First published in 1964, this arresting and original work is a study of the relations between content and form in drama; the conflict between and ultimate reconciliation of certain kinds of material that life presents to the poet and the demands inherent in dramatic form and technique. There are chapters on Shakespeare's historical plays, on Troilus and Cressida, on Milton's Samson Agonistes and on general dramatic problems.

Good evening, I'm Inspector Carter. Take my case. This must be Charles Haversham! I'm sorry, this must've given you all a damn shock... The original version of the global hit play created by Mischief. After benefiting from a large and sudden inheritance, the inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society embark on producing an ambitious 1920s murder mystery. Hilarious disaster ensues and the cast start to crack under the pressure. Can they get the production back on track before the final curtain falls? This one-act version of Mischief's world famous The Play That Goes Wrong originally premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London in 2012. Since then, the expanded two-act version has taken the world by storm and has been performed in over 35 countries across 5 continents, winning multiple awards including the WhatsOnStage and Olivier Award for Best New Comedy plus a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play. This edition features the original one-act edition of the play that's perfect to be enjoyed on the page as well as in performance. A true global phenomenon, it is guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter.

First published in 1939, The Irish Dramatic Movement is a critical study of the dramatic work of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Synge, their contemporaries and some of their successors. Professor Ellis-Fermor relates each to the movement as a whole, discussing the nature of poetic drama in the hands of Yeats and Synge, while attempting to describe the remarkable contribution made by Irish drama to the literature of the early twentieth century. In her appendices, the author includes a chronological table of the main events in the first years of the movement, a list of plays produced in London in the last decade of the nineteenth century and a subject index to some of the main critical opinions of W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory.

First published in 1930, in Tamburlaine the Great - in Two Parts, Professor Ellis-Fermor discusses early editions of the work and considers how far the spelling and punctuation of the 1590 octavo should be retained in modern editions. The author discusses the date that the play was written and its authorship and sources. She then goes on to look at the stage history of Tamburlaine before presenting the play itself in two parts. Professor Ellis-Fermor retains the spelling of the majority of proper names. She also keeps the old stage directions where they occur, as these are, she says, picturesque and succinct, and there appears no reason to discard them in favour of the more modern forms used by subsequent editors. In her appendices, she includes extracts from other accounts of Tamburlaine and looks at later editions of the work.

First published in 1927, this book aims to trace the development of Christopher Marlowe's mind and art as these are revealed in the surviving parts of his work, while portraying the personality thus perceived. Professor Ellis-Fermor begins by looking at Marlowe's life and early works, before making a more detailed study of Tamburlaine, Faustus, The Plays of Policy, and finaly Hero and Leander. She then goes on, in the appendix of this work, to consider contention and true tragedy before concluding with a study of Marlowe in the eyes of his contemporaries. The author has followed the text of the Oxford Edition of Marlowe's works (1910), except in a few quotations, where she has preferred the reading of another early edition.

Maria Irene Fornes is the most influential female American dramatist of the 20th century. That is the argument of this important new study, the first to assess Fornes's complete body of work.

Scott T. Cummings considers comic sketches, opera libretti and unpublished pieces, as well as her best-known plays, in order to trace the evolution of her dramaturgy from the whimsical Off-Off Broadway plays of the 1960s to the sober, meditative work of the 1990s. The book also reflects on her practice as an inspirational teacher of playwriting and the primary director of her own plays.

Drawing on the latest scholarship and his own personal research and interviews with Fornes over two decades, Cummings examines Fornes's unique significance and outlines strategies for understanding her fragmentary, enigmatic, highly demanding theater.

The Routledge Companion to Actors? Shakespeare is a window onto how today's actors contribute to the continuing life and relevance of Shakespeare's plays.

The process of acting is notoriously hard to document, but this volume reaches behind famous performances to examine the actors? craft, their development and how they engage with playtexts. Each chapter relies upon privilieged access to its subject to offer an unparalleled insight into contemporary practice.

