George Kelly was a pioneer realist in the American theater who not only enjoyed popular and critical success, but also remained true to his own moral vision of theater as an art form despite what he considered vulgar influences that catered to the popular taste. Drawing upon the canon of Kelly's published plays as well as on manuscripts for four plays never before published or widely discussed by critics, this volume chronicles the evolution of this important craftsman and director from his earliest and most critically lauded examinations of America's upper middle-class family life to his often spartan commentary on changing American morals and tastes.

Calling into question the short-sighted assessments of scholars and critics who discount Kelly's achievements as formulaic and misogynistic, this reference reveals the broad spectrum of critical opinion which generally admired his theatrical skill and moral commitment. An opening biography surveys Kelly's career, while the chapters that follow give detailed information about his works. Included are plot synopses and production histories of his plays, along with an extensive annotated bibliography of reviews and scholarly studies.

The English monarchy is in a state of crisis, as the nobles and Cardinal Wolsey become locked in a fierce power struggle. Unbeknownst to the King, the ambitious Wolsey has taxed the populace to the point of rebellion and amassed a huge fortune by taking advantage of his position. When he meddles with the King's plans for divorce he brings ruin upon himself. Against all opposition the King proceeds to divorce Queen Katherine and marries one of her ladies-in-waiting Anne Bullen, throwing off centuries of obedience to Rome and declaring himself head of the church. A play with a rich theatrical history, Henry VIII features in Katherine and Wolsey two of Shakespeare's most memorable and vivid characters. The roots of the crisis are explored from many subtle political and personal angles. Written late in his career the play shines with depth and power.

The struggle for the crown takes on new dimensions as the realm of King Henry VI tears itself apart in civil war. His defeat in battle at St. Albans has placed the Duke of York on the throne. Henry and York agree that Henry rules until death but that York would then inherit the crown. Queen Margaret, unwilling to accept the disinheritance of her son, leads a counterattack by the Lancastrians. Soon a whole nation suffers under wars led by warmongering nobles driven by personal vendettas. King Henry retreats into contemplation; overcome by the senselessness of war, by fathers killing sons, sons killing fathers. Henry loses the throne again, and Edward, son of the murdered Duke of York, becomes king. But peace is illusive, as in the background his own brother Richard prepares the way for his own rise to the throne.

This book critically engages with the study of theatre and performance in colonial India, and relates it with colonial (and postcolonial) discussions on experience, freedom, institution-building, modernity, nation/subject not only as concepts but also as philosophical queries. It opens up with the discourse around 'Indian theatre' that was started by the orientalists in the late 18th century, and which continued till much later. The study specifically focuses on the two major urban centres of colonial India: Bombay and Calcutta of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses different cultural practices in colonial India, including the initiation of 'Indian theatre' practices, which resulted in many forms of colonial-native 'theatre' by the 19th century; the challenges to this dominant discourse from the 'swadeshi jatra' (national jatra/theatre) in Bengal, which drew upon earlier folk and religious traditions and was used as a tool by the nationalist movement; and the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) that functioned from Bombay around the 1940s, which focused on the creation of one national subject - that of the 'Indian'. The author contextualizes the relevance of the concept of 'Indian theatre' in today's political atmosphere. She also critically analyses the post-Independence Drama Seminar organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1956 and its relevance to the subsequent organization of 'Indian theatre'. Many theatre personalities who emerged as faces of smaller theatre committees were part of the seminar which envisioned a national cultural body. This book is an important contribution to the field and is of interest to researchers and students of cultural studies, especially Theatre and Performance Studies, and South Asian Studies.

Harold Pinter is one of the most important writers in English of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. This brief biography offers fresh insights into his life and work, concentrating on the themes, patterns, relationships, ideas and language common to his life and creative output. Placing Pinters life and work alongside each other, the study illuminates Pinters vision of society, politics, gender, sex, violence and human relationships. Drawing upon the full-range of his output, his letters, journalism, writings about him, Baker combines a biographical approach with close (re)readings of his work to create a fresh perspective on his life and art. The book offers students, academics and readers a rich depiction of Harold Pinter, the man and the writer.

