Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisAlistair McDowall grew up in the North East of England. Plays include: The Glow (Royal Court Theatre 2022); all of it (Royal Court Theatre 2020); Zero for the Young Dudes! (National Theatre Connections 2017); X (Royal Court Theatre 2016); Pomona (RWCMD/Gate 2014; Orange Tree Theatre/Royal Exchange/National Theatre 2014/5); Talk Show (Royal Court Theatre 2013); Brilliant Adventures (Royal Court Young Writers' Festival 2012; Royal Exchange, Manchester and Live Theatre, Newcastle 2013) and Captain Amazing (Live Theatre, Newcastle and Edinburgh Fringe 2013; UK tour 2014). He is a MacDowell fellow, and a recipient of the Harold Pinter Commission. His work has been translated and produced internationally.Trade ReviewMyth and history collide in a sci-fi spine-tingler ... Sci-fi is too rarely done on stage but here McDowall has chosen the perfect medium. How better to tell a story about the perils of immortality and the fear of carrying on alone than through an art form built for impermanence, with stories that can live longer than we do? * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisProfessor John Halder is a 'good' man. But 'good' men must adapt to survive. As the world faces its Second World War, Halder finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. Good is a story about a liberal-minded university professor who drifts well-meaningly into a position in the upper reaches of the Nazi administration. John Halder, a professor of literature, seems to be a good man; he diligently visits his blind and senile mother and looks after his vacant wife and three children. He is unremarkable, other than an unusual neurotic tic: the imaginary sound of band music plays in the background of his life, particularly at moments of high emotion. But by writing a book the result of his own experience discussing euthanasia for senile elderly people and by lecturing on the delicacy of German literary culture, John has unintentionally made himself a very desirable acquisition for the Nazi party. A profound and alarming examination of passivity and the rationaTrade ReviewGood is an original and intelligent play, light in texture but serious in content, that tries to work out how decent, liberal, humane men came to be swept up by the Nazi juggernaut. * Michael Billington, The Guardian *Taylor's play is about moral compromise in a political fog, and like all good plays is as much about now. as then * Time Out *One of the most powerful, politically pointed nights at the theatre * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisTwo plays by the 2021 Papatango Prize-winning playwright Tom Powell.Surfacing NHS therapist Luc is fine. Honest. She's definitely not overwhelmed by meeting Owen, a new client, definitely not freaked out by what she's started seeing, definitely doesn't think her reality has been punctured and something else is leaking in. Luc goes for a swim and feels a hand dragging her down to the bottom of the lake When she surfaces, her reality is different. She's haunted by tormented mice, shape-shifting people, and secrets she thought she'd buried.This breathtaking new two-hander creates a contemporary Through The Looking Glass world. It premiered in February 2023.The Silence and the Noise Winner of Best Online Production at the Offies Awards 2024Ben and Daize are teenagers either side of a county line. Drug runner and daughter of an addict. As the adult world around them becomes deadly dangerous, do these natural enemies have it in them to save each other? The Silence andTrade ReviewA modest masterpiece. (on The Silence and the Noise) * The Stage *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisMoves away from offering a single methodology or approach to social justice teaching, providing practical models for academics to follow

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA Companion to Terence is a useful research tool for the growing number of scholars, students and critics of Terence and Roman comedy.Trade Review"In this Volume, the editors have aimed to offer 'a wide-ranging guide to studying Terence's plays within the historical and social-political context in which they were produced'. Their goal has been realized- but neither fully nor without problems; and, although there is a wealth of information contextualizing the playright and his work, the notion that his plays were primarily comic strips designed for live performances should have been represented more strongly in the volume." (The Journal of Roman Studies, May 2016)Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors viii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Antony Augoustakis and Ariana Traill PART I Terence and Ancient Comedy 15 1. Terence and Greek New Comedy 17 Peter Brown 2. Terence and the Traditions of Roman New Comedy 33 George Fredric Franko 3. Terence and Non-Comic Intertexts 52 Alison Sharrock 4. Fabula Stataria: Language and Humor in Terence 69 Heather Vincent 5. Meter and Music 89 Timothy J. Moore PART II Contexts and Themes 111 6. Terence and the Scipionic Grex 113 Daniel P. Hanchey 7. opera in bello, in otio, in negotio: Terence and Rome in the 160s bce 132 John H. Starks, Jr. 8. Religious Ritual and Family Dynamics in Terence 156 T.H.M. Gellar-Goad 9. Gender and Sexuality in Terence 175 Sharon L. James 10. Family and Household in the Comedies of Terence 195 Z.M. Packman 11. Masters and Slaves 211 Evangelos Karakasis PART III The Plays 223 12. Andria 225 Robert Germany 13. Heauton Timorumenos 243 Eckard Lef èvre 14. Eunuchus 262 David M. Christenson 15. Phormio 281 Stavros Frangoulidis 16. Hecyra 295 Ortwin Knorr 17. Adelphoe 318 Ariana Traill PART IV Reception 341 18. History of the Text and Scholia 343 Benjamin Victor 19. Terence in Latin Literature from the Second Century bce to the Second Century ce 363 Roman Müller 20. Terence in Late Antiquity 380 Andrew Cain 21. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim Christianizes Terence 397 Antony Augoustakis 22. ‘‘Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him’’: Terence in Early Modern England 410 Martine van Elk 23. mulier inopia et cognatorum neglegentia coacta: Thornton Wilder’s Tragic Take on The Woman of Andros 429 Mathias Hanses 24. Terence in Translation 446 John Barsby 25. Performing Terence (and Hrotsvit) Now 466 Mary-Kay Gamel References 482 General Index 515 Index Locorum 523

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Book SynopsisA Student Edition of McDonagh's dramatic engagement with Republican paramilitaries, first produced by the RSC in 2000.