This volume explores the techniques, interpretive approaches and performance styles of the following actors:

Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, Judi Dench, Kate Duchene, Colm Feore, Mariah Gale, John Harrell, Greg Hicks, Rory Kinnear, Kevin Kline, Adrian Lester, Marcelo Magni, Ian McKellen, Patrice Naiambana, Vanessa Redgrave, Piotr Semak, Anthony Sher, Jonathan Slinger, Kate Valk, Harriet Walter

This twin volume to The Routledge Companion to Directors? Shakespeare is an essential work for both actors and students of Shakespeare.

This book offers a new, accurate and actable translation of one of Euripides' most popular plays, together with a commentary which provides insight into the challenges it sets for production and suggestions for how to solve them. The introduction discusses the social and cultural context of the play and its likely impact on the original audience, the way in which it was originally performed, the challenges which the lead roles present today and Medea's implications for the modern audience. The text of the translation is followed by the 'Theatrical Commentary' section on the issues involved in staging each scene and chorus today, embodying insights gained from a professional production. Notes on the translation, a glossary of names, suggestions for further reading and a chronology of Euripides' life and times round out the volume. The book is intended for use by theatre practitioners who wish to stage or workshop Medea and by students both of drama, theatre and performance and of classical studies.

Dramatist, theatre practitioner, novelist, and painter, August Strindberg's diverse dramatic output embodied the modernist sensibility. He was above all one of the most radical innovators of Western theatre.

This book provides an insightful assessment of Strindberg's vital contribution to the dramatic arts, while placing his creative process and experimental approach within a wider cultural context. Eszter Szalczer explores Strindberg's re-definition of drama as a fluid, constantly evolving form that profoundly influenced playwriting and theatrical production from the German Expressionists to the Theatre of the Absurd. Key productions of Strindberg's plays are analysed, examining his theatre as a living voice that continues to challenge audiences, critics, and even the most innovative directors.

August Strindberg provides an essential and accessible guide to the playwright's work and illustrates the influence of his drama on our understanding of contemporary theatre.

First published in English in 1965, this book discusses the roots and development of the dumb show as a device in Elizabethan drama. The work provides not only a useful manual for those who wish to check the occurrence of dumb shows and the uses to which they are put; it also makes a real contribution to a better understanding of the progress of Elizabethan drama, and sheds new light on some of the lesser known plays of the period.

Anton Chekhov offers a critical introduction to the plays and productions of this canonical playwright, examining the genius of Chekhov's writing, theatrical representation and dramatic philosophy.

Emphasising Chekhov's continued relevance and his mastery of the tragicomic, Rose Whyman provides an insightful assessment of his life and work. All of Chekhov's major dramas are analysed, in addition to his vaudevilles, one-act plays and stories. The works are studied in relation to traditional criticism and more recent theoretical and cultural standpoints, including cultural materialism, philosophy and gender studies.

Analysis of key historical and recent productions, display the development of the drama, as well as the playwright's continued appeal. Anton Chekhov provides readers with an accessible comparative study of the relationship between Chekhov's life, work and ideological thought.

The Tower of London in English Renaissance Drama historicizes the Tower of London's evolving meanings in English culture alongside its representation in twenty-four English history plays, 1579-c.1634, by Thomas Legge; Robert Greene; William Shakespeare; Shakespeare and John Fletcher; George Peele; Christopher Marlowe; Anthony Munday et. al; Munday, Michael Drayton, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathway; Thomas Heywood; Thomas Dekker and John Webster; Samuel Rowley; Robert Davenport; John Ford; and unknown authors. While Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I fashioned the Tower as a showplace of royal authority, magnificence, and entertainment, these playwrights revealed the Tower's instability as a royal symbol and represented it, instead, as an emblem of opposition to the crown and as a bodily and spiritual icon of non-royal English identity.

