William Shakespeare's Hamlet (c.1600-1601) has achieved iconic status as one of the most exciting and enigmatic of plays. It has been in almost constant production in Britain and throughout the world since it was first performed, fascinating generations of audiences and critics alike.

Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Shakespeare's remarkable play offers:

• extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and performance of the text, from publication to the present
• annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
• cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
• suggestions for further reading.

Jez Butterworth is undoubtedly one of the most popular and commercially successful playwrights to have emerged in Britain in the early twenty-first century. This book, only the second so far to have been written on him, argues that the power of his most acclaimed work comes from a reinvigoration of traditional forms of tragedy expressed in a theatricalized working-class language. Butterworth's most developed tragedies invoke myth and legend as a figurative resistance to the flat and crushing instrumentalism of contemporary British political and economic culture. In doing so they summon older, resonant narratives which are both popular and high-cultural in order to address present cultural crises in a language and in a form which possess wide appeal. Tracing the development of Butterworth's work chronologically from Mojo (1995) to The Ferryman (2017), each chapter offers detailed critical readings of a single play, exploring how myth and legend become significant in a variety of ways to Butterworth's presentation of cultural and personal crisis.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet (c.1600-1601) has achieved iconic status as one of the most exciting and enigmatic of plays. It has been in almost constant production in Britain and throughout the world since it was first performed, fascinating generations of audiences and critics alike.

Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Shakespeare's remarkable play offers:

• extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and performance of the text, from publication to the present
• annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
• cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
• suggestions for further reading.

Tragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. A comprehensive guide for anyone undertaking a study of the genre, it provides a chronological overview and history of tragic theory. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it explains the contextual and theoretical issues which affect the interpretation of tragedy, examining popularly studied key plays in order to show historical change. Including a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, Tragedy: The Basics is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.

Tragedy: The Basics is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to dramatic tragedy. A comprehensive guide for anyone undertaking a study of the genre, it provides a chronological overview and history of tragic theory. Covering tragedy from the classics to the present day, it explains the contextual and theoretical issues which affect the interpretation of tragedy, examining popularly studied key plays in order to show historical change. Including a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, Tragedy: The Basics is an ideal starting point for anyone studying tragedy in literature or theatre studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Greeks and Romans: Classical Tragedy

Contexts: The Festival of Dionysus at Athens

Aeschylus, The Oresteia

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

Sophocles, Antigone

Euripides, Medea

Euripides, Bacchae

Contexts: Seneca and Roman Tragedy

Seneca, Phaedra

2. ‘When the bad bleed’ ? Early Modern English Tragedy

Contexts: Elizabethan Tragedy

Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tragedy

Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus

William Shakespeare,Hamlet

Contexts: Jacobean Tragedy

William Shakespeare, Othello

William Shakespeare, King Lear

William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

3. Neo-Classicism, Restoration Tragedy and Sentimentality

Contexts

Jean Racine, Phaedra

John Dryden, All for Love

Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d

4. ‘From Hero to Victim’: Romantic Tragedy and After

Contexts

Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg

Georg Büchner, Woyzeck

Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

5. Modernism and Tragedy

Contexts

Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra

Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding

Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

6. The Survival of Tragedy

Contexts

Edward Bond, Lear

Howard Barker, Victory

Tony Kushner, Angels in America

Caryl Churchill, The Skriker

Sarah Kane, Blasted.

Conclusion

Glossary

References

Index

　

This new guide to the English renaissance's most erudite and yet most street-wise dramatist strongly asserts the theatrical brilliance of his greatest plays in performance, then and now. It traces the sources of that phenomenon to Jonson's vision of himself as a poet in the Roman tradition, and to his commitment to the sane and progressive ideals of humanism in a city where a rampant free-market and political authoritarianism made life conflicted, dangerous, and yet darkly, hilariously absurd. In his best plays, all of these forces are crafted into formal structures glittering with wit and provocation. Ben Jonson, Renaissance Dramatist integrates all of Jonson's major plays into the milieu of the turbulent years which produced them, and analyses the way each work examines the issues and challenges of those years: money, power, sex, crime, identity, gender, the theatre itself. It offers a lucid guide to the competing critical views of a playwright who is far more than the obverse of his friend and rival William Shakespeare, and it explains in detail how the undoubted power and energy of these plays in modern performance should be the touchstone of their quality to both critic and reader. The plays discussed include the early Comedies, the Roman Tragedies (Sejanus and Catiline), Volpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair and The Devil is an Ass. Key Features *The book is an up-to-date introduction to all the major plays, covering the major criticism from a variety of critical perspectives *Ben Jonson's skill as a writer of brilliantly theatrical drama is emphasised throughout *Each play is securely and informatively placed in its literary and historical context *There is a lively account of how the plays have worked on stage in recent productions

Shakespeare: The Basics is a lively and accessible introduction to reading and studying Shakespeare. Exploring all aspects of Shakespeare’s plays, Sean McEvoy considers the language, cultural contexts and modern interpretations.

This essential guide to a range of contemporary Shakespearean criticism explores and unpacks the different dramatic genres in which he wrote – comedy, history, tragedy and romance. It also provides a wealth of relevant and concise information on the historical, social and political contexts in which the plays were produced and have been understood. Extensively updated throughout, the fourth edition provides:

A comprehensive account of Shakespearean tragedy for students

An introduction to ecocritical, ethical and queer readