Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisIan Ruffell is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow. His main research interest is Greek drama and he has worked most extensively on comedy. His monograph, Politics and Anti-Realism in Athenian Old Comedy: The Art of the Impossible, was published in 2011.Trade ReviewRuffell has provided a worthy contribution to this very useful series of companions to ancient tragedy. He covers all the bases with well-documented scholarship and eminent fairness to all sides of what has become in the last few decades a very perplexing and controversial drama… he argues his case well and does an admirable job of embedding the play within its political and intellectual context. -- Ian C. Storey, Trent University, Canada * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsPreface Themes, Contexts and Receptions Gods and Other Monsters Technology and Civilisation Making a Spectacle The Radical Tradition Timeline Abbreviations and Select Bibliography References Index

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Book SynopsisThis analysis of the performance history of "Hamlet" recreates many productions from three centuries. The final chapters extend the analysis to a number of film versions, and to important European stage productions. It is intended both for students of Shakespearean theatre and for playgoers.Table of ContentsList of PlatesSeries editor’s prefaceAcknowledgements1. Performing Hamlet’s meanings2. Hamlet on stage 1600-19003. The 1920s: old ways meet new stagecraft4. Gielgud and Olivier in the 1930s5. Post-war Hamlets at Stratford-upon-Avon: 1948 and 19656. Royal Shakespeare and Royal Court in 19807. Hamlet at the movies: Olivier and Kozintsev8. Through the looking glass: Zeffirelli and the BBC9. TranslationsNotesAppendixBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHyde Park is a striking Caroline example of London city comedy. This critical edition unpicks its valuable insights into the shifting nature of the genre and early modern conceptions of London and courtship.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of abbreviationsIntroductionHYDE PARKAppendix

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Book SynopsisThe Family of Love is a rumbustious citizen comedy. Delivering farcical twists on familiar dramatic situations, it offers a glimpse of spiritual freedom in paraperopandemical times.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTIONThe TextLording Barry: Playwright, Pirate, GentlemanThe ‘Moment’ of The Family of Love, 1605-1606 The Authorship DebateSources and IntertextsStaging and StagecraftThe Play Genre ‘I hope my body has no organs’ (3.2.25): Language and Style ‘Efficacy in carnal mixtures’ (3.2.45): Marriage and Sexuality The Death of MelancholyTHE FAMILY OF LOVEAPPENDICES A Marginal Annotations in The Familie of LoveB ‘ “Marstonian? ’ Features of The Family of Loveidentified by Charles Cathcart C Representations of the Family of Love in King James I, Basilicon Doron (1603) and John Rogers, The Displaying of an Horrible Sect (1578). INDEX

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Book SynopsisOffers the first sustained examination of the relationship between law and selfhood in Shakespeare's work. Taking five plays and the sonnets as case studies, Kevin Curran argues that law provided Shakespeare with the conceptual resources to imagine selfhood in social and distributed terms, as a product of interpersonal exchange or as a gathering of various material forces.Trade ReviewCurran mobilizes for the study of Shakespeare a deep knowledge of Enlightenment and modern philosophy, and is equally adept at negotiating the complexities of early modern English law and culture."" - Luke Wilson, author of Theaters of Intention: Drama and the Law in Early Modern England

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Book SynopsisNew media are often greeted with suspicion by older media. The Fourth Estate at the Fourth Wall explores how, when the commercial press arrived in France in 1836, popular theatre critiqued its corruption, its diluted politics, and its tendency to orient its content toward the lowest common denominator.