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Book SynopsisOthello has long been, and remains, one of Shakespeare''s most popular works. It is a favourite work of scholars, students, and general readers alike. Perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare''s tragedies, this one seems to speak most clearly to contemporary readers and audiences, partly because it deals with such pressing modern issues as race, gender, multiculturalism, and the ways love, jealousy, and misunderstanding can affect relations between romantic partners. The play also features Iago, one of Shakespeare''s most mesmerizing and puzzling villains. This guide offers students and scholars an introduction to the play''s critical and performance history, including notable stage productions and film versions. It includes a keynote chapter outlining major areas of current research on the play and four new critical essays. Finally, a guide to critical, web-based and production-related resources and an annotated bibliography provide a basis for further research.Table of ContentsSeries Introduction; Othello Timeline; Introduction; The Critical Backstory RICHARD HARP Performance History: CHRISTOPHER BAKER The State of the Art: IMTIAZ HABIB New Directions: 1.Othello as an Englishman: MATTHEW STEGGLE 2.Iago: Male Witch and Black Magician: ROBERT C. EVANS 3.Othello, the Turks, and Cyprus: RAPHAEL FALCO 4. Othello and His Brothers: LISA HOPKINS Resources for Teaching and Studying Othello: ALISON SCOTT Notes on the Contributors; Index

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Book SynopsisJoan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company was set up at the end of the war and started by touring in Wales, the industrial north and Scotland. In 1953 they moved into the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London E15 and remained there for the next eleven years during which time they built up an international reputation. Their best work included classical revivals like Volpone and Edward II and new plays like The Quare Fellow and The Hostage by Brendan Behan, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney and musical plays like Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be by Frank Norman and Lionel Bart.

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Book SynopsisBased on the true story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, her lover and accomplices in 1551, Arden of Faversham is one of the earliest domestic tragedies and a play which has continued to thrill audiences since its first staging. This comprehensive edition situates the play in its social, cultural and political context while exploring its performance and critical history through a range of historical and contemporary productions, including William Poel's Lilies That Fester (1897) and the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2014 production. Throughout, the edition aims to reanimate the play's engagement with the material culture of domestic life, using little-known evidence for the objects and spaces implicated in the murder. The introduction also accounts for recent new thinking about the play's likely authorship, including claims that Shakespeare was a key co-author. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction combined with detailed on-page commentary notes and glosses Trade Review[The editor] combine[s] personal enthusiasm ... with scholarly rigour, and the result is ... useful and enjoyable insights into early modern drama. * The Times Literary Supplement *Richardson’s is a valuable edition of Arden for students, teachers, and scholars, making important contributions to our understanding of the play and no doubt occupying a significant place in editorial history. * Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Introduction Arden of Faversham Appendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFollow this vividly recounted ghostly trail through spooky stories from the past and present by Ann Radcliffe, Washington Irving, Emily Bronte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James and Susan Hill.

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Book SynopsisProvides the first dedicated study on appropriations of King Lear in British playwriting of the post-war, developing valuable new perspectives on the legacy of Shakespeare in post-war drama and culture.

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Book SynopsisExamines dramatic acts of nostalgia as rhetorical moves designed to precipitate future action.

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Book SynopsisTracks the history of concepts and practices associated with the physical crossroads in the early modern period.Trade Review"Bill Angus offers a rich and fascinating exploration of the symbolic potential of the uncanny points at which roads simultaneously meet and diverge, showing that whether as places for selling one's soul, burying the outcast dead, or encountering the supernatural, crossroads in the early modern imagination were charged and dangerous.? " -Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University

