'This volume is a gem. Written by two experts in modern French theater, whose stated objective is to render the complexity of Genet's work exhilarating rather than intimidating, the book bears witness to the continued political relevance and artistic power of one of the most controversial and influential authors of the 20th century.' - CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2012 Jean Genet's significance within twentieth-century theatre has long been understated. This timely book, the only introductory text in English to Genet's plays in production, presents an overview of an influential and controversial writer whose work prefigured many recent postmodern and post-colonial developments in theatre and performance studies. The volume offers philosophical, historical, political and aesthetic readings of Genet's plays in order to render the complexity of his theatre exhilarating, rather than intimidating. It goes on to explore ways in which different directors, designers and actors have approached his writing. A spectrum of productions spanning 60 years, from 1947 to 2007, illustrates the sheer range of theatrical styles that Genet's texts inspire. Reflecting on his early life and later political activism as well as the key plays, David Bradby and Clare Finburgh provide a comprehensive discussion of a playwright and theorist whose work caused riots in France, and whose writing represents a unique synthesis of life and art.

A detailed introduction to Moliere and his plays, this Companion evokes his own theatrical career, his theatres, patrons, the performers and theatre staff with whom he worked, and the various publics he and his troupes entertained with such success. It looks at his particular brands of comedy and satire. L'Ecole des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, L'Avare and Les Femmes savantes are examined from a variety of different viewpoints, and through the eyes of different ages and cultures. The comedies-ballets, a genre invented by Moliere and his collaborators, are re-instated to the central position which they held in his oeuvre in Moliere's own lifetime; his two masterpieces in this genre, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire, have chapters to themselves. Finally, the Companion looks at modern directors' theatre, exploring the central role played by productions of his work in successive 'revolutions' in the dramatic arts in France.

Paris has always exerted a magnetic force on artists; it has historically offered safety to those escaping oppressive regimes in Europe and farther afield. In recent years it has welcomed performers, artists and intellectuals from all over the world, offering strategies for the practice of theatre in a new Europe of ever-shifting boundaries. This book, once again available in paperback, examines the creation and development of communities of actors, directors, designers and playwrights in Paris over the past thirty years. It shows how the willingness of the city to welcome international influences has enriched its creative life. Many of the most important trends and new developments in the art of theatre have been the direct result of the creative combination of influences from all over the world. This study demonstrates how the pioneering work of Brook, Boal, Mnouchkine, Lecoq and many others has been able to draw on this vibrant, multi-cultural mix, in turn creating new work that has enriched theatre's potential to enlarge our thinking and our imagination. -- .

'This volume is a gem. Written by two experts in modern French theater, whose stated objective is to render the complexity of Genet's work exhilarating rather than intimidating, the book bears witness to the continued political relevance and artistic power of one of the most controversial and influential authors of the 20th century.' - CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2012 Jean Genet's significance within twentieth-century theatre has long been understated. This timely book, the only introductory text in English to Genet's plays in production, presents an overview of an influential and controversial writer whose work prefigured many recent postmodern and post-colonial developments in theatre and performance studies. The volume offers philosophical, historical, political and aesthetic readings of Genet's plays in order to render the complexity of his theatre exhilarating, rather than intimidating. It goes on to explore ways in which different directors, designers and actors have approached his writing. A spectrum of productions spanning 60 years, from 1947 to 2007, illustrates the sheer range of theatrical styles that Genet's texts inspire. Reflecting on his early life and later political activism as well as the key plays, David Bradby and Clare Finburgh provide a comprehensive discussion of a playwright and theorist whose work caused riots in France, and whose writing represents a unique synthesis of life and art.

David Bradby's study explores the impact of Waiting for Godot and its influence on acting, directing, design, and the role of theater in society. After discussing the first productions in France, Britain and America, he examines subsequent productions in Africa, Eastern Europe, Israel, America, China and Japan. The book assesses interpretations by Bert Lahr and Ben Kingsley, as well as such directors as Roger Blin, Susan Sontag, Sir Peter Hall, and Beckett himself. It also contains an extensive production chronology, bibliography and illustrations from major productions.