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Book SynopsisRanging from Leonardo to Hobbes, The Storm at Sea: Political Aesthetics in the Time of Shakespeare argues that it is through an engagement with the problem of aesthetic autonomy that the early modern work most profoundly explores its relation to matters of law, state, sovereignty and political subjectivity.Trade Review"Drawing on a rich and wide-ranging selection of important works from Leonardo da Vinci to Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, through the plays of Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, and Shakespeare, Christopher Pye makes a powerful case for the existence of an autonomous early modern aesthetic prior to Kant, through readings that are highly attentive to textual detail and theoretically informed by thinkers from philosophy, political theory, and psychoanalysis." -- -Philip Lorenz Cornell University "This is scholarship that does not hesitate to strike out against the errors of earlier critics. Pye goes in chosen directions that prove rewarding." -Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance "A learned, ambitious, sharply argued, and consequential book. In a forceful reconsideration of 'the aesthetic' as itself a site of political thought, Pye is throwing down the gauntlet against the prevailing climate of historicist work in early modern literary criticism, which has placed the Renaissance before the arrival of 'the aesthetic' as a category." -- Drew Daniel Johns Hopkins UniversityTable of ContentsContents List of Figures Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Introduction: Early Modern Political Aesthetics Chapter 2: Leonardo's Hand: Mimesis, Sexuality, and the Polis Chapter 3: Shakespeare Distracted: Aesthetics and Political Foundations from Spanish Tragedy to Hamlet Chapter 4: "To throw out our eyes for brave Othello" Chapter 5: Aesthetics and Absolutism in The Winter's Tale Chapter 6: The Beating Mind: The Tempest, Aesthetics and History Chapter 7: Hobbes and the Hydrophobes: The Fate of the Aesthetic in the Time of the State Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisPoetics of History places Rousseau at the origin of modern speculative philosophy by showing that his thinking on the theater, despite its dependence on a false and conventional reading of Aristotle, nonetheless articulates a radical thinking of originary mimesis, and, well before Hegel, an understanding of catharsis as Aufhebung.Table of ContentsPart I The Scene of Origin........................................... 1 Part II Anterior Theater............................................... 49 Notes....................................................................... 125

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Book SynopsisThe two-part tale of King Henry IV, rewritten with new language for the twenty-first century. Shakespeare's two Henry IV plays follow the exploits of King Henry IV after usurping the crown from his cousin Richard II. Featuring some of Shakespeare's most recognizable characters such as Prince Hal and the roguish Sir John Falstaff, Henry IV, Part 1 delves into complicated questions of loyalty and kingship on and off the battlefield. Henry IV, Part 2 follows Prince Hal as he grapples with his eventual ascent to the throne and his increasingly strained relationship with Falstaff. As the king falls sick and Hal's ascent appears imminent, Hal's decisions hold significant implications for all those around him. Modernizing the language of the two plays, Yvette Nolan's translation carefully works at the seeds sown by Shakespearebringing to new life the characters and dramatic arcs of the original. These translations of Henry IV were written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's PlTable of ContentsAct 1Act 2Act 3Act 4Act 5

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Book SynopsisEmile Zola's own stage adaptation of his taut, psychological thriller. An intense story of adultery, murder and revenge, streaked with social satire, in a translation byPip Broughton.Trade ReviewZola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retributionBroughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie‘Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution’ -- City Limits * City Limits *‘Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie’ Time Out * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisThis Element provides the first comprehensive study of William Davenant''s Shakespeare adaptations within the broader context of the Restoration repertory. Moving beyond scholarship that tends to isolate Restoration Shakespeare from the other plays produced alongside it, this Element reveals how Davenant adapted the plays in direct response to the institutional and commercial imperatives of the newly established theatre industry of the 1660s. Prompted by recent developments in early modern repertory studies, this Element reads Restoration Shakespeare as part of an active repertory of both old and new plays through which Davenant sought to realize a distinctive ''house style'' for the Duke''s Company. Finally, it shows how Restoration Shakespeare was mobilized as a key weapon in the intense competition between the two patent theatres until Davenant''s death in 1668.

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Book SynopsisThis Element is the first monograph to focus on the presence and popularity of autofiction in contemporary theatre, a mode characterised by its mixture of autobiographical and fictional materials and generally associated with the cutting edge of literary fiction. To do so, it brings frameworks from literary and theatre studies to bear on a recent upsurge in plays that explicitly mobilise lived experience and its fictionalisation to political ends. Considering a comparative corpus of state-subsidised productions in Britain and Europe since the mid 2010s ? both adaptations of literary works and plays written for the stage ? this Element attends to autofiction''s aesthetics and politics through its negotiation on stage of three conceptual binaries, each the focus of a section: fact/fiction, self/other, and inclusion/exclusion. By probing the mode''s critical potential and pitfalls, it sheds light on the stakes of self-fictionalising practices in today''s cultural markets and on the role of theatre therein.