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Book SynopsisIn The Ways of the Word, Garrett Stewart steps aside from theory to focus on the sheer pleasure of attentive reading and the excitement of recognizing the play of syllables and words upon which the best literary writing is founded. Emerging out of teaching creative writing and a broader effort to convene writers and critics, Stewart''s episodes in verbal attention track the means to meaning through the byways of literary wording.Through close engagement with literary passages and poetic instances whose imaginative demands are their own reward, Stewart gathers exhibits from dozens of authors: from Dickinson, Dickens, and DeLillo to Whitman, Woolf, and Colson Whitehead. In the process, idiom, tense, etymology, and other elements of expressive language and its phonetic wordplay are estranged and heard anew. The Ways of the Word fluidly and intuitively reveals a verbal alchemy that is as riveting as it is elusive and mysterious.Trade ReviewStewart is clearly having fun in this book, channeling techniques into his exposition with such parings as word's way and world's way, touchstone and touchtone, density and intensity, and epiphony and epiphany, to note just a few. Impressively erudite, this work will interest critics, creative writers, and literary-minded linguists. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisWhat does the keyword "continence" in Love's Labor's Lost reveal about geopolitical boundaries and their breaching? What can we learn from the contemporary identification of the "quince" with weddings that is crucial for A Midsummer Night's Dream? How does the evocation of Spanish-occupied "Brabant" in Othello resonate with contemporary geopolitical contexts, wordplay on "Low Countries," and fears of sexual/territorial "occupation"? How does "supposes" connote not only sexual submission in The Taming of the Shrew but also the transvestite practice of boys playing women, and what does it mean for the dramatic recognition scene in Cymbeline? With dazzling wit and erudition, Patricia Parker explores these and other critical keywords to reveal how they provide a lens for interpreting the language, contexts, and preoccupations of Shakespeare's plays. In doing so, she probes classical and historical sources, theatrical performance practices, geopolitical interrelations, hierarchies of race, gender, and class, and the multiple significances of "preposterousness," including reversals of high and low, male and female, Latinate and vulgar, "sinister" or backward writing, and latter ends both bodily and dramatic. Providing innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives on Shakespeare, from early to late and across dramatic genres, Parker's deeply evocative readings demonstrate how easy-to-overlook textual or semantic details reverberate within and beyond the Shakespearean text, and suggest that the boundary between language and context is an incontinent divide.Trade Review"By honing a feminist philological practice attuned to the intersections of language, class, gender, sexuality, and race, Parker illuminates how single words and their discursive networks firm up or challenge hierarchies of self and other in early modern English culture....Working across historical periods, geographies, discourses, and languages, Parker traces how single words range far afield to mate, drawing other terms into the orbit of the self-same in subtle, queer, and preposterous ways. As one has come to expect from Parker, delight is in the details....Shakespearean Intersections delivers on the promises of philologically attuned intersectional analysis, revealing the critical, historical, ontological, and epistemological insights that arise when we delve deeply and patiently into the world of words." * Shakespeare Quarterly *"The conclusion one draws from Shakespearean Intersections is that a lifetime of study in classical and early modern literature, multiple languages, philosophy, and world history might foster a critical perspective that invigorates our most familiar texts and makes them speak to the pressing issues of our time. This is the true promise of creative, inspiring literary criticism. It is a promise made good in Shakespearean Intersections." * Renaissance Quarterly *"Parker has always been one of the most trenchant and dazzling observers of word behaviour and her command of the almost incorrigible and mischievous elements of Shakespeare's language is an art in itself. The vibrant way in which she conjures contexts and allusions, recalls, suppositions, bends, behinds and breaches draws out the spectacular ways in which meanings are networked across the plays, but also the audiences and how the word becomes a powerful token or gift through which we can explore the rich complexities of belonging to Shakespeare's play worlds." * Shakespeare Survey *"Providing a rather prolific response to the age-old question, 'what's in a name?' this book's methodological approach to words (including nominal) as uniquely rewarding vehicles for exploring the language, contexts, and preoccupations of a period's literature and drama-together with oft-overlooked issues and historical intersections-testifies to the rich dividends paid by the meticulously close scholarly readings at which Parker is so adept." * Renaissance and Reformation *"Shakespearean Intersections offers a stunningly creative and illuminating method for reading Shakespeare's words as nodes in densely linked webs of religious, racial, political, and sexual meanings. No word is safe from Patricia Parker's eagle-eyed attention to the polyglot resonances, inferences, and figurations that unexpectedly connect Shakespeare's language to contemporary discourses as diverse as sodomy, military science, biblical teleology, and orthography. Shakespearean Intersections shows us how much we have overlooked in Shakespeare's language, and how much richer and more inventive our readings of even his most familiar texts might be." * Mario DiGangi, The Graduate Center, City University of New York *"Our editorial and critical endeavors have always (and perhaps necessarily) underestimated the activity of words-which is why we need Patricia Parker's extraordinary readings of Shakespeare." * Margreta de Grazia, University of Pennsylvania *"In Shakespearean Intersections, Patricia Parker identifies a wide range of especially resonant keywords and cultural contexts for early modern drama. Her readings of Shakespearean drama are a joy to encounter: immensely learned; acutely sensitive to rhetorical complexity; and deeply thoughtful about the politics of language." * Patricia Cahill, Emory University *