'In life, I want students to be alive and on stage I want them to be artists' Jacques Lecoq Jacques Lecoq was one of the most inspirational theatre teachers of our age. In The Moving Body, he shares with us first-hand his unique philosophy of performance, improvisation, masks, movement and gesture, which together form one of the greatest influences on contemporary theatre. Neutral mask, character mask and counter masks, bouffons, acrobatics, commedia, clowns and complicity: all the famous Lecoq techniques are covered in this book - techniques that have made their way into the work of former collaborators and students including Dario Fo, Ariane Mnouchkine, Yasmina Reza and Theatre de Complicite. The book contains a foreword by Simon McBurney, a critical introduction by Mark Evans and an afterword by Fay Lecoq, Director of the International Theatre School in Paris.

'In life, I want students to be alive and on stage I want them to be artists' Jacques Lecoq Jacques Lecoq was one of the most inspirational theatre teachers of our age. In The Moving Body, he shares with us first-hand his unique philosophy of performance, improvisation, masks, movement and gesture, which together form one of the greatest influences on contemporary theatre. Neutral mask, character mask and counter masks, bouffons, acrobatics, commedia, clowns and complicity: all the famous Lecoq techniques are covered in this book - techniques that have made their way into the work of former collaborators and students including Dario Fo, Ariane Mnouchkine, Yasmina Reza and Theatre de Complicite. The book contains a foreword by Simon McBurney, a critical introduction by Mark Evans and an afterword by Fay Lecoq, Director of the International Theatre School in Paris.

This is an updated account and comparison of all the major traditions and tendencies in the French theatre from the outbreak of the Second World War to the opening of the 1990s. In the fifty-year period covered by this book, French theatre has undergone profound changes, at both the institutional and artistic level. In this book David Bradby assesses these developments in styles of writing, criticism, acting, directing and stage design. Bradby does not confine his account to events in Paris but also considers the work of the Centres Dramatiques and Maisons de la Culture. While giving due attention to the work of well-known playwrights such as Beckett, Ionesco, Adamov and Genet among others, Bradby also shows that the period has been a rich one for experimentation in French theatre. The book also contains an introductory survey of the French theatre of the inter-war years and concludes with a bibliography and an historical table of productions. It is illustrated with black and white photographs and is intended for students of drama as well as French literature; the political and cultural background is explained and all quotations are in English.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century many forms of theatre have been called ‘popular’, but in the twentieth century the term ‘popular drama’ has taken on definite political overtones, often indicating a repudiation of ‘commercial theatre’. But does that mean that political theatre is or tries to be more attractive to more people than commercial theatre? Does it conversely mean that commercial theatre has no political effects? The articles in this book were submitted as papers for a conference on the theme of ‘popular’ theatre, film and television. Contributions came from people with very different types of experience: from an ex-animal trainer to a lecturer in film studies; from playwrights, directors and actors to professional critics and academics. Each author focused on a particular problem of defining drama in performance, drawing together the conditions of performance, the types of audience and the political effects of the plays or films in question. The result was a series of fruitful connections and juxtapositions which shows the remarkable continuity of the problems raised in attempts to create a popular political drama.

John McGrath's plays are compulsory reading and viewing for students of drama, film and television courses in many University and Further Education departments and yet despite recognition of the central importance of McGrath's work, very little has been written about him. This is the first full-length study of his work. Freedom's Pioneer illuminates the importance of John McGrath's role in the development of theatre, film and television in the last four decades of the twentieth century. Through play and script-writing, through directing, producing and coordinating work, and through his critical, political and philosophical reflections, McGrath exerted a powerful influence over developments and innovations in all three art forms. The contributors include film and television directors, actors, designers, writers, university researchers and journalists, many of whom worked with McGrath. Questions of day-to-day working practice are addressed alongside broader political and aesthetic concerns, and the question of McGrath's relationship to and influence on the arts in Scotland receives careful consideration.

A detailed introduction to Moliere and his plays, this Companion evokes his own theatrical career, his theatres, patrons, the performers and theatre staff with whom he worked, and the various publics he and his troupes entertained with such success. It looks at his particular brands of comedy and satire. L'Ecole des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, L'Avare and Les Femmes savantes are examined from a variety of different viewpoints, and through the eyes of different ages and cultures. The comedies-ballets, a genre invented by Moliere and his collaborators, are re-instated to the central position which they held in his oeuvre in Moliere's own lifetime; his two masterpieces in this genre, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire, have chapters to themselves. Finally, the Companion looks at modern directors' theatre, exploring the central role played by productions of his work in successive 'revolutions' in the dramatic arts in France.

