Download or read book The 101 Greatest Plays written by Michael Billington and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having surveyed post-war British drama in State of the Nation, Michael Billington now looks at the global picture. In this provocative and challenging new book, he offers his highly personal selection of the 100 greatest plays ranging from the Greeks to the present-day. But his book is no mere list. Billington justifies his choices in extended essays- and even occasional dialogues- that put the plays in context, explain their significance and trace their performance history. In the end, it's a book that poses an infinite number of questions. What makes a great play? Does the definition change with time and circumstance? Or are certain common factors visible down the ages? It's safe to say that it's a book that, in revising the accepted canon, is bound to stimulate passionate argument and debate. Everyone will have strong views on Billington's chosen hundred and will be inspired to make their own selections. But, coming from Britain's longest-serving theatre critic, these essays are the product of a lifetime spent watching and reading plays and record the adventures of a soul amongst masterpieces.

Download or read book The Trial of God written by Elie Wiesel and published by Schocken. This book was released on 1995-11-14 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Trial of God (as it was held on February 25, 1649, in Shamgorod) A Play by Elie Wiesel Translated by Marion Wiesel Introduction by Robert McAfee Brown Afterword by Matthew Fox Where is God when innocent human beings suffer? This drama lays bare the most vexing questions confronting the moral imagination. Set in a Ukranian village in the year 1649, this haunting play takes place in the aftermath of a pogrom. Only two Jews, Berish the innkeeper and his daughter Hannah, have survived the brutal Cossack raids. When three itinerant actors arrive in town to perform a Purim play, Berish demands that they stage a mock trial of God instead, indicting Him for His silence in the face of evil. Berish, a latter-day Job, is ready to take on the role of prosecutor. But who will defend God? A mysterious stranger named Sam, who seems oddly familiar to everyone present, shows up just in time to volunteer. The idea for this play came from an event that Elie Wiesel witnessed as a boy in Auschwitz: “Three rabbis—all erudite and pious men—decided one evening to indict God for allowing His children to be massacred. I remember: I was there, and I felt like crying. But there nobody cried.” Inspired and challenged by this play, Christian theologians Robert McAfee Brown and Matthew Fox, in a new Introduction and Afterword, join Elie Wiesel in the search for faith in a world where God is silent.

Download or read book Six Great Modern Plays written by Anton Chekhov and published by Dell. This book was released on 1956-02-15 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are six plays that stand as landmarks of the modern drama: Chekhov’s THREE SISTERS repeats, in terms of a handful of people, the spasms of a dying society. Isben’s THE MASTER BUILDER is the tragedy of the modern romantic, caught between desire and reality. Shaw’s MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION shocked England and America; this play was the first honest attempt in our era to deal with prostitution. O’Casey’s RED ROSES FOR ME is about a Protestant worker of Dublin who is a symbol of the ravaging conflicts in Ireland—and in man. Williams’s THE GLASS MENAGERIE is a tender, despairing portrait of two women, one lost in the past, the other in herself. Miller’s ALL MY SONS is a biting though compassionate, indictment of success through moral betrayal. We call these plays “modern.” But the they are high art, and are written with devotion to truth, and those two qualities have already made them timeless.

Download or read book Great Spanish Plays in English Translation written by Angel Flores and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richly varied collection of ten plays from 16th through 20th centuries. The Vigilant Sentinel, Miguel de Cervantes; Fuente Ovejuna, Lope de Vega; Life Is a Dream, Pedro Calderon de la Barca; Blood Wedding, Federico García Lorca, six more. Preface by John Gassner. Introduction and notes on each play.

Download or read book Sixteen Famous American Plays written by B. A. CERF and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 1049 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Played in Britain written by Kate Dorney and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Musuem, Played in Britain: Modern Theatre in 100 Plays explores the best and most influential plays from 1945 to date. Fully illustrated with photos from the V&A's collections and featuring a foreword by Richard Griffiths O.B.E., the book provides a sumptuous treat for theatre-lovers. It was awarded the 2014 David Bradby Award for research by the Theatre and Performance Research Association. Opening with J. B. Priestley's classic play from 1946, An Inspector Calls, and ending with Laura Wade's examination of class privilege and moral turpitude in Posh over sixty years later, Played in Britain offers a visual history of post-war theatre on the British stage. Arranged chronologically the featured plays illustrate and respond to a number of themes that animate post-war society: censorship and controversy; race and immigration; gender and sexuality; money and politics. An essay on each period first sets the context and explores trends, while the commentary accompanying each play illuminates the plot and themes, considers its original reception and subsequent afterlife, and finishes by suggesting other plays to explore. Photographs from the V&A's extensive collection illustrate each play, providing further insight into stage and costume designs, and include iconic images from the premieres of major plays such as Waiting for Godot and Look Back in Anger. Illustrated throughout with stage production photography, Played in Britain: Modern Theatre in 100 Plays presents a unique and visually stunning panorama of key dramatic works produced in Britain over the past seventy years. From An Inspector Calls to The Rocky Horror Show, or Abigail's Party to Waiting for Godot, fresh light is thrown on the impact, aesthetics and essence of these key plays.

Download or read book 100 Great Plays for Women written by Lucy Kerbel and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important, landmark survey dispels the myth that there aren't any good plays for women.