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Book SynopsisJulius Caesar presents a performance history of a controversial play, moving from its 1599 opening all the way into the new millennium with particular emphasis on its twentieth- and twenty-first-century incarnations on stage and screen. The book tracks the play’s evolution from being a play about the oratorical skill of noble Romans to its recent manifestations as a dark political thriller.Chapters in this theoretically savvy and global study consider productions such as Orson Welles’s groundbreaking examination of European Fascism, Joseph Mankeiwicz’s Oscar winning 1953 film, politically complex productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and shows from around the world which interrogate their own cultural and educational context as well as pressing contemporary concerns such as the reach of mass media.Table of ContentsIntroduction: political theatre1. “So are they all, all honourable men”: Julius Caesar before the Second World War2. The rise of European Fascism: Welles at the Mercury Theater3. (Un) American identities: Mankiewicz (1953)4. Wise saws and modern(ist) instances: Anderson, Barton and Nunn5. Glories past: the minor films6. The Romans in Britain. Caesar under Thatcher7. Accents yet unknown: Global Caesars8. ‘Growing on the South’: Georgia Shakespeare 2001 and 20099. A strange disposed time: Caesar at the MilleniumAppendix: major cast and company staff of select twentieth century productionsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis original and innovative book proposes ‘dismemory’ as a new form of intertextual engagement with Shakespeare by modern and contemporary Irish writers. Through reflection on these canonical writers and ranging across thirteen Shakespeare plays, Taylor-Collins demonstrates how Irish writers who helped to fashion and critique the Irish nation state carry an indelible, if often subdued, mark of Shakespeare’s early modern English influence.The volume overall renews and revitalises the Shakespeare–modern Ireland connection: Taylor-Collins reveals Hamlet’s hauntological legacy in Playboy of the Western World, Ulysses, and Ghosts; how the corporal economies that exert pressure from Coriolanus and Ben Jonson flicker through to the antiheroes in Beckett’s Three Novels; and how the landed legacies of territorial contests in Shakespeare are engaged with in Yeats’s poetry, and similarly how the diseased muddiness in Hamlet is addressed by Heaney.Trade Review'Breath-taking in an imaginative audacity tempered only by scholarly scruple, this study shows just how much of the modern Irish mind Shakespeare invented. Nick Taylor-Collins's text crackles with new ideas: it is a work of passion and truth. It shows just how deeply Irish writers illuminate the Bard who in turn lights up their texts. The author has the gift of explanation without simplification. Its writer combines a fine alertness to the nuances of language along with a deep understanding of the socio-cultural matrices out of which all literature springs. The result is a magnificent evocation of the ways in which writers take fire from one another ... and even reinvent their predecessors.'Declan Kiberd, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame University -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Remembering memoryPart I: Ghosts1 ‘Go on from this’: J. M. Synge’s Playboy2 ‘Remember me’: Hamlet, memory, and Leopold Bloom’s poiesis3 ‘Someone wholly other’: John Banville’s GhostsPart II: Bodies4 ‘[M]y genius for forgetting’: Samuel Beckett’s theatrical bodies5 ‘Kate had herself sterilized’: O’Brien’s self-disciplining bodiesPart III: Land6 ‘[R]ights of memory’: W. B. Yeats, surface, and counter-memory7 ‘[D]ithering, blathering’: Seamus Heaney, the diseased word-hoard, and the HistorianConclusion: ‘I disremember’ ReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisBoika Sokolova and Kirilka Stavreva’s second edition of the stage history of The Merchant of Venice interweaves into the chronology of James Bulman’s first edition richly contextualised chapters on Max Reinhardt, Peter Zadek, and the first production of the play in Mandatory Palestine, directed by Leopold Jessner. While the focus of the book is on post-1990s productions across Europe and the USA, and on film, the Segue provides a broad survey of the interpretative shifts in the play’s performance from the 1930s to the second decade of the twenty-first century. Individual chapters explore productions by Peter Zadek, Trevor Nunn, Robert Sturua, Edward Hall, Rupert Goold, Daniel Sullivan, and Karin Coonrod. An extensive film section including silent film offers close analysis of Don Selwyn’s Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti and Michael Radford’s adaptation. Accessible and engaging, the book will interest students, academics, and general readers.Table of ContentsPART II An Elizabethan Merchant: performance and contextII Henry Irving and the great traditionIII Wayward genius in the high temple of bardolotry: Theodore KomisarjevskyIV Aesthetes in a rugger club: Jonathan Miller and Laurence OlivierV The BBC Merchant: diminishing returnsVI Cultural stereotyping and audience response: Bill Alexander and Antony SherVII Shylock and the pressures of historyPART IISegue The Merchant of Venice: pressures of war, ideology, and the crises of late capitalismI Magical spectacles and nightmarish times: Max Reinhardt’s productions of The Merchant of VeniceII Peter Zadek’s challenges to the post-war German legacy of The Merchant of VeniceIII A post-Holocaust balancing act: The Merchant of Venice directed by Trevor Nunn at the National Theatre, London (1999)IV Desperate outsiders in a money-drunk world: The Merchant of Venice directed by Daniel Sullivan (2010) and Rupert Goold (2011)V Crises of the new millennium: The Merchant of Venice directed by Robert Sturua (2000) and Edward Hall (2009)VI The Merchant of Venice on filmVII The search for justice: The Merchant of Venice in Mandatory Palestine (1936) and the Venetian Ghetto (2016)Appendix A Some significant twentieth- and twenty-first century productions of The Merchant of Venice Appendix B Major actors and creative staff for productions discussedBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWith its fantasy of magical travel and inexhaustible riches, Thomas Dekker’s Old Fortunatus is the quintessential early modern journeying play. The adventures of Fortunatus and his sons, aided by a magical purse and wishing-hat, offers the period’s most overt celebration of the pleasures of travel, as well as a sustained critique of the dangers of intemperance and prodigality. Written following a period of financial difficulty for Dekker, the play is also notable for its fascination with the symbolic, mercantile and ethical uses of gold.This Revels Plays edition is the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of Old Fortunatus. It offers scholarly discussion of the play’s performance and textual history, including attention to the German version printed and performed in the early seventeenth century. It provides a long overdue critical reappraisal of this unjustly neglected play.Trade Review'McInnis has produced an admirable, rigorous, and reliable scholarly edition. He has given criticism a chance to match this editorial achievement with insights of comparable height and nuance.'Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme'This new edition of Old Fortunatus is a valuable intervention. It brings the play into focus for advanced teaching and research. It suggests some of the ways Dekker’s dramaturgy embodies the possessive imagination that structures English travel writing and proto-colonial fantasy in the period.'Early Theatre'If Old Fortunatus has another moment, it might be now, when technologies of trade and travel elate and overwhelm us, and the world seems to flicker between far off and at hand. Like other Revels editions, this one offers an authoritatively edited, modernized, and annotated text, a comprehensive textual and historical introduction, and a short performance history. McInnis’s introduction and notes are exceptional even by the high standards of the Revels series, adroitly recounting the wanderings of the Fortunatus story and the complicated history of Dekker’s playtext. McInnis’s particular expertise on travel narratives and lost plays shows to advantage, as he also sets Dekker’s play into the performance context of other contemporary plays. McInnis’s Old Fortunatus is an example of how a good edition does more than simply make a play newly available; it serves as waystation to a way of grasping a new world.'SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 -- .Table of ContentsList of illustrationsAbbreviationsIntroduction Authorship and the lost play(s) The text The German play Sources Performance history Critical reception Act and scene divisions Press-variantsOld FortunatusIndex

