Download or read book British Theatre Since the War written by Dominic Shellard and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British theatre of the past fifty years has been brilliant, varied, and controversial, encompassing invigorating indigenous drama, politically didactic writing, the formation of such institutions as the National Theatre, the exporting of musicals worldwide from the West End, and much more. This entertaining and authoritative book is the first comprehensive account of British theatre in this period. Dominic Shellard moves chronologically through the half-century, discussing important plays, performers, directors, playwrights, critics, censors, and agents as well as the social, political, and financial developments that influenced the theatre world. Drawing on previously unseen material (such as the Kenneth Tynan archives), first-hand testimony, and detailed research, Shellard tackles several long-held assumptions about drama of the period. He questions the dominance of Look Back in Anger in the 1950s, arguing that much of the theatre of the ten years prior to its premiere in 1956 was vibrant and worthwhile. He suggests that theatre criticism, theatre producers, and such institutions as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company have played key roles in the evolution of recent drama. And he takes a fresh look at the work of Terence Rattigan, Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Alan Ayckbourn, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and other significant playwrights of the modern era. The book will be a valuable resource not only for students of theatre history but also for any theatre enthusiast.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of British Theatre written by Jane Milling and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Jacques Lecoq and the British Theatre written by Franc Chamberlain and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacques Lecoq and the British Theatre brings together the first collection of essays in English to focus on Lecoq's school of mime and physical theatre. For four decades, at his school in Paris, Jacques Lecoq trained performers from all over the world and effected a quiet evolution in the theatre. The work of such highly successful Lecoq graduates as Theatre de Complicite (The Winter's Tale with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Visit, The Street of Crocodiles and The Causcasian Chalk Circle with the Royal National Theatre) has brought Lecoq's work to the attention of mainstream critics and audiences in Britain. Yet Complicte is just the tip of the Iceberg. The contributors to this volume, most of them engaged in applying Lecoq's work, chart some of the diverse ways in which it has had an impact on our conceptions of mime, physical theatre, actor training, devising street theatre and interculturalism. This lively - even provocative - collection of essays focuses academic debate and raises awareness of the impact of Lecoq's work in Britain today.
Download or read book Affects in 21st Century British Theatre written by Mireia Aragay and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the various manifestations of affects in British theatre of the 21st century. The introduction gives a concise survey of existing and emerging theoretical and research trends and argues in favour of a capacious understanding of affects that mediates between more autonomous and more social approaches. The twelve chapters in the collection investigate major works in Britain by playwrights and theatre makers including Mojisola Adebayo, Mike Bartlett, Alice Birch, Caryl Churchill, Tim Crouch and Andy Smith, Rachel De-lahay, Reginald Edmund, James Fritz, David Greig, Idris Goodwin, Zinnie Harris, Kieran Hurley, Lucy Kirkwood, Anders Lustgarten, Yolanda Mercy, Anthony Neilson, Lucy Prebble, Sh!t Theatre, Penelope Skinner, Stef Smith, Kae Tempest and debbie tucker green. The interpretations identify significant areas of tension as they relate affects to the fields of cognition, politics and hope. In this, the chapters uncover interrelations of thought, intention and empathy; they reveal the nexus between identities, institutions and ideology; and, finally, they explore how theatre can accomplish the transition from a sense of crisis to utopian visions.
Download or read book Harold Pinter and the New British Theatre written by D. Keith Peacock and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1997-09-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harold Pinter is universally described as Britain's leading dramatist. This book evaluates the justification for this appellation. It examines his work in relation to changes taking place in the New British Theatre after the so-called theatrical revolution of 1956, and draws attention to those autobiographical experiences that have been transmuted into his art. Beginning with a look at the nature of British theatre prior to 1956, Peacock then describes Pinter's early life in the East End of London, his career as an actor, and his early writing. The discussion follows Pinter's life and work from ^IThe Room^R in 1957 to his most recent play, Ashes to Ashes in 1996. The author argues that although Pinter has not instigated an aesthetic revolution, he has, more significantly, through his representation of human behavior, provoked a new way of viewing the world.
Download or read book Post War British Theatre Routledge Revivals written by John Elsom and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Second World War, we have witnessed exciting, often confusing developments in the British theatre. This book, first published in 1976, presents an enlightening, objective history of the many facets of post-war British theatre and a fresh interpretation of theatre itself. The remarkable and profound changes which have taken place during this period range from the style and content of plays, through methods of acting, to shapes of theatres and the organisational habits of managers. Two national theatres have been brought almost simultaneously into existence; while at the other end of the financial scale, the fringe and pub theatres have kicked their way into vigorous life. The theatre in Britain has been one of the post-war success stories, to judge by its international renown and its mixture of experimental vitality and polished experience. In this book Elsom presents an approach to the problems of criticism and appreciation which range beyond those of literary analysis.
Download or read book Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1660 1914 written by Edith Hall and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005-07-14 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lavishly illustrated book offers the first full, interdisciplinary investigation of the historical evidence for the presence of ancient Greek tragedy in the post-Restoration British theatre, where it reached a much wider audience - including women - than had access to the original texts. Archival research has excavated substantial amounts of new material, both visual and literary, which is presented in chronological order. But the fundamental aim is to explain why Greek tragedy, which played an elite role in the curricula of largely conservative schools and universities, was magnetically attractive to political radicals, progressive theatre professionals, and to the aesthetic avant-garde. All Greek has been translated, and the book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Greek tragedy, the reception of ancient Greece and Rome, theatre history, British social history, English studies, or comparative literature.