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the edges of Europe were under pressure from the Ottoman Turks. This book explores how Shakespeare and his contemporaries represented places where Christians came up against Turks, including Malta, Tunis, Hungary, and Armenia. Some forms of Christianity itself might seem alien, so the book also considers the interface between traditional Catholicism, new forms of Protestantism, and Greek and Russian orthodoxy. But it also finds that the concept of Christendom was under threat in other places, some much nearer to home. Edges of Christendom could be found in areas that were or had been pagan, such as Rome itself and the Danelaw, which once covered northern England; they could even be found in English homes and gardens, where imported foreign flowers and exotic new ingredients challenged the concept of what was native and natural.

This book is a study of the plays, performances and writings of Christina Reid. It explores Reid's work through her own words, both in interviews and writings; through theoretical engagements in other disciplines, such as psychology and geography; and through responses to her plays in production. It is a compilation of sorts, gathering together interviews, critical material, unpublished works and theatrical reviews to reflect the breadth and depth of Reid's contribution to the theatrical culture of Northern Ireland, during the Troubles and beyond.

Bacchae is one of the most troubling yet intriguing of Greek tragedies. Written during Euripides' self-imposed exile in Macedonia, it tells of the brutal murder and dismemberment of Pentheus by his mother and aunts who, driven temporarily insane, have joined the Bacchae (devotees of the god Dionysus, or Bacchus). The startling plot, driven by Dionysus' desire to punish his family for refusing to accept his divinity, and culminating in the excruciating pathos of a mother's realization that she has killed her son, has held audiences transfixed since its original performance (when it won first prize). It is one of the most performed and studied plays in the Greek tragic corpus, with a strong history of reception down to the present day. This collection of essays by eminent academics gathered from across the globe explores the themes, staging and reception of the play, with essays on the characters Dionysus and Pentheus, the role of the chorus of Bacchae, key themes such as revenge, women and religion, and the historical and literary contexts of the play. The essays are accompanied by David Stuttard's English translation which is performer-friendly, accessible and closely accurate to the original.

This book explores an important moment in Italian women's theatre and cultural history: plays written for all-women casts between 1946 and the mid-1960s, authored for the most part by women and performed exclusively by women. Because they featured only female roles, they concentrated on aspects of specifically women's experience, be it their spirituality, their future lives as wives and mothers, their present lives as workers or students, or their relationships with friends, sisters and mothers. Most often performed in a Catholic environment, they were meant to both entertain and educate, reflecting the specific issues that both performers and spectators had to confront in the years between the end of the war and the beginning of the economic miracle. Drawing on material never before researched, Educational Theatre for Women in Post-World War II Italy: A Stage of Their Own recovers the life and works of forgotten women playwrights while also discussing the role models that educational theatre offered to the young Italian women coming of age in the post-war years.

King Henry VI matures as a gentle, spiritual man. Peace has been established between England and France and Suffolk has arranged a strategic marriage for the King to Margaret of Anjou. Suffolk, with his close relationship to Margaret, and the Duke of Gloucester hold influential positions at the court, as Henry lacks interest in politics and the affairs of the state. This weakness in leadership opens the door for power struggles among the royal family, the nobles and aristocrats. The murder of the Duke is just the first in a series of catastrophes leading to the open uprising against the King in the War of the Roses. An exciting and dynamic play, King Henry VI Part 2, explores the relationship between leadership, power and liberty.

Playing the Martyr is a book about the interplay between theater and religion in early modern France. Challenging the standard narrative of modernity as a process of increased secularization Christopher Semk demonstrates the centrality of religious thought and practices to the development of neoclassical poetics. Engaging with a broad corpus of religious plays, poetic treatises, devotional literature, and contemporary theory, Semk shows that religion was a vital interlocutor in early modern discussions concerning the definition of verisimilitude, the nature and purpose of spectacle, the mechanics of acting, and the position of the spectator. Well researched and persuasively argued, Playing the Martyr makes the case for a more complicated approach to the relationship between religion and literature, namely, one that does not treat religion as a theme deployed within literary works, but as an active player in literary invention. Indeed, it makes the case for a serious reconsideration of the role that religion plays in the development of modern, secular literary forms.

King Henry VI, just a mere infant, occupies the throne after his father's death. Leadership gone, the struggle for power soon resurfaces between the two ancient houses of Lancaster and York. The Duke of Gloucester the appointed Protector, and therefore ruler of England, is feuding with Winchester, a bishop and cardinal. Meanwhile, Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of York are in fierce disagreement, more intent on taking each other down than in defending English territories from the French. The furious, indomitable Talbot is England's leader in France, but despite his reputation he is unable to suppress the French. Under the bold leadership of Joan of Arc his forces are driven back to the sea. One of Shakespeare's early works, Part 1 is a multifaceted introduction to the reign of King Henry VI.