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Book SynopsisThis volume includes the text of Twelfth Night as prepared and annotated by David Swain for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, and is accompanied by the excellent introduction and supplementary materials from the anthology. The diverse and extensive appendices acquaint readers with Shakespeare’s sources and contextualize the play within Elizabethan society. The appendices include an excerpt from Barnabe Riche’s “Of Apollonius and Silla,” Shakespeare’s primary source of inspiration for the play; selections from Galen, Plato, and others illustrating Elizabethan attitudes toward gender and sexuality; excerptions illuminating contemporary moral discomfort with the theatre, such as Philip Stubbes’s “Of Stage-plays and Interludes, with their wickedness”; and pieces on music and duelling that illustrate cultural conventions important to the interpretation of Twelfth Night.This is one of several Broadview Anthology of British Literature Editions being released this year; those wishing to teach the text will have the option of including the convenient stand-alone book as part of a specially-priced shrink-wrapped package together with a volume of the anthology.Trade Review“Broadview’s recent Anthology of British Literature is an exciting achievement. Broadview has accomplished what no other anthology to date has been able to do.... Its introductory essays and useful appendices successfully reflect current scholarship while remaining student-centered.... With an impressive selection of literary works, an equally impressive collection of visual images, and an exemplary emphasis on print culture and history of the language, The Broadview Anthology not only rivals the Norton and the Longman, it sets a new standard by which all other anthologies of British literature will now have to be measured.” — Graham Hammill, University of Notre Dame on The Broadview Anthology of British Literature“The simple fact is that a major work of student-centered scholarship has arrived in the field of English studies, and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is no mere pretender to the throne long held by the Norton: it is the new standard.” — Richard Nordquist, Armstrong Atlantic State University on The Broadview Anthology of British LiteratureTable of ContentsAcknowledgments IntroductionWilliam Shakespeare 1564–1616 Twelfth Night, or What You Will Twelfth Night, or What You Will In Context The Shakespearean Theater The Swan TheatreTitus Andronicus in PerformanceThe Plot of an Elizabethan PlayEarly Editions of Shakespeare’s Plays Twelfth Night Performance and Sources from John Manningham, Diary (2 February 1602)from Barnabe Riche, “Apollonius and Silla” Gender and Sexuality from Plato, The Symposium from Galen, De Usu Partium (On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body)from Helkiah Crooke, Microcosmographia (London, 1615) from William Shakespeare, Sonnets: Sonnet 20 from Michel de Montaigne, “Of Friendship” Theater and Society from Philip Stubbes, “Of Stage-Plays and Interludes, with Their Wickedness” from William Rankins, A Mirror of Monsters (London, 1587) from William Gager, Letter to Dr. John Rainolds (written 1592)from King James I, The King’s Majesty’s Declaration to His Subjects Concerning Lawful Sports to Be Used (London, 1618, 1633) Music and the Passions from Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Mind in General (London, 1601) from Sir Thomas Wyatt, “Ah Robin,” manuscript (c. 1510–20) from William Shakespeare, King Lear 3.2.73–77 Dueling from Vincentio Saviolo, Vincentio Saviolo His Practice. The First Book (London, 1595)from Vincentio Saviolo, Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels. The Second Book (London, 1595)

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Book SynopsisAt the center of this remarkable 1621 play is the story of Elizabeth Sawyer, the titular "Witch of Edmonton," a woman who had in fact been executed for the crime of witchcraft mere months before the play's first performance. Yet hers is only one of several plots that animate The Witch of Edmonton. Blending sensational drama with domestic tragedy and comic farce, this complex and multi-layered play by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley emphasizes the mundane realities and interpersonal conflicts that are so often at the heart of sensational occurrences. This edition of their work offers a compelling and informative introduction, thorough annotation, and a selection of contextual materials that helps set the play in the context of the "witch-craze" of Jacobean England.Table of Contents Introduction William Rowley, John Ford, and Thomas Dekker The Witch of Edmonton The Witch of Edmonton In Context from James I (James VI of Scotland), Demonology, In Form of a Dialogue, Divided into Three Books (1597) from William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft; so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience (1608) from John Cotta, The Trial of Witchcraft, Showing the True and Right Method of the Discovery: With a Confutation of Erroneous Ways (1616) Henry Goodcole, The Wonderful Discovery of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch, late of Edmonton, her conviction and condemnation and death. Together with the relation of the Devil's access to her, and their conference together (1621)

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Book SynopsisAs Americans began defining who was to be counted a citizen in their newly-established republic, Susanna Rowson’s comic opera Slaves in Algiers (1794) makes an earnest case that women be accorded the rights guaranteed to men, playfully turning sexual hierarchies on their head: “Women were born for universal sway; / Men to adore, be silent, and obey.” A fast-paced plot, engaging characterization, and rollicking songs ensured that Slaves in Algiers garnered success when it was first performed at the New Theater in Philadelphia. But Rowson’s play also engages in perpetuating racial stereotypes: set in Algiers at a time when Barbary pirates were seizing more and more U.S. ships in the Mediterranean Sea, Slaves in Algiers is written for a largely white audience driven by outrage at the enslavement of white people in the Barbary states. The play is critical of many aspects of North African cultures, particularly the practices of piracy and enslavement, while not acknowledging the moral and ethical taint of America’s own enslavement of African Americans. In recent years, critics have given increased attention to Slaves in Algiers, particularly to its interwoven feminist, nationalist, and imperialist themes, as well as to its treatment of Muslim and Jewish characters.This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature; like the others, it is designed to make a range of material from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts.Trade ReviewCOMMENTS ON The Broadview Anthology of American Literature“The expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature.” — Hester Blum, Penn State University“The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike.” — Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University“So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come.” — Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College “The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display.” — Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University “Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways.” — Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison“a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be.” — Michael C. Cohen, UCLA Table of ContentsIntroduction Susanna Haswell Rowson Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom: A Play, Interspersed with Songs, in Three Acts Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom: A Play, Interspersed with Songs, in Three Acts