Completed only two months before the author's execution in Granada at the age of thirty-eight, La casa de Bernarda Alba marks the completion of Lorca's 'trilogia de la tierra espanola' and is commonly held to be his greatest play. The theme of vitality and repression that runs as a leitmotif through his writings takes on a clearer social dimension in the 'drama de mujeres en los pueblos de Espana', with the presentation of a household of five unmarried daughters tyrannised by their mother's excessive concern with social class and obscurantist village morality. -- .

Originally adapted for the stage, Peter Meineck's revised translations achieve a level of fidelity appropriate for classroom use while managing to preserve the wit and energy that led The New Yorker to judge his Clouds The best Greek drama we've ever seen anywhere," and The Times Literary Supplement to describe his Wasps as "Hugely enjoyable and very, very funny. A general Introduction, introductions to the plays, and detailed notes on staging, history, religious practice and myth combine to make this a remarkably useful teaching text.

Motherhood. No one can prepare you for it. No matter how much you tell yourself you can do it - can you? Where's the rush of love? When will sleep again? What if the thing you fear most is also the thing you crave? All you wanted was one night of unbroken sleep, what have you done? Mum is a feverish journey through every parent's worst nightmare. A raw and real exploration of early motherhood from the award-winning writer of Emilia, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Theatre Royal, Plymouth and Soho Theatre, London.

Embodied Playwriting: Improv and Acting Exercises for Writing and Devising is the first book to compile new and adapted exercises for teaching playwriting in the classroom, workshop, or studio through the lens of acting and improvisation. The book provides access to the innovative practices developed by seasoned playwriting teachers from around the world who are also actors, improv performers, and theatre directors. Borrowing from the embodied art of acting and the inventive practice of improvisation, the exercises in this book will engage readers in performance-based methods that lead to the creation of fully imagined characters, dynamic relationships, and vivid drama. Step-by-step guidelines for exercises, as well as application and coaching advice, will support successful lesson planning and classroom implementation for playwriting students at all levels, as well as individual study. Readers will also benefit from curation by editors who have experience with high-impact educational practices and are advocates for the use of varied teaching strategies to increase accessibility, inclusion, skill-building, and student success. Embodied Playwriting offers a wealth of material for teachers and students of playwriting courses, as well as playwrights who look forward to experimenting with dynamic, embodied writing practices.

Being a woman is blood and guts It's intestine Fuck florals and ballgowns It's balls It's livers and kidneys and puke and mucus Ripping and tearing and shredding Red stain on linen bedding It's shedding Jaz is in her second year at drama school. Jaz is tired of performing. Hence her conundrum. But when she stumbles across a piece of forgotten history - her life is changed forever... What does it mean to find yourself? Especially when it seems the world you live in is diametrically set against you doing just that? Set against the sprawling backdrop of urban London across centuries, curious is a frank, funny and moving excavation of the lives of two actresses who are young, Black, queer and trying to find out who they are. It is written and performed by Jasmine Lee-Jones, the winner of Evening Standard Award 2019 and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for her play seven methods of killing kylie jenner.

This set comprises 40 volumes covering 19th and 20th century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxed sets (by theme) or as individual volumes.

The philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner was also a radical dramatist who wrote four lengthy and complex plays. The first of these, The Portal of Initiation, is rich in content and artistically presented, but leaves us with questions: Why is the first scene so long and many speeches so lengthy? Why are our usual expectations of drama not met? Was Steiner really a competent dramatist? In this essential guide, Trevor Dance suggests that the first step to appreciating The Portal of Initiation is to understand Steiner's methods. The play belongs to the tradition of Mystery Dramas from ancient times - artistic works intended as vehicles for inner development. Steiner thus combines aspects of Goethe's alchemical fable The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily with the spiritual growth of contemporary individuals - all in the broader context of reincarnation and karma. With accessibility in mind, the author provides a clear synopsis of each scene and introduces us to the characters - a collection of rustics, sophisticates, hierophants and spiritual entities. Their dilemmas and challenges take place on many layers of reality: from a room in Sophia's house to the exalted Sun Temple. Revealing the enigmas behind the creation and content of The Portal of Initiation, Dance enables us not only to enjoy the play, but also to love it. His lucid guide - the first of its kind - is an ideal introduction for both individual readers and study groups.

