Series Information:
Collected Critical Heritage II

You will see no false nothing false tonight the Hypnotist Tim Crouch s second play collapses a tale of loss and grief into an exploration of theatrical representation, in a piece of theatre that is at once formally innovative and profoundly moving. Written for two actors, An Oak Tree depicts the fraught meeting of a grieving father and the stage hypnotist who was behind the wheel of the car that killed his daughter, with the father played by a different actor at each performance, walking on stage with no prior knowledge of the play. Catherine Love explores An Oak Tree's connections with conceptual art, the unique process of its creation, its interrogation of stage representation, its relationship with audiences, and its place as part of Crouch s ongoing body of work.

We traditionally assume that the `meaning' of each of Shakespeares plays is bequeathed to it by the Bard. It is as if, to the information which used to be given in theatrical programmes, `Cigarettes by Abdullah, Costumes by Motley, Music by Mendelssohn', we should add `Meaning by Shakespeare'. These essays rest on a different, almost opposite, principle. Developing the arguments of the same author's That Shakespearean Rag (1986), they put the case that Shakespeare's plays have no essential meanings, but function as resources which we use to generate meaning. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Coriolanus and King Lear, amongst other plays, are examined as concrete instances of the covert process whereby, in the twentieth century, Shakespeare doesn't mean: we mean by Shakespeare. Meaning by Shakespeare concludes with `Bardbiz', a review of recent critical approaches to Shakespeare, which initiated a long-running debate (1990-1991) when it first appeared in The London Review of Books.

The "Collected Critical Heritage II" comprises 40 volumes covering 19th and 20th century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxes sets (by theme) or as individual volumes. This second set compliments the first 68 volume set of "Critical Heritage" published by Routledge in October 1995. The "Critical Heritage" series gathers together a large body of critical figures in literature. These selected sources include contemporary reviews from both popular and literary media.

This edition contains two of Frances Burney's comedies: The Witlings, (1778-80) which satirizes the bluestockings (but which was never performed for fear of scandal); and The Woman Hater (1800-02), which explores social pretension and gender conflict.

For British playwright, John Osborne, there are no brave causes; only people who muddle through life, who hurt, and are often hurt in return. This study deals with Osborne's complete oeuvre and critically examines its form and technique; the function of the gaze; its construction of gender; and the relationship between Osborne's life and work. Gilleman has also traced the evolution of Osborne's reception by turning to critical reviews at the beginning of each chapter.

Who said "Neither a lender or borrower be", who loved "not wisely but too well" and whose "salad days" are now behind her? If you have ever struggled to remember a Shakespeare quote, this is the book for you. It has over 3,000 quotes from single lines to quite long extracts, organized by topic and by play, with a key word index making it very easy to use. The dictionary also includes a glossary of unfamiliar terms and a brief biography of Shakespeare. It is very easy to dip into by word, theme or by play and the key word index means you can track down a half-remembered quote easily. A beautifully produced small format hardback with a colourful jacket, book ribbon and a bookplate, this is great gift for literary types, after dinner speakers and crossword fillers!

This collection of essays and interviews is the first book about the drama of American playwright Terrence McNally; it examines his career to date (30-plus years), focusing particularly on the two plays for which McNally won Tony Awards for Best Play of 1995, "Love!" "Valour! Compassion!, "and Best Play of 1996, "Master Class."
Toby Zinman, a distinguished scholar and critic, has invited none respected authorities to write about McNally's work, and has included records of the long conversations she had with the playwright about his work, his love of opera, his ideas about acting and education, and life in general. Also included are two interviews she conducted with two of his leading actors: one with the legendary Zoe Caldwell, who played the even more legendary Maria Callas in "Master Class," a performance that earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1996, a role McNally wrote for her, and another with the great American comic actor, Nathan Lane, whom McNally considers his foremost interpreter.
The collection moves chronologically, beginning with Howard Stein's essay on the promise of the plays of the first decade, through to Cary Mazer's essay on the diva in "Master Class," a play about Maria Callas' master classes at Juilliard; that essay is preceded by an essay on those famous master classes by John Ardoin, the world's foremost authority on Maria Callas.
In between there are two essays debating McNally's position as a gay playwright, one by John Clum and one by Steven Drukman, both centering on the firestorm of controversy generated by "Love! Valour! Compassion!" In addition, there is an essay on "The Lisbon Traviata "by Sam Abel which discusses the play'smuch-revised conclusion (to murder or not to murder) and another on McNally's screenplays of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, "and "The Ritz," by Helen Buttel, a film critic. This is followed by Stephen Watt's examination of McNally as a postmodernist, using "Lips Together, Teeth" "Apart" as his focus, and Benilde Montgomery's essay on Indian myth as it informs McNally's play (soon to be a film) "A Perfect Ganesh"
The volume also includes in its introduction the latest information on McNally's newest projects, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology of the playwright's career.

