Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Book SynopsisThe famously private Sam Shepard gave a significant number of interviews over the course of his public life, and the interviewers who respected his boundaries found him to be forthcoming on a wide range of topics. The selected interviews here begin in 1969 when Shepard was twenty-six and end in 2016, eighteen months before his death.

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