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Book SynopsisInaugurated in the 1860s, and the standard reference edition of Shakespeare's work, each volume of the New Variorum Shakespeare presents complete textual and critical histories of each line of the play, along with extensive essays on criticism, sources, stage history, and more.The New Variorum Editions are valuable resources for an international audience of scholars, students, directors, actors, and general readers. Overseen by three general editors and an MLA committee, the production of each edition is conducted by a team of scholars and researchers working over a number of years.This edition contains a text of the play, textual variants from all subsequent editions of the play, and commentary notes. Includes discussion of important early editions, date of composition, sources, language and style, structure, influences, analogues, criticism, themes, characters, stage productions, film adaptations, operatic adaptations, and music for the play.Trade ReviewThis volume is not only beautifully readable but an irresistible page-turner." - Laurie Maguire, TLS, April 2022

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017Over two full years, Dromgoole, the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and the Globe players toured all seven continents, and almost 200 countries, performing the Bard's most famous play. They set their stage in sprawling refugee camps, grand Baltic palaces and heaving marketplaces - despite food poisoning in Mexico, an Ebola epidemic in West Africa and political upheaval in Ukraine. Hamlet: Globe to Globe tells the story of this unprecedented theatrical adventure, in which Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of Shakespeare's universal drama, and asks how a 400-year-old tragedy can bring the world closer together.Trade ReviewRichly entertaining . . . His love of language is contagious . . . the storytelling segues into scholarship with extraordinary skill from the off as he ricochets the modern world with a 400-year-old text * * The Times * *Taking in sandblown refugee camps, the hallucinatory effects of performing with chronic food poisoning in Mexico City and the politically-charged atmosphere of an auditorium in Ukraine on an election's eve, it is an entertaining, moving and informative read * * Evening Standard * *Dromgoole's witty account offers insight about the play and its enduring appeal * * New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2017 * *Full of life lessons . . . Erudite and fascinating . . . There's a real sense of the camaraderie and sheer fun of assembling a company and, quite literally, putting the show on wherever they can . . . The universal themes explored in the play take on a new and thrilling resonance, as the actors learn as much from their audiences as vice versa . . . Truly compelling * * Observer * *A delightfully idiosyncratic account of the Globe's vagabond mission to perform Hamlet in every country in the world . . . the joy of the book is Dromgoole's gusto . . . the way he meanders from personal anecdote to wider textual or cultural significance makes his book feel like a shaggy-dog documentary that you just don't want to end **** * * Daily Telegraph * *Compulsively readable * * New York Times * *Delivers sharp insights into a play Dromgoole has spent a lifetime turning over in his mind * * Guardian * *This deeply humane, consistently enthralling account of a theatrical odyssey encompasses travelogue and literary criticism, theatre history and introspective narrative, political commentary and philosophical reflection with beguiling readability -- Sir Stanley WellsDominic Dromgoole's recounting of the Globe Theatre's exhausting global tour of Hamlet is exhilarating. The playing company's intrepid journey around the world - performing Hamlet's own troubled journey - succeeds in making the familiar unfamiliar and enables in turn a deeply illuminating journey into the play itself. -- James Shapiro, author of 1599 and 1606An epic journey which explores how a 400-year-old play can help to make sense of the modern world * * Sunday Post * *Fascinating * * Spectator * *Dromgoole and his company belong in the ancient tradition of strolling players - quick-witted and wise, generous, hard-drinking and open. His book is written in that spirit. It is bold and excited, hopeful, dashing . . . By the time we reach the final show back on London's Southbank, it is a wrench to part his company * * Financial Times * *Irresistible . . . a comic epic -- Gary Taylor * * Washington Post * *The tireless Dromgoole goes on a journey that would kill most of us, and connects our greatest poet to every corner of the human experience. Utterly extraordinary -- Emma ThompsonThis is an amazing story about a bold and eye-popping journey. I loved it. Dominic Dromgoole writes about Shakespeare and touring the globe the way he ran The Globe - with passion, insight, relish and irresistible humour -- Sir Nicholas Hytner, The Artistic Director of London’s National TheatreCompelling . . . proving, as Dromgoole had hoped, that this powerful tragedy not only has the ability to transcend time but to cross borders as well * * National Geographic * *In Dromgoole's breakneck journey from a retractable-roof theater in Poland to a crammed cream-and-gold palace in Peru to a sweltering, bat-infested auditorium in Cambodia, the narrative covers an astonishing swath of world-girdling geography . . . No chronicle ever gave more compelling meaning to Shakespeare's conviction that 'all the world's a stage' * * Booklist * *[A] thoroughly enjoyable and charming story . . . Besides detailing the two-year tour itself, it's a story of the play, its themes and language, famous past players, and how it has been performed and received over the years . . . Sly, witty, and delightful - a glorious Shakespearean romp * * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * *Dromgoole is wise and witty; thoughtful, self-assured, even cocky . . . But he is never dull. His mission was to bring Hamlet to the world to show that Hamlet is the world, and he succeeded admirably. A wide readership, not just Shakespeare buffs and scholars, can enjoy this book * * Publishers Weekly * *Praise for WILL AND ME:'An absolute delight . . . utterly original and relishable' * * Sunday Times * *Friendly, inclusive, I warmed to it immediately . . . A terrific book * * Evening Standard * *Superb . . . thrillingly entertaining . . . throbs with vigour, honesty and passion * * Daily Telegraph * *Dromgoole is to the bard what Nick Hornby is to football * * Sunday Telegraph * *A record of a lifelong obsession - articulate, intelligent and passionately set down . . . Dromgoole's enthusiasm has a sincerity and warmth that are infectious * * Observer * *Irresistibly seductive * * Independent on Sunday * *

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Book SynopsisWas Shakespeare a snob? Poor Naked Wretches challenges the idea that our greatest writer despised working people, and shows that he portrayed them with as much insight, compassion and purpose as the rich and powerful. Moreover, they play an important role in his dramatic method. Stephen Unwin reads Shakespeare anew, exploring the astonishing variety of working people in his plays, as well as the vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn. Unwin argues that the robust realism of these characters, their independence of mind and their engagement in the great issues of the day, makes them much more than mere ‘comic relief’. Compassionate, cogent and wry, Poor Naked Wretches grants these often-overlooked figures the dignity and respect they deserve.