"We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us." - Krapp Samuel Beckett's most accessible play is also one of the twentieth century's most moving dramas about aging, memory, and disappointment. Daniel Sack offers the first comprehensive survey of Krapp's Last Tape (1958) with a general reader in mind. Structured around a series of questions, five approachable sections contextualize the play in the larger career of its Nobel-Prize-winning writer, explore its major thematic concerns, and offer comparative analyses with Beckett's other signal works. Sack also uses discussions of significant productions, including those directed by the playwright himself, to ground interpretation of the play in terms of its performance and provide a useful resource to directors and actors. Both a critical and personal exploration of this haunting play, this volume is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Beckett's work.

This is an analysis of sexual themes in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, both in the context of the Jacobean theatre and in the light of modern readings of sexuality and gender during the English Renaissance. Sandra Clark challenges commonly-held perceptions of Beaumont and Fletcher's work. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate courses on Renaissance literature, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, tragicomedy, gender and genre in the Renaissance.

In "Women in Dramatic Place and Time" Geraldine Cousins presents detailed analyses of a wide range of plays by British women dramatists from the 1980s and '90s. She focuses on women's dramatic efforts to "speak out" of the ideological spaces in which they have been positioned. She attends to the processes through which female characters have found their voices, and tracks their journeys into previously uninhabited territories. The plays she considers include: Pam Gem's "Queen Christina," Charlotte Keatley's "My Mother Said I Never Should," Louise Page's "Real Estate," Timberlake Wertenbaker's "The Grace of Mary Traverse," Winsome Pinnock's "Leave Taking," Caryl Churchill's "The Skriker" and Anne Devlin's "After Easter."

First published in 1973, this book explores the genre of melodrama. After discussing the defining characteristics of melodrama, the book examines the dramatic structures of the two major and contrasting emotions presented in melodrama: triumph and defeat. It concludes with a reflection on the ways in which elements of melodrama have appeared in protest theatre.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to play this particular scene tonight." - Sabina Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) telescopes an audacious stretch of western history and mythology into a family drama, showing how the course of human events operates like theatre itself: constantly mutable, vanishing and beginning again. Kyle Gillette explores Wilder's extraordinary play in three parts. Part I unpacks the play's singular yet deeply interconnected place in theatre history, comparing its metatheatrics to those of Stein, Pirandello and Brecht, and finding its anticipation of American fantasias in the works of Vogel and Kushner. Part II turns to the play's many historic and mythic sources, and examines its concentration of western progress and power into the model of a white, American upper-middle-class nuclear family. Part III takes a longer view, tangling with the play's philosophical stakes. Gillette magnifies the play's ideas and connections, teasing out historical, theoretical and philosophical questions on behalf of readers, scholars and audience members alike.

The 12 original and two classic essays offer a dialectic on performance and structure, and substantially advance our knowledge of this seminal playwright. The commentaries examine feminism, pernicious nostalgia, ethnicity, the mythological land motif, the discourse of anxiety, gendered language, and Mamet's vision of America, providing insights on the theatricality, originality, and universality of the work. Although the dominant focus is on "Glengarry Glen Ross, " several essays look at the play against the background of Mamet's "Edmund, Reunion," and "American Buffalo, " whereas others find fascinating parallels in Emerson, Baudrillard, Conrad, Miller, and Churchill. The book also includes an interview with Sam Mendes, the director of the highly acclaimed 1994 revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross" in London, conducted specifically for this collectio. A chronology of major productions and the most current and comprehensive bibliography of secondary references from 1983-1995 complete the volume.

Alternative Shakespeares, published in 1985, shook up the world of Shakespearean studies, demythologising Shakespeare and applying new theories to the study of his work. Alternative Shakespeares: Volume 2 investigates Shakespearean criticism over a decade later, introducing new debates and new theorists into the frame.
Both established scholars and new names appear here, providing a broad cross-section of contemporary Shakespearean studies, including psychoanalysis, sexual and gender politics, race and new historicism.
Alternative Shakespeares: Volume 2 represents the forefront of contemporary Shakespearean studies. This urgently-needed update of a classic work of literary criticism is one which teachers and scholars will welcome.

"An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him." - Henry George Bernard Shaw famously refused to permit any play of his "to be degraded into an operetta or set to any music except its own." Allowing his beloved Pygmalion to be supplanted by a comic opera was therefore unthinkable; yet Lerner and Loewe transformed it into My Fair Lady (1956), a musical that was to delight audiences and critics alike. By famously reversing Shaw's original ending, the show even dared to establish a cunningly romantic ending. Keith Garebian delves into the libretto for a fresh take, and explores biographies of the show's principal artists to discover how their roles intersected with real life. Rex Harrison was an alpha male onstage and off, Julie Andrews struggled with herchaste diva image, and the direction of the sexually ambiguous Moss Hartcontributed to the musical's sexual coding.