Download or read book The Greatest Play in the History of the World written by Ian Kershaw and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it that you would want to be preserved for eternity? A man wakes in the middle of the night to discover that the world has stopped. Through the crack in his bedroom curtains he can see no signs of life at all...other than a light in the house opposite where a woman in an oversized Bowie T-shirt stands, looking back at him. The Greatest Play in the History of the World is a beautifully constructed love story, set on Preston Road and also in space and in time. Presented as a monologue for one actor, it asks profound questions with deepest sincerity whilst simultaneously balancing the human quest for meaningful connections. This edition was published to coincide with the play's run at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in summer 2018 starring Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Download or read book A collection of the best English plays written by English plays and published by . This book was released on 1712 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Picnic written by William Inge and published by Dramatists Play Service Inc. This book was released on 1955 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: The play takes place on Labor day Weekend in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school tea

Download or read book Angels in America written by Tony Kushner and published by . This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This edition, published alongside the major revival at the National Theatre in 2017, contains both plays, Part One: Millennium Approaches, and Part Two: Perestroika.

Download or read book Our Country s Good written by Timberlake Wertenbaker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-17 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Observed by a lone, mystified Aboriginal Australian, the first convict ship arrives in Botany Bay, 1788, crammed with England's outcasts. Colony discipline in this vast and alien land is brutal. Three proposed public hangings incite an argument: how best to keep the criminals in line, the noose or a more civilised form of entertainment? The ambitious Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark steps forward with a play. But as the mostly illiterate cast rehearses, and a sense of common purpose begins to take hold, the young officer's own transformation is as marked and poignant as that of his prisoners. A profoundly humane piece of theatre, steeped in suffering yet charged with hope, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good (based on a true story) celebrates the redemptive power of art. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, london, in 1988, winning the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award. This edition was published to coincide with a major revival production at the National Theatre, which opened on 19 August 2015.

Download or read book Water by the Spoonful written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and published by Dramatists Play Service Inc. This book was released on 2013 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts keep each other alive, hour by hour, day by day. The boundaries of family and communi

Download or read book The Lion in Winter written by James Goldman and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2004-12-14 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insecure siblings fighting for their parents’ attention; bickering spouses who can’t stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family: These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman’s classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form. Keenly self-aware and motivated as much by spite as by any sense of duty, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine maneuver against each other to position their favorite son in line for succession. By imagining the inner lives of Henry, Eleanor, and their sons, John, Geoffrey, and Richard, Goldman created the quintessential drama of family strife and competing ambitions, a work that gives visceral, modern-day relevance to the intrigues of Angevin England. Combining keen historical and psychological insight with delicious, mordant wit, the stage play has become a touchstone of today’s theater scene, and Goldman’s screenplay for the 1968 film adaptation won him an Academy Award. Told in “marvelously articulate language, with humor that bristles and burns” (Los Angeles Times), The Lion in Winter is the rare play that bursts into life on the printed page.

Download or read book King Lear written by Jeffrey Kahan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-04-18 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is King Lear an autonomous text, or a rewrite of the earlier and anonymous play King Leir? Should we refer to Shakespeare’s original quarto when discussing the play, the revised folio text, or the popular composite version, stitched together by Alexander Pope in 1725? What of its stage variations? When turning from page to stage, the critical view on King Lear is skewed by the fact that for almost half of the four hundred years the play has been performed, audiences preferred Naham Tate's optimistic adaptation, in which Lear and Cordelia live happily ever after. When discussing King Lear, the question of what comprises ‘the play’ is both complex and fragmentary. These issues of identity and authenticity across time and across mediums are outlined, debated, and considered critically by the contributors to this volume. Using a variety of approaches, from postcolonialism and New Historicism to psychoanalysis and gender studies, the leading international contributors to King Lear: New Critical Essays offer major new interpretations on the conception and writing, editing, and cultural productions of King Lear. This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive anthology of textual scholarship, performance research, and critical writing on one of Shakespeare's most important and perplexing tragedies. Contributors Include: R.A. Foakes, Richard Knowles, Tom Clayton, Cynthia Clegg, Edward L. Rocklin, Christy Desmet, Paul Cantor, Robert V. Young, Stanley Stewart and Jean R. Brink

Download or read book 100 Greatest American Plays written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theatre in America has had a rich history—from the first performance of the Lewis Hallam Troupe in September 1752 to the lively shows of modern Broadway. Over the past few centuries, significant works by American playwrights have been produced, including Abie’s Irish Rose, Long Day’s Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, and Angels in America. In 100 Greatest American Plays, Thomas S. Hischak provides an engaging discussion of the best stage productions to come out of the United States. Each play is discussed in the context of its original presentation as well as its legacy. Arranged alphabetically, the entries for these plays include: plot details production history biography of the playwright literary aspects of the drama critical reaction to the play major awards the play’s influence cast lists of notable stage and film versions The plays have been selected not for their popularity but for their importance to American theatre and include works by Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, Gore Vidal, Wendy Wasserstein, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson. This informative volume also includes complete lists of Pulitzer Prize winners for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for American Plays, and the Tony Award for Best Play. Providing critical information about the most important works produced since the eighteenth century, 100 Greatest American Plays will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural history of theatre.

Download or read book All the Great Books written by Reed Martin and published by Broadway Play Publishing Incorporated. This book was released on 2005 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literature's greatest books condensed into 90 minutes.