Download or read book An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance written by Robert Leach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance chronicles the history and development of theatre from the Roman era to the present day. This first volume spans from the earliest forms of performance to the popular theatres of high society and the Enlightenment.
Download or read book Noises Off written by Michael Frayn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-14 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “As finely worked as a Swiss watch and as funny as the human condition permits ... the zigzag brilliance of the text as the clunky lines of the farce-within-a-farce rub against the sharp dialogue of reality.” The Guardian A play-within-a-play following a touring theatre company who are rehearsing and performing a comedy called Nothing On, results in a riotous double-bill of comedic craft and dramatic skill. Hurtling along at breakneck speed it shows the backstage antics as they stumble through the dress-rehearsal at Weston-super-Mare, then on to a disastrous matinee at Ashton-under-Lyne, followed by a total meltdown in Stockton-on-Tees. Michael Frayn's irresistible, multi-award-winning backstage farce has been enjoyed by millions of people worldwide since it premiered in 1982 and has been hailed as one of the greatest British comedies ever written. Winner of both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy. This edition features a new introduction by Michael Blakemore.
Download or read book Bad Jews written by Joshua Harmon and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bad Jews tells the story of Daphna Feygenbaum, a “Real Jew†? with an Israeli boyfriend. When Daphna’s cousin Liam brings home his shiksa girlfriend Melody and declares ownership of their grandfather’s Chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl over family, faith and legacy ensues.
Download or read book The Censorship of British Drama 1900 1968 The Sixties written by Steve Nicholson and published by Exeter Performance Studies. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize - 2016 This is the final volume in a new paperback edition of Steve Nicholson's definitive four-volume survey of British theatre censorship from 1900-1968, based on previously undocumented material, covering the period 1960-1968. This brings to its conclusion the first comprehensive research on the Lord Chamberlain's Correspondence Archives for the 20th century. The 1960s was a significant decade in social and political spheres in Britain, especially in the theatre. As certainties shifted and social divisions widened, a new generation of theatre makers arrived, ready to sweep away yesterday's conventions and challenge the establishment. Analysis exposes the political and cultural implications of a powerful elite exerting pressure in an attempt to preserve the veneer of a polite, unquestioning society. This new edition includes a contextualising timeline for those readers who are unfamiliar with the period, and a new preface. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/TGOJ9339
Download or read book Madness in Contemporary British Theatre written by Jon Venn and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-30 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the representation of madness in contemporary British theatre, examining the rich relationship between performance and mental health, and questioning how theatre can potentially challenge dominant understandings of mental health. Carefully, it suggests what it means to represent madness in theatre, and the avenues through which such representations can become radical, whereby theatre can act as a site of resistance. Engaging with the heterogeneity of madness, each chapter covers different attributes and logics, including: the constitution and institutional structures of the contemporary asylum; the cultural idioms behind hallucination; the means by which suicide is apprehended and approached; how testimony of the mad person is interpreted and encountered. As a study that interrogates a wide range of British theatre across the past 30 years, and includes a theoretical interrogation of the politics of madness, this is a crucial work for any student or researcher, across disciplines, considering the politics of madness and its relationship to performance.
Download or read book Changing Stages written by Richard Eyre and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative, spirited account of the history of twentieth century theatre by two of its most distinguished practitioners.
Download or read book An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance written by Robert Leach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-21 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance chronicles the history and development of theatre from the Roman era to the present day. As the most public of arts, theatre constantly interacts with changing social, political and intellectual movements and ideas, and Robert Leach’s masterful work restores to the foreground of this evolution the contributions of women, gay people and ethnic minorities, as well as the theatres of the English regions, and of Wales and Scotland. Highly illustrated chapters trace the development of theatre through major plays from each period; evaluations of playwrights; contemporary dramatic theory; acting and acting companies; dance and music; the theatre buildings themselves; and the audience, while also highlighting enduring features of British theatre, from comic gags to the use of props. This first volume spans from the earliest forms of performance to the popular theatres of high society and the Enlightenment, tracing a movement from the outdoor and fringe to the heart of the social world. The Illustrated History acts as an accessible, flexible basis for students of the theatre, and for pure fans of British theatre history there could be no better starting point.
Download or read book British Avant Garde Theatre written by C. Warden and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores an under-researched body of work from the early decades of the twentieth century, connecting plays, performances and practitioners together in dynamic dialogues. Moving across national, generational and social borders, the book reads experiments in Britain during this period alongside theatrical innovations overseas.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre 1730 1830 written by Daniel O'Quinn and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion offers a wide-ranging and innovative guide to one of the most exciting and important periods in British theatrical history. The scope of the volume extends from the age of Garrick to the Romantic transformation of acting inaugurated by Edmund Kean. It brings together cutting-edge scholarship from leading international scholars in the long eighteenth century, offering lively and original insights into the world of the stage, its most influential playwrights and the professional lives of celebrated performers such as James Quin, George Anne Bellamy, John Philip Kemble, Dora Jordan, Fanny Abington and Sarah Siddons. The volume includes essential chapters about eighteenth-century acting, production and audiences, important surveys of key theatrical forms such as tragedy, comedy, melodrama and pantomime as well as a range of exciting thematic essays on subjects such as private theatricals, 'black' theatre and the representation of empire.
Download or read book State of the Nation written by Michael Billington and published by Faber & Faber Non Fiction. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Billington looks at post-war Britain from a theatrical perspective. He examines the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the Attlee years to the satire boom of the 1960s and the growth of political theatre under Tony Blair in the post-Iraq period.