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Book SynopsisThis Element investigates the framing ''texts'' of Shakespeare''s works in live theatre broadcasts produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite growing engagement from scholars of digital Shakespeares with the phenomenon of broadcast theatre and the aesthetics of filmed productions, the paratexts which accompany the live-streams - live or pre-recorded features, including interviews and short films - have largely been ignored. The Element considers how RSC live broadcasts of rarely performed, often critically maligned works are mediated for contemporary audiences, focusing on The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2014), Titus Andronicus (2017), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (2018). It questions the role of the theatre institution as a powerful broker in the (re)negotiation of hierarchies of value within Shakespeare''s canon. Individual sections also trace the longer genealogies of paratextual value-narratives in print, proposing that broadcast paratexts be understood as participating in a broader history of Shakespearean paratexts in print and performance.

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Book SynopsisEditing Archipelagic Shakespeare is a study of the power of names; more specifically, it is about the power of naming, asking who gets to choose names, for what reason, and to what effect. Shakespeare assigns names to over 1,200 characters and countless more sites and places, and these names, or versions of these names, have become familiar to generations of playgoers and play-readers. And because of their familiarity, Shakespeare''s names, most frequently anglicized versions of non-English names, have been accepted and repeated without further consideration. Approaching names from an archipelagic perspective, and focusing upon how Irish, Scottish, and Welsh characters and places are written by Shakespeare and treated by editors, this Element offers an expansive, and far-reaching, case study for non-anglophone and global studies of Shakespeare, textual scholarship, and early modern drama.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the AEDEAN Enrique García Díez Literature Research Award 2023Shakespeare's Sublime Pathos: Person, Audience, Language breaks new ground in providing a sustained, demystifying treatment of its subject and looking for answers to basic questions regarding the creation, experience, aesthetics and philosophy of Shakespearean sublimity. More specifically, it explores how Shakespeare generates experiences of sublime pathos, for which audiences have been prepared by the sublime ethos described in the companion volume, Shakespeare's Sublime Ethos. To do so, it examines Shakespeare's model of mutualistic character, in which entangled language brokers a psychic communion between fictive persons and real-life audiences and readers. In the process, Sublime Critical platitudes regarding Shakespeare's liberating ambiguity and invention of the human are challenged, while the sympathetic imagination is reinstated as the linchpin of the playwright's sublTrade Review"Complex, far-ranging, at times dazzling, there is nothing really comparable to the sweep of this work" - Clark Hulse, University of Illinois at Chicago"This is a magnum opus in every sense of the word […] A thorough, indeed breath-takingly thorough knowledge of Shakespearean writing is everywhere in evidence"- Andrew Hiscock, Bangor University"Complex, far-ranging, at times dazzling, there is nothing really comparable to the sweep of this work"--Clark Hulse, University of Illinois at Chicago"This is a magnum opus in every sense of the word […] A thorough, indeed breath-takingly thorough knowledge of Shakespearean writing is everywhere in evidence"--Andrew Hiscock, Bangor University"Taken together, then, these two works on Shakespeare’s sublime [Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos and Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos] represent an outstanding contribution not only to Shakespeare studies, but more broadly to intellectual history. In seeking to make intelligible the seemingly inexplicable, Sell has succeeded in revealing the secrets of the apparent magic of the sublime."--Rocío G. Sumillera, Universidad de Granada"The powerful categorizing of the sublime’s coefficients is proof of Sell’s immense merit and designates this monograph as superior research destined to become seminal in Shakespeare studies."--Zenón Luis-MartínezTable of ContentsIntroductionAims and "ethos"Plan of the workChapter 1. The Conundrum of Character, the Sublime MistookJudith’s faceAmbiguity, realism, sublimityAmbiguity, freedom, sublimityContemptus mundiChapter 2. Hollow MenLiberal humanist characterProtean personsThe moral coreFreedom of choice?Mutualistic characterMyriad mindsChapter 3. Sympathetic Imagination Sympathy and imagination Psychology and phantasiaPassionate playgoingChapter 4. Language of PassionCause and effect"Conceit deceitful"Thought in progressBotching wordsEntangled, obscure, baroqueChapter 5. The Mutualist’s DividendGoing mad with ShakespeareTranscendence?"The sticking place"General ConclusionsThe Shakespearean sublimeShakespeare’s originalityEnter perfection? Letting in the daylightEpilogue Mechanical dreamsOrsino’s luckIndex