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Book Synopsis Memory and commemoration play a vital role not only in the work of Shakespeare, but also in the process that has made him a world author. As the contributors of this collection demonstrate, the phenomenon of commemoration has no single approach, as it occurs on many levels, has a long history, and is highly unpredictable in its manifestations. With an international focus and a comparative scope that explores the afterlives also of other artists, this volume shows the diverse modes of commemorative practices involving Shakespeare. Delving into these “cultures of commemoration,” it presents keen insights into the dynamics of authorship, literary fame, and afterlives in its broader socio-historical contexts.Table of Contents Introduction: Shakespeare and the Cultures of Commemoration Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo Chapter 1. Acting as an Epitaph: Performing Commemoration in the Shakespearean History Play Emily Shortslef Chapter 2. From Jubilee to Gala: Remembrance and Ritual Commemoration Robert Sawyer Chapter 3. Shakespeare Remembered Graham Holderness Chapter 4. American Shakespeare Clubs and Commemoration Katherine Scheil Chapter 5. Shakespeare and ‘Native Americans’: Forging Identities through the 1916 Shakespeare Tercentenary Monika Smialkowska Chapter 6. The Disciplines of War, Memory, and Writing: Shakespeare’s Henry V and David Jones’s In Parenthesis Adrian Poole Chapter 7. Monumental Play: Commemoration, Post-war Britain, and History Cycles Anita M. Hagerman Afterword: The Seeds of Time Graham Holderness

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Book Synopsis As the site of literary pilgrimage since the eighteenth century, the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the topic of hundreds of imaginary portrayals, Stratford is ripe for analysis, both in terms of its factual existence and its fictional afterlife. The essays in this volume consider the various manifestations of the physical and metaphorical town on the Avon, across time, genre and place, from America to New Zealand, from children’s literature to wartime commemorations. We meet many Stratfords in this collection, real and imaginary, and the interplay between the two generates new visions of the place.Table of Contents Preface Katherine Scheil Chapter 1. Helen Faucit and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1879 Christy Desmet Chapter 2. Secret Stratford: Shakespeare’s Hometown in Recent Young Adult Fiction Susanne Greenhalgh Chapter 3. Stratfordian Perambulations; or, Walking with Shakespeare Julie Sanders Chapter 4. Shakespeare’s Church and the Pilgrim Fathers: Commemorating Plymouth Rock in Stratford Clara Calvo Chapter 5. Importing Stratford Katherine Scheil Afterword: ‘Dear Shakespeare-land’: Investing in Stratford Nicola J. Watson

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Book Synopsis As the site of literary pilgrimage since the eighteenth century, the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the topic of hundreds of imaginary portrayals, Stratford is ripe for analysis, both in terms of its factual existence and its fictional afterlife. The essays in this volume consider the various manifestations of the physical and metaphorical town on the Avon, across time, genre and place, from America to New Zealand, from children’s literature to wartime commemorations. We meet many Stratfords in this collection, real and imaginary, and the interplay between the two generates new visions of the place.Table of Contents Preface Katherine Scheil Chapter 1. Helen Faucit and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1879 Christy Desmet Chapter 2. Secret Stratford: Shakespeare’s Hometown in Recent Young Adult Fiction Susanne Greenhalgh Chapter 3. Stratfordian Perambulations; or, Walking with Shakespeare Julie Sanders Chapter 4. Shakespeare’s Church and the Pilgrim Fathers: Commemorating Plymouth Rock in Stratford Clara Calvo Chapter 5. Importing Stratford Katherine Scheil Afterword: ‘Dear Shakespeare-land’: Investing in Stratford Nicola J. Watson

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Book SynopsisWhile the infamous Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Paris closed its doors in 1962, the particular form of horror theatre it spawned lives on and has, moreover, witnessed something of a resurgence over the past twenty years. During its heyday it inspired many imitators, though none quite as successful as the Montmartre-based original. In more recent times, new Grand-Guignol companies the world over have emerged to reimagine the form for a new generation of audiences. This book, the fourth volume in University of Exeter Press’s series on the Grand-Guignol by Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson, examines the ongoing influence and legacy of the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol through an appraisal of its contemporary imitators and modern reincarnations. As with the previous volumes, Grand-Guignolesque consists of a lengthy critical introduction followed by a series of previously unpublished scripts, each with its own contextualizing preface. The effect thereof is to map the evolution of horror theatre over the past 120 years, asking where the influence of the Grand-Guignol is most visible today, and what might account for its recent resurgence. This book will be of interest not only to the drama student, theatre historian and scholar of popular theatre, but also to the theatre practitioner, theatregoer and horror fan.Trade ReviewOne of the things I like about it is the absence of the verbosity that sometimes ruins academic writing; Hand and Wilson write snappily and makes their points clearly...All in all, a very interesting book - I learned a good deal from it. -- Martin Edwards, crime writer and crime fiction criticTable of ContentsContents Preface Chapter 1. Establishing the Grand-Guignolesque Chapter 2. The Grand-Guignol’s Contemporary Imitators and Competitors Chapter 3: The New Wave Chapter 4: Afterword Appendix: The Molotov Manifesto, or Acting Grand Guignol, Molotov Style Thirteen Plays of Grand-Guignol and the Grand-Guignolesque Professor Verdier’s Operations (Les Opérations du Professeur Verdier, 1907) by Élie de Bassan Short Circuit (Le Court-Circuit, 1916) by Benjamin Rabier and Eugène Joullot The Little House at Auteuil (La Petite Maison D’Auteuil, 1917) by Robert Scheffer and Georges Lignereux The Unhinged (Les Détraquées, 1924) by Palau and Olaf The Eyes of the Phantom (Les Yeux du Spectre, 1924) by Jean Aragny The Lover of Death (L’Amant de Mort, 1925) by Maurice Renard Orgy in the Lighthouse (L’Orgie dans le phare, 1956) adapted by Eddie Muller from Alfred Machard’s play The Sticking Place (2008) by Lucas Maloney and Michael McMahon, with Alex Zavistovich A Room With No View (2009) by James Comtois The Ghost Hunter (2013) by Stewart Pringle We’ll Fix It! (2013) by Les Williams Leviticus: Evil Resides Within (2014) by Antonio Rimola Abel Hartmann's Grand-Guignol: A History of Violence (2015) by Dreamcatcher Horror Theatre Bibliography Webography Index

