foul-mouthed, casual, uncaring - a pioneer of our common tongue, Ossuary English." Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times, 10.06.08

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Book SynopsisCloser is a play which views love and sex like politics: its not what you say that matters, still less what you mean, but what you do.

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