Comprises of individual volumes on: Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and John Webster. The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation. Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects. The Collected Critical Heritage set will be available as a set of 68 volumes and the series will also be available in mini sets selected by period (in slipcase oxes) and as individual volumes.

An eye for an eye. It's very simple. You choose your homeland like a hyena picking and choosing where he steals his next meal from. Scavenger. Yes you grovel to the feet of Mengistu and when his people spit at you and kick you from the bowl you scuttle across the border. Scavenger. As a violent civil war rages back home in Ethiopia, teenager Alem and his father are in a bed and breakfast in Berkshire. It's his best holiday ever. The next morning his father is gone and has left a note explaining that he and his mother want to protect Alem from the war. This strange grey country of England is now his home. On his own, and in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council, Alem lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear something from his father. Then he meets car-obsessed Mustapha, the lovely 'out-of-your-league' Ruth and dangerous Sweeney - three unexpected allies who spur him on in his fight to be seen as more than just the Refugee Boy. Lemn Sissay's remarkable stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah's bestselling novel is published here in the Methuen Drama Student Edition series, featuring commentary & notes by Professor Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) that help the student unpack the play's themes, language, structure and production history to date.

Rona Munro's 1991 play Bold Girls is a tale of four Belfast women during the Troubles, exploring personal and communal history, and what it means when aspects of a community - ideologies, relationships, and spaces, for example - are threatened. Despite being set in a very specific time and place, the themes are universal: how societies are warped by male violence, dominance, and social privilege, and female subservience to that behaviour. Bold Girls is a case-study of the victims - rather than the perpetrators - of conflict: an unsentimental portrait of women's lives under psychological siege. Gillian Sargent's Scotnote Study Guide provides a comprehensive overview to the characters and themes of Munro's play, as well as its artistic and cultural influences, and is an excellent guide for senior school pupils and teachers alike.

First published in 1986. This collection of essays focuses on the ways in which our society 'processes' Shakespeare and the purposes for which this seems to be done. The case is made by examining the work of four highly influential critics: A C Bradley, Walter Raleigh, T S Eliot and John Dover Wilson. Terence Hawkes asks whether, beyond the readings to which the plays may be subjected, there lies any final, authoritative or essential meaning to which we can ultimately turn, concluding that jazz music offers the most fruitful model for twentieth-century criticism.

Of course - as you've no doubt guessed - there's a big 'But Then' moment heading this way... It's a sunny, spring day in East London. On a street corner, two teenagers kiss. One of them is Toni. This is her first kiss. It makes her very happy. But someone is watching. Someone who doesn't care about her happiness at all. And they're about to change Toni's life... forever. Philip Ridley's thrilling new play is a startling exploration of identity, memory, love, and the lengths it takes someone to free themselves from the web of their past.

Callan Davies presents "strangeness" as a fresh critical paradigm for understanding the construction and performance of Jacobean drama-one that would have been deeply familiar to its playwrights and early audiences. This study brings together cultural analysis, philosophical enquiry, and the history of staged special effects to examine how preoccupation with the strange unites the verbal, visual, and philosophical elements of performance in works by Marston, Shakespeare, Middleton, Dekker, Heywood, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Strangeness in Jacobean Drama therefore offers an alternative model for understanding this important period of English dramatic history that moves beyond categories such as "Shakespeare's late plays," "tragicomedy," or the home of cynical and bloodthirsty tragedies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of early modern drama and philosophy, rhetorical studies, and the history of science and technology.