David Bradby's study explores the impact of Waiting for Godot and its influence on acting, directing, design, and the role of theater in society. After discussing the first productions in France, Britain and America, he examines subsequent productions in Africa, Eastern Europe, Israel, America, China and Japan. The book assesses interpretations by Bert Lahr and Ben Kingsley, as well as such directors as Roger Blin, Susan Sontag, Sir Peter Hall, and Beckett himself. It also contains an extensive production chronology, bibliography and illustrations from major productions.

John McGrath's plays are compulsory reading and viewing for students of drama, film and television courses in many University and Further Education departments and yet despite recognition of the central importance of McGrath's work, very little has been written about him. This is the first full-length study of his work. Freedom's Pioneer illuminates the importance of John McGrath's role in the development of theatre, film and television in the last four decades of the twentieth century. Through play and script-writing, through directing, producing and coordinating work, and through his critical, political and philosophical reflections, McGrath exerted a powerful influence over developments and innovations in all three art forms. The contributors include film and television directors, actors, designers, writers, university researchers and journalists, many of whom worked with McGrath. Questions of day-to-day working practice are addressed alongside broader political and aesthetic concerns, and the question of McGrath's relationship to and influence on the arts in Scotland receives careful consideration.

This extended new edition of a seminal text marks the 30th anniversary of the original book's major intervention in the discipline. Bradby and Williams' field-defining book introduced the continental-European approach to directing, recognising the work of the modern stage director as an artist in his or her own right for the first time. Now edited by Peter M. Boenisch in collaboration with David Williams, this new edition includes an additional four chapters by leading contemporary experts on theatre direction. Covering recent practices and developments, as well as new trends in the academic research on directing, Directors' Theatre interrogates working ethics and performance aesthetics, directors' work with actors as a central creative source and their responses to the ongoing reassessment of theatre's role and function in contemporary culture. This long-awaited reissue will make a classic, authoritative study on directors and directing accessible to a new generation of students, scholars and artists. It is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Theatre, Performance Studies and Directing. New to this Edition: - Includes four new chapters written by leading contemporary experts on theatre direction: Patrice Pavis, Katalin Trencsenyi, the research team of Luk Van den Dries, and DuskaRadosavljevic - New chapters discuss recent approaches and developments in theatre directing as well as research on directing, including artists such as Luk Perceval, Daniel Jeanneteau, Improbable and Ivo van Hove, while also introducing the development of theatre direction in Eastern Europe - The original text has been carefully revised by David Williams and chapters have been supplemented with new introductions and conclusions

The first collection of plays by one of France's most prominent playwrights

Overboard: "Combines Shakespearian tragedy, Aristophanic farce and a Chekhovian drama of lives consumed and memories that fade." Le Progres, Situation Vacant: "The play builds to a climax which powerfully captures a mind under siege, bombarded by a cacophony of voices and tormented by guilt." (Independent); Dissident, Goes Without Saying and Nina, That's Something Else: "These two plays bring to a summit the art of suggestions...Two fables in which prosaic everyday life is captured, at times fraught with pathos, often compassionate." (L'Humanite ); A Smile on the End of the Line: "A six-part invention which interweaves half a dozen plot lines to bring life and speed into the manufacturing sector." (Daily Telegraph)

The second collection of plays by one of France's most prominent playwrights

High Places: "A drama which, from second to second, maintains the spectator in suspense, and which, by the same stroke, achieves the dimension of pure, great metaphysical theatre." (Le Monde); The Neighbours " bizarre contemporary vaudeville, biting, disturbing, very subtle and wildly funny" (Le Figaro); Portrait of a Woman: "An intriguing challenging piece." (Financial Times); The Television Programme: "The piece is beautifully plotted and written from the heart." (Independent on Sunday)

The translators are Gideon Y. Schein (High Places); Paul Antal (The Neighbours); Donald Watson (Portrait of a Woman); David and Hannah Bradby (The Television Programme)

This is a title in the Bristol Classical Press French Texts series, in French with English notes, vocabulary and introduction.;Chiefly known as leader of the "Theatre du Quotidien" school, Vinaver has forged a dramatic idiom which is both original and accessible. This volume includes three of his representative "chamber" plays, chosen to exemplify his personal approach both to dialogue and problems of dramatic structure. The introduction provides an account of Vinaver's place in the French theatre of the 1990s, as well as guidance on how to approach the staging of his dialogue.