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Book SynopsisIn New Dramaturgies: Strategies and Exercises for 21st Century Playwriting, Mark Bly offers a new playwriting book with nine unique play-generating exercises.These exercises offer dramaturgical strategies and tools for confronting and overcoming obstacles that all playwrights face. Each of the chapters features lively commentary and participation from Blyâs former students. They are now acclaimed writers and producers for media such as House of Cards, Weeds, Friday Night Lights, Warrior, and The Affair, and their plays appear onstage in major venues such as the Roundabout Theatre, Yale Rep, and the Royal National Theatre. They share thoughts about their original response to an exercise and why it continues to have a major impact on their writing and mentoring today. Each chapter concludes with their original, inventive, and provocative scene generated in response to Blyâs exercise, providing a vivid real-life example of Trade Review"Reading Bly’s book was a special treat [...] Many times, when you’re working on a problem and can’t come up with an answer, if you keep reading, the answer will come to you. Such was the case reading New Dramaturgies."- Edwin Wong, Doing Melpomene's WorkTable of ContentsForeword Introduction 1. The "Sum Forty Tales from the Afterlives" Exercise 2. Bly’s "Einstein’s Dream" Exercise 3. Bly’s "Character’s Greatest Fear" Exercise 4. Bly’s "Character’s Greatest Pleasure" Exercise 5. Bly’s "Kafka’s Train" Exercise 6. Bly’s "Music Memory" Exercise 7. Bly’s "Myth" Exercise 8. Bly’s "Nashville Film Overlapping Dialogue and Storyline" Exercise 9. Bly’s "Sensory Writing" Exercise Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores the relationship between the emphasis on performance in Elizabethan humanist education and the flourishing of literary brilliance around the turn of the sixteenth century. This study asks us what lessons we can learn today from Shakespeare's Latin grammar school. What were the cognitive benefits of an education so deeply rooted in what Demosthenes and Quintilian called actioacting? Because of the vast difference between educational practice then and now, we have not often followed one essential thread: the focus on performance. This study examines the connections relevant to the education offered in schools today. This book will be of great interest to teachers, scholars, and administrators in performing arts and education.Trade Review''I guarantee that Lessons from Shakespeare's Classroom will be the most surprising, most readable learning you will do all year, and that you will laugh out loud in every chapter. Zwounds!—hie thee to these pages most expeditiously.'' Eric Booth, Actor and author of "The Everyday Work of Art," "The Music Teachers' Bible," "Playing for Their Lives," and "Tending the Perennials."''Robin Lithgow has done anyone interested in Shakespeare or education (and more particularly those of us interested in both Shakespeare and education) a great service with her book. By detailing the classical grounding of Shakespeare’s writing she shows us the great tradition of which we are a part; a tradition that expands in its inclusivity as the world changes and evolves. This tradition is the "fertile soil" that contributed to the brilliance of Shakespeare’s generation and lights a path for our own. It is truly an "education for the benefit of the commonwealth," which we perhaps need now more than ever.'' Louis Fantasia, Artistic Associate, Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles''Lithgow’s book reanimates the Erasmian spirit of teaching in all the best ways: it’s artfully copious, humanely conversational, and models throughout a witty flair for drama. Her students were fortunate; now we are, too.''Scott Newstok, author of How to Think like ShakespeareTable of ContentsTimelineCast of CharactersAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. Time Travel: Setting the sceneChapter 2. Engagement before Information: Instruction in both colloquial and rhetorical language in Elizabethan schoolsChapter 3. Angels and Eaglets: Schoolboy actors set the sceneChapter 4. Good Behavior and Audacity: The training up of Elizabethan schoolboysChapter 5. The Lego Snap of Learning: Research in arts education and neuroscience Chapter 6. Context: The Hatch and Brood of Time: A brief history of the English ReformationChapter 7. Erasmus’ Egg: His life and his works in support of performing arts in educationChapter 8. The Delightful Mulcaster: Playmaking schoolmasters in Tudor EnglandChapter 9. Per Quam Figuram? Rhetoric in Shakespeare’s classroomChapter 10. Erasmus Writes Colloquies: Classroom training in Latin conversationChapter 11. The Little Eyases: Professional boy actors in the 16th centuryChapter 12. ConclusionBibliographyAppendix I: Performing the ColloquiesExamples of Erasmus’ Colloquies in Latin and English Proci and puellae (Courtship) Naufragium (The Shipwreck) Uxor (Marriage) Abattis et eruditae (The Abbot and the Learned Woman) Herilia (A Master’s Commands) Appendix II: Selection of Educational Drama Resources for Teachers Index

