A reader's guide to modern British drama / Sanford Sternlicht.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sternlicht, Sanford, 1931-2021.

Series:

Reader's guide series (Syracuse, N.Y.)

Reader's guides to literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--20th century--History and criticism--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

English drama.

Genre:

Handbooks and manuals.

Physical Description:

ix, 259 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Modern British drama

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2004.

Summary:

A Reader's Guide to Modern British Drama continues the discussion of the maturation of modern British drama, whose antecedents reside in the melodrama and farces of the Victorian era and whose present direction takes the reader into the potent social statements represented by the recent feminist, gay, and political drama currently energizing London theater.

This book is an indispensable guide for any reader wishing to explore the dramatic tradition and vital contemporary theater, for students pursuing drama studies, and for libraries needing an accessible reference work on this important subject.

The lives and contributions of more than 50 British playwrights, from George Bernard Shaw to Sarah Kane, are discussed. Sanford Sternlicht examines effects of modern history and psychology on British drama, including the all-important influence of Irish dramatists like Wilde, Shaw, O'Casey, and Beckett; the significance of the Independent Theatre of J. T. Grein and the early Royal Court Theatre; the feminist and gay communities' contribution to British theater; and the popularity of British festival theater.

Contents:

1 The Nineteenth-Century Inheritance 3

2 Modernism and the Drama 6

3 Themes and Politics in Modern British Drama 11

4 Feminist Drama and Gay Drama 15

5 Major Directions in Modern British Theater 19

6 Historical Events, 1899-2003 27

Playwrights and Plays

7 The First Moderns 33

George Bernard Shaw 33

J. M. Barrie 59

John Galsworthy 66

W. Somerset Maugham 72

Harley Granville-Barker 75

Frederick Lonsdale 77

D. H. Lawrence 78

Ben Travers 80

8 Between the Wars: The Jazz Age and the Depression 82

Clemence Dane 82

T. S. Eliot 83

Sean O'Casey 88

Enid Bagnold 90

J. B. Priestley 92

Noel Coward 95

Graham Greene 99

Emlyn Williams 101

Christopher Fry 103

Rodney Ackland 106

Terence Rattigan 107

9 World War II and After 113

Joan Littlewood 113

John Whiting 115

N. F. Simpson 117

Robert Bolt 118

Pam Gems 121

James Saunders 124

Peter Shaffer 125

10 The Angry Young Men (and Women) and the End of Empire 130

Peter Nichols 130

Ann Jellicoe 133

John Osborne 135

John Arden 140

11 Beckett's Pervading Influence 145

Harold Pinter 145

Peter Barnes 154

Arnold Wesker 156

Joe Orton 161

David Storey 166

Michael Frayn 169

Edward Bond 173

Alan Bennett 177

Trevor Griffiths 180

John McGrath 182

Simon Gray 183

David Rudkin 186

Steven Berkoff 187

Tom Stoppard 189

12 The New Sensibilities 197

Caryl Churchill 197

Shelagh Delaney 202

Alan Ayckbourn 204

Michelene Wandor 209

Howard Brenton 210

Christopher Hampton 212

Howard Barker 215

David Hare 217

Willy Russell 221

David Edgar 223

Kevin Elyot 226

Stephen Poliakoff 227

Timberlake Wertenbaker 229

Sarah Daniels 232

Sarah Kane 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-243) and index.

ISBN:

081563076X

OCLC:

56198857