Six Contemporary Dramatists

`A most illuminating study.' - John Bayley Six Contemporary Dramatists explores, in a straightforward manner, the central concerns of six of the most important contemporary dramatists. It demonstrates how the work of Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter, Simon Gray, Howard Brenton, David Hare and Alan Ayckbourn is essentially moral, and relates their aspirations to the British romantic tradition of the last century. At the same time, Duncan Wu explores how each writer has responded to the changes that took place in personal and public ethics during the 1980s as a result of Thatcherism. He also includes an interview with Alan Ayckbourn, published here for the first time, in which the volume's themes are focused and summarised. For the paperback edition, a substantial preface discussing Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, David Hare's Skylight and David Edgar's Pentecost has been added. This is an essential and readable guide to televised and theatrical drama for students and theatregoers alike.

Annotation Contemporary Dramatists presents, in rich detail, 450 of the most famous living playwrights in the English language. Entries in this fully revised and updated 6th edition include biographies, bibliographies and critical essays on the most-studied dramatists, with 90 completely new entrants.

Excerpt from Chief Contemporary Dramatists, Second Series: Eighteen Plays From the Recent Drama of England, Ireland, America, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Scandinavia This volume contains eighteen complete plays from the drama of England, Ireland, the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. Together with the first volume of Chief Contemporary Dramatists, issued in 1915, there are now made available in convenient form thirty-eight plays of the first order of excellence from the theater of Europe and America. In the choice of plays the term contemporary has been interpreted strictly. Of the eighteen plays in this book, ene third were produced in the decade between 1910 and 1920; all save three are prod ucts of the twentieth century. Of these works six have not before been published in English and are here made available for the first time in America. Comparing the plays in this volume with those which constituted the first series of Chief Contemporary Dramatists, some interesting tendencies in the theater of the western world are disclosed. While the thesis or problem play, derived from France and enforced by Ibsen, was predominant in the eighteen-nineties and the earlier years of the new cen tury, the form disappears as the century approaches its second decade. The present volume contains no single distinct exemplar of this type of play. The result Of the freeing of the play from the necessity of being socially serviceable has been greatly to enrich the theater With new interests both in structure and content, and to call into the craft of play making men from arts outside the theater. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In this penetrating study Andrew Kennedy sets out to analyse the modern movement in drama through the theatrical language of six key figures writing in English - Shaw, Eliot, Beckett, Pinter, Osborne and Arden. Dr Kennedy argues that a study of theatrical language should be an exercise in 'practical criticism' and not merely narrowly linguistic. The whole range of theatrical expressiveness must be examined in detail from play text and performance alike and the conclusions correlated with the author's known intentions if a full evaluative judgement is to be attempted. Dr Kennedy shows how the modern movement in drama reveals a growing difficulty in creating any type of fully expressive dramatic language. He has written a work with an unusual breadth of reference, which should prove of value to all students of modern drama, modern English and European literature and to the theatre-going public.

When Richard Steele remarked that the greatest Evils in human Society are such as no Law can come at, he was not able to forsee the spectacular success of John Gay's satire of society, the administration of law and crime, politics, the Italian opera and other topics. Gay's The Beggar's Opera, with its mixture of witty dialogue and popular songs, was imitated by 18th century writers, criticized by those on the seats of power, but remained a favourite of the English theatre public ever since. With N. Playfair's 1920 revival and B. Brecht's and K. Weill's 1928 Dreigroschenoper, Gay's play has been a starting-point for dramatists such as V. Havel (Zebrácká opera, 1975), W. Soyinka (Opera Wonyosi, 1977), Ch. Buarque (Ópera do Malandro, 1978), D. Fo (L'opera dello sghignazzo, 1981), A. Ayckbourn (A Chorus of Disapproval, 1984), as well as others such as Latouche, Hacks, Fassbinder, Dear, Wasserman, and Lepage. Apart from contributions by international scholars analysing the above-named plays, the editors' introduction covers other dramatists that have payed hommage to Gay. This interdisciplinary collection of essays is of particular interest for scholars working in the field of drama/theatre studies, the eighteenth century, contemporary drama, postcolonial studies, and politics and the stage.

This comprehensive collection gathers critical essays on the major works of the foremost American and British playwrights of the 20th century, written by leading figures in drama/performance studies.

Fifty Modern and Contemporary and Dramatists is a critical introduction to the work of some of the most important and influential playwrights from the 1950s to the present day. The figures chosen are among the most widely studied by students of drama, theatre and literature and include such celebrated writers as: • Samuel Beckett • Caryl Churchill • Anna Deavere Smith • Jean Genet • Sarah Kane • Heiner Müller • Arthur Miller • Harold Pinter • Sam Shephard Each short essay is written by one of an international team of academic experts and offers a detailed analysis of the playwright’s key works and career. The introduction provides an historical and theatrical context to the volume, which provides an invaluable overview of modern and contemporary drama.