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Book SynopsisWilliam Congreve was deeply involved in the events of his turbulent times. That involvement reveals itself in works which have sometimes been regarded as entirely unengaged with the realities of his society. This book attempts to read Congreve’s plays and his novella, Incognita, against the political and social upheaval of the period initiated by the rebellion of 1688. A strong supporter of the new world ushered in by William III and Mary, Congreve fought against the reactionary politics of the Jacobite opposition.Trade Review“Novak offers new readings of Congreve while grounding his argument not only in a thorough understanding of the social, political, ethical and religious conflicts of Congreve’s decade of writing for the stage but also in the best historical scholarship of the period and the best literary criticism of Congreve of the last ninety years.”—Kevin J. Gardner, Professor and Department Chair, Baylor English Department, Baylor University, USA“Imaginary Plots and Political Realities in the Plays of William Congreve is an engaging book that makes a significant contribution to Restoration and eighteenth-century studies. Congreve has been ignored too often in recent work on the late seventeenth-century theatre, and Novak’s study should help to remedy this situation by reminding his readers of the dramatist’s crucial role in the stage politics of the 1690s.”—Robert Markley, W. D. and Sara E. Trowbridge Professor, University of Illinois, USA“The book, with its fine-grained attention to the changing political and social circumstances of the 1690s, the decade during which Congreve’s dramatic career unfolded, reads as a synthesis of a career’s worth of thought about the playwright, with fresh perspectives and a clarifying specificity of focus, especially on the question of politics.”—James Noggle, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of English, Wellesley College, USATable of ContentsAcknowledgements; List of illustrations; Foreword; Chapter 1, The politics of love, marriage and scandal in Congreve’s world; Chapter 2, Incognita and some problems in morality and epistemology; Chapter 3, The “fashionable cutt of the town” and William Congreve’s The Old Batchelor; Chapter 4, Political and moral double-dealing in Congreve’s The Double Dealer; Chapter 5, Foresight in the stars and scandal in London: Reading the hieroglyphics in Congreve’s Love for Love; Chapter 6, The failure of perception in Congreve’s The Mourning Bride; Chapter 7, Politics and Congreve’s The Way of the World; Afterword; Works Cited; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe ludic element of drama in the Middle Ages - or drama with early subject matter - is here to the fore. Medieval English Theatre is the premier journal in early theatre studies. Its name belies its wide range of interest: it publishes articles on theatre and pageantry from across the British Isles up to the opening of the London playhouses and the suppression of the civic mystery cycles, and also includes contributions on European and Latin drama, together with analyses of modern survivals or equivalents, and of research productions of medieval plays. This edition combines, perhaps unexpectedly, royalty and games. Games of all kinds, from jousting and "Christmas games" to those usually associated with children, are shown, it is suggested, to be more than they at first appear. Apparently run-of-the-mill entertainments, when presented to the court by the Londoners, by the court to a visiting emperor , or by the retainers of royalty and nobility to the general public for commercial gain, turn out to have unexpected political resonances; while the potential underlying sadism of children's games gains a horrific immediacy when diverted to the torturing of Christ. Even today, the musical SIX says a great deal more about royalty and role-playing than initially might appear, especially when set against eye-witness accounts of the first meeting of Anna of Cleves with Henry VIII, and what modern novelists have made of it . In the process we learn a great deal more about the detail of these games, from the maskerie costumes of James VI and Anna of Denmark to the elaborate fantasy challenges of the jousters in 1400/1401, which incidentally suggest that fourteenth-century court culture, whose language was Anglo-French, is a major missing link in the history of what is usually treated as purely English literature. Contributors: Philip Bennett, Philip Butterworth, Sarah Carpenter, Elisabeth Dutton, James Forse, Gordon Kipling, Michael Pearce, Meg Twycross.Table of ContentsThe Prince of Peace and the Mummers: Richard II and the Londoners' Visit of 1376/1377 - Meg Twycross Chivalric Entertainment at the Court of Henry IV: The Jousting Letters of 1401 - Sarah Carpenter Appendix (Meg Twycross and Philip Bennett): Transcription and Translation of BL MS Cotton Nero D II fols 260v-262r 'Maskerye claythis' for James VI and Anna of Denmark - Michael Pearce Peers and Performers in the Reign of Henry VI - James H. Forse 'That Gam Me Thoght Was Good!': Structuring Games into Medieval English Plays - Philip Butterworth Feminism, Theatre, and Historical Fiction: Anna of Cleves in 2021 - Elisabeth Dutton

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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