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the political alliances that are built across the diaspora in contemporary plays written by Black women playwrights in the UK.Through the concept of creative diasporic solidarity, it offers an innovative theoretical approach to examine the ways in which the playwrights respond creatively to the violence and marginalisation of Black communities, especially Black women. This study demonstrates that theatre can act as a productive space for the ethical encounter with the Other (understood in terms of alterity, as someone different from the self) by examining the possibilities of these plays to activate the spectators' responsibility and solidarity towards different types of violence experienced by Black women, offering alternative modes of relationality. The book engages with a range of contemporary works written by Black women playwrights in the UK, including Mojisola Adebayo, Theresa Ikoko, Diana Nneka Atuona, Gloria Williams, Charlene James or Yusra WarsamaTable of Contents1. Toward A Theoretical Model Of Solidarity in Black British Theatre 2. Choral Amplification and Theatrical Activism in The Interrogation of Sandra Bland 3. Interpellation and Immersive Theatre. The Limitations of Solidarity in Theresa Ikoko’s Girls and Diana Nneka Atuona’s Liberian Girl 4. “Let Us Start by Listening”. Oppositional Dialogues in Gloria William’s Bullet Hole, Charlene James’s Cuttin’ It, Cora Bissett and Yusra Warsama’s Rites and Mojisola Adebayo’s Stars 5. In Conversation with Mojisola Adebayo

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Book SynopsisExamines the often graphic depictions of violence which are characteristic of many genres of Latin literature, from Plautine comedy to the Christian martyrdom narratives of Late Antiquity. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Greek and Roman literature and culture, and of cultural studies more broadly.Table of ContentsIntroduction – reading Roman violence Monica R. Gale and J. H. D. Scourfield; 1. Comic violence and the citizen body David Konstan and Shilpa Raval; 2. Contemplating violence: Lucretius' 'De rerum natura' Monica R. Gale; 3. Discipline and punish – Horatian satire and the formation of the self Paul Allen Miller; 4. Make war not love: militia amoris and domestic violence in Roman elegy Donncha O'Rourke; 5. Violence and resistance in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' Carole E. Newlands; 6. Tales of the unexpurgated (Cert PG) – Seneca's Audionasties (Controversiae 2.5, 10.4) John Henderson; 7. Dismemberment and the critics – Seneca's 'Phaedra' Duncan F. Kennedy; 8. Violence and alienation in Lucan's 'Pharsalia' – the case of Caesar Efrossini Spentzou; 9. Tacitus and the language of violence Bruce J. Gibson; 10. Cruel narrative: Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' William Fitzgerald; 11. Violence and the Christian heroine – two narratives of desire J. H. D. Scourfield.

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Book SynopsisIn this distinctive study, Nicholas Luke explores the abiding power of Shakespeare''s tragedies by suggesting an innovative new model of his character creation. Rather than treating characters as presupposed beings, Luke shows how they arrive as something more than functional dramatis personae - how they come to life as ''subjects'' - through Shakespeare''s orchestration of transformational dramatic events. Moving beyond dominant critical modes, Luke combines compelling close readings of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear with an accessible analysis of thinkers such as Badiou, Žižek, Bergson, Whitehead and Latour, and the ''adventist'' Christian tradition flowing from Saint Paul through Luther to Kierkegard. Representing a significant intervention into the way we encounter Shakespeare''s tragic figures, the book argues for a subjectivity which is not singular or abiding, but perilous and leaping.Trade Review'The book is at its best, its most exciting and enjoyable, when focused on the texts at hand, which Luke makes new. There is a great deal to value here, especially for those who are looking for a philosophical and theoretical consideration of character as exemplified by Shakespearean tragedy. Shakespearean Arrivals is sure to excite debate and to force a reconsideration of character as dynamic and multiple, shifting and changing, and, hence, new.' Cristina León Alfar, Renaissance QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Thinking arrivals: rupture, event, subject; 2. The subject of love in Romeo and Juliet; 3. Love's late arrival: wonder and terror in Othello's 'High-Wrought Flood'; 4. The ghostly event(s) of Hamlet; 5. Macbeth: the arrival of evil; 6. The Cordelia event: seizing the vanished in King Lear; Conclusion; Index.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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