In this work, Geraldine Cousins presents detailed analyses of a wide range of plays by British women dramatists from the last two decades. The book takes as its central focus women's dramatic attempts to "speak out" of the ideological spaces in which they have been confined. It reveals the processes through which female characters have found their voices, and tracks their journeys into previously uninhabited territories. The plays considered include: "Queen Christina" by Pam Gem; "My Mother Said I Never Should" by Charlotte Keatley; "Real Estate" by Louise Page; "The Grace of Mary Traverse" by Timberlake Wertenbaker; "Leave Taking" by Winsome Pinnock; "The Striker" by Caryl Churchill; and "After Easter" by Anne Devlin.

Feted by his contemporaries, Federico Garcia Lorca's status has only grown since his death in 1936. This book shows just why his fame has endured, through an exploration of his most popular works: Romancero Gitano, Poeta en Nueva York and the trilogy of tragic plays - Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba.

Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point starts of returns to his statements and achievements.' - Peter Brook
Performing Brecht is an unprecedented history of the productions of Brecht's plays in Britain over forty years. Margaret Eddershaw surveys all aspects of Brecht in performance, from his methodologies to his place in postmodernist theatre and beyond.
She focuses on key productions by directors including George Devine, Sam Wanamaker, William Gaskill, Howard Davies, John Dexter and Richard Eyre. Eddershaw also provides three in-depth case studies of productions in the 1990s, incorporating her own exclusive access to the rehearsals and in-depth interviews with directors and performers. The case studies are:
* The Good Person of Sechuan, directed by Deborah Warner and starring Fiona Shaw
* Mother Courage, directed by Philip Prowse and starring Glenda Jackson
* The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Di Trevis an starring Antony Sher

First published in 1970, this book explores drama as literature and provides critical overviews of different aspects of drama and the dramatic. It first asks what a play is, before going on to examine dramatic language, action and tension, dramatic irony, characters and drama's relationship with modern criticism and the novel. This book will be a valuable resource to those studying drama and English literature.

First published in 1979, this book traces comedy of manners from the 1660s to the then present - a scope beyond the traditional focus on the Restoration and early twentieth century. It uncovers an underestimated subversive potential and socially critical force in this particularly English dramatic form, emphasising the distinctive subjects and style that distinguish it from more general forms of witty social satire. The author discusses the major comic dramatists of the post-Restoration period; reassesses the significance of Sheridan, Wilde and Coward; and examines the continuation of the tradition in modern writers. This book will be of interest to students of English literature and drama.

First published in 1977, this book provides a clear and well-illustrated analysis of modern verse drama. It studies the work of its chief exponents, T. S. Eliot and Christopher Fry, as well as the genre's place in the development of modern theatre. It particular focuses on the effect that verse drama has had on an audience's awareness of language in the theatre, paving the way for dramatists like Pinter, Beckett and Wesker. This book will be of particular interest to those studying modern poetry and drama.

A new source for Shakespeare's plays, only recently uncovered, is investigated here with a full edition and facsimile of the text. New sources for Shakespeare do not turn up every day... This is a truly significant one that has not heretofore been studied or published. The list of passages now traced back to this source is impressive. - David Bevington, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago "A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels" is the only uniquely existent, unpublished manuscript that can be shown to have been a source for Shakespeare's plays. George North wrote the treatise in 1576 while at Kirtling Hall, the North family estate in Cambridgeshire. His manuscript, newly uncovered by the authors at the British Library, has many implications for our understanding of Shakespeare's plays. for example, not only does it bring clarity to the Fool's mysterious reference to Merlin in King Lear, but also upsets the prevailing opinion that Shakespeare invented the final hours of Jack Cade in 2 Henry VI. Linguistic and thematic correspondences between the North manuscript and Shakespeare's plays make it clear that the playwright borrowed from this document in other plays as well, including Richard III, 3 Henry VI, Henry V, King John, Macbeth, and Coriolanus. The opening chapters of the book investigate such connections; the volume also contains both a transcript and a facsimile of "A Brief Discourse", making this previously unknown document readily available. DENNIS MCCARTHY is an independent scholar; JUNE SCHLUETER is Charles A. Dana Professor Emerita of English at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.

Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s offers the first direct evidence that women playwrights helped create the movement known as Modern Drama. It contains twelve plays by women from the Americas, Europe and Asia, spanning a national and stylistic range from Swedish realism to Russian symbolism. Six of these plays are appearing in their first English-language translation. Playwrights include: * Anne-Charlotte Leffler Edgren (Sweden) * Amelai Pincherle Rosselli (Italy) * Elsa Berstein (Germany) * Elizabeth Robins (Britain) * Marie Leneru (France) * Alfonsina Storni (Argentina) * Hella Wuolijoki (Finland) * Hasegawa Shigure (Japan) * Rachilde (France) * Zinaida Gippius (Russia) * Djuna Barnes (USA) * Marita Bonner (USA) This groundbreaking anthology explodes the traditional canon. In these plays, the New Woman represents herself and her crises in all of the styles and genres available to the modern dramatist. Unprecedented in diversity and scope, it is a collection which no scholar, student or lover of modern drama can afford to miss.