Playing for time explores connections between theatre time, the historical moment and fictional time. Geraldine Cousin persuasively argues that a crucial characteristic of contemporary British theatre is its preoccupation with instability and danger, and traces images of catastrophe and loss in a wide range of recent plays and productions. The diversity of the texts that are examined is a major strength of the book. In addition to plays by contemporary dramatists, Cousin analyses staged adaptations of novels, and productions of plays by Euripides, Strindberg and Priestley. A key focus is Stephen Daldry's award-winning revival of Priestley's An Inspector Calls, which is discussed in relation both to other Priestley 'time' plays and to Caryl Churchill's apocalyptic Far Away. Lost children are a recurring motif: Bryony Lavery's Frozen, for example, is explored in the context of the Soham murders (which took place while the play was in production at the National Theatre), whilst three virtually simultaneous productions of Euripides' Hecuba are interpreted with regard to the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren. -- .

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."

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.