Placing 'literature' at the centre of Renaissance economic knowledge, this book offers a distinct intervention in the history of early modern epistemology. It is premised on the belief that early modern practices of change and exchange produced a range of epistemic shifts and crises, which, nonetheless, lacked a systematic vocabulary. These essays collectively tap into the imaginative kernel at the core of economic experience, to grasp and give expression to some of its more elusive experiential dimensions. The essays gathered here probe the early modern interface between imaginative and mercantile knowledge, between technologies of change in the field of commerce and transactions in the sphere of cultural production, and between forms of transaction and representation. In the process, they go beyond the specific interrelation of economic life and literary work to bring back into view the thresholds between economics on the one hand, and religious, legal and natural philosophical epistemologies on the other.

This systematic approach to the study of literary works involves the search for mythological archetypes, parallels, paradigms, and motives in a literary text. In a new attempt at an integrated vision of literary works, Zubarev presents a comprehensive approach on the basis of mythopoetics. Her theory is verified through a close examination of four of Chekhov's major plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Zubarev presents a compelling approach to literary analysis, and explores the enigmatic roots of Chekhov's universal significance. Her mythopoetic study sheds light on why Chekhov's plays are moving in any language and in any time.

Martin McDonagh is one of the world's most popular dramatists. This is a highly readable and illuminating account of his career to date that will appeal to the legions of fans of his work for the stage and of his films Six Shooter and In Bruges. As a resource for students and practitioners it is unrivalled, providing an authoritative and enquiring approach to his work that moves beyond the tired discussions of national identity to offer a comprehensive critical exploration. Lonergan provides a detailed analysis of each of his plays and films, their original staging, critical reception, and the connections within and between the Leenane Trilogy, the Aran Islands plays and more recent work. It includes interviews with directors, designers and actors associated with his work and material from Druid Theatre Company, the RSC and the National Theatre relating to the original productions. It offers four critical essays on key features of McDonagh's work by leading international scholars and a series of further resources including a chronology, glossary, notes on McDonagh's use of language and a list of further reading.

This book explores the secret relations between theatre and diplomacy from the Tudors to the Treaty of Westphalia. It offers an original insight into the art of diplomacy in the 1580-1655 period through the prism of literature, theatre and material history. Contributors investigate English, Italian and German plays of Renaissance theoretical texts on diplomacy, lifting the veil on the intimate relations between ambassadors and the artistic world and on theatre as an unexpected instrument of 'soft power'. The volume offers new approaches to understanding Early Modern diplomacy, which was a source of inspiration for Renaissance drama for Shakespeare and his European contemporaries, and contributed to fashion the aesthetic and the political ideas and practice of the Renaissance.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Young King Henry V inherits the crown from his father. But, the family's claim to the throne is weak and his wild, dissolute youth still haunts him. To strengthen his position he decides to invade France, a move strongly supported by the Archbishop, who has his own motives. An insult by the Dauphin is enough for Henry to set out with a relatively small invasion force to experience the true nature of war firsthand. Soon his leadership is challenged in ways he never imagined and he is forced to rise to the occasion to keep the campaign alive. Proving to be charismatic and able to speak to all types of men, Henry remains resolute even when the odds turn dramatically against them. Much celebrated, King Henry V looks at war from both sides: the glorious and triumphant where heroes are born and nations rise to glory, as well as the tragic human cost and the often misguided motivations behind a war's supporters.

Proverbial language figures prominently in the works of Eugene O'Neill (1883-1953), the recipient of four Pulitzer prizes and a Nobel laureateship for literature. This book is a directory to the proverbs, proverbial expressions, and proverbial comparisons in O'Neill's 50 dramas and numerous letters, articles, diaries, and notebooks. Very little attention has been given to any aspect of O'Neill's language, to say nothing of the virtual disregard of him as a wielder of proverbial diction. This collection of 2,059 examples of O'Neill's proverbial usage is a first step towards remedying that situation and provides a foundation for future scholarship. The introduction shows how O'Neill used proverbs as a structural element of his dramas and places his proverbial usage in the context of international proverb scholarship, offers examples and generalizations about his manipulation of proverbs, and suggests fruitful areas of further investigation. The heart of the book is a key-word index to the proverbial texts that identifies the locations of the proverbial examples in the canon of O'Neill's works and facilitates comparisons of similar locutions. Each proverbial construction is dated so that the reader can immediately see the chronological range of the texts. For those interested in the history of particular proverbs, citations of standard proverb dictionaries are appended to most of the texts. Two appendices show the frequency with which proverbs appear and their distribution among the various dramas.

Many of our favorite films began as plays--some as well known as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," and some not so well known as "You've Got Mail"'s origin, a 1937 play "Parfumerie" by Miklos Laszlo. "Video Versions" identifies nearly 300 films and their theatrical origins, providing readers with an overview of the films and highlighting similarities and differences to the source plays. Perfect for teachers, students, and anyone interested in theater and film, it is the most complete resource available for video versions of plays.

Each entry provides: the original play's title, author, and year of publication; the name of the film, year of production, director and adapter; the main cast and the characters they play; running time and rating if available. Following a plot summary, a critical analysis provides the similarities and differences of the play and film, including character and plot changes, setting, missing or added scenes, special film techniques, and behind-the-scenes information such as who turned down or lost particular parts when the play was adapted to film. A short list of sources for further reading follows each entry. Information about contacting distributors--for obtaining the films--is included in the introduction and an extensive index completes the volume.

The contributors to this volume use diverse critical techniques to identify how Carson McCullers' writing engages with and critiques modern social structures and how her work resonates with a twenty-first century audience. The collection includes chapters about McCullers' fiction, autobiographical writing, and dramatic works, and is groundbreaking because it includes the first detailed scholarly examination of new archival material donated to Columbus State University after the 2013 death of Dr. Mary Mercer, McCullers' psychiatrist and friend, including transcripts of the psychiatric sessions that took place between McCullers and Mercer in 1958. Further, the collection covers the scope of McCullers' canon of work, such as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), The Member of the Wedding (1946), and Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1943), through lenses that are of growing interest in contemporary literary studies, including comparative transatlantic readings, queer theory, disability studies, and critical animal theory, among others.

Written in clear, accessible language, this guide challenges and encourages students to grapple with the difficult ideas and questions posed by Beckett's texts.Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is one of the most important twentieth century writers, seen as both a modernist and postmodernist, his work has influenced generations of playwrights, novelists and poets. Despite his notorious difficulty, Beckett famously refused to offer his readers any help in interpreting his work. Beckett's texts examine key philosophical-humanist questions but his writing is challenging, perplexing and often intimidating for readers. This guide offers students reading Beckett a clear starting point from which to confront some of the most difficult plays and novels produced in the twentieth century, texts which often appear to work on the very edge of meaninglessness.Beginning with a general introduction to Beckett, his work and contexts, the guide looks at each of the major genres in turn, analysing key works chronologically. It explains why Beckett's texts can seem so daunting and confusing, and focuses on key questions and issues. Giving an accessible account of both the form and content of Beckett's work, this guide will enable students to begin to get to grips with this fascinating but daunting writer."Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

Hotspur is dead and a new rebellion against the king is forming, supported by his father the Earl of Northumberland. The moving continuation of King Henry IV Part 1 delves into a broad spectrum of society, from Falstaff and his shadowy associations to the nobility and high court. Prince Hal, though he has proven himself in battle, is still hanging around in bawdy taverns and keeping lowly company. His father fears he is entirely unsuited for kingship. But Hal matures, leaving behind his relationship with Falstaff, and reconciles with his dying father. Falstaff, meanwhile, has been sent to raise a scratch militia, meeting all kinds of comic characters in the country. Every bit as compelling as the first part, this drama embodies Shakespeare at the height of his writing maturity.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Arthur Miller. 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers' Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness. Tennessee Williams's steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century. Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), The Night of the Iguana (1961), and Small Craft Warnings (1972). If you enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire, you might like The Glass Menagerie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Lyrical and poetic and human and heartbreaking and memorable and funny' Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather 'One of the greatest American plays' Observer

Murder, mayhem, and magic. Pushed by his wife to seize the throne, Macbeth kills his rightful liege and then tries desperately to hold onto the kingdom that he has wrongfully usurped. Prophesy and magic abound in this dark, moody, and atmospheric play. Out, damned spot Out, I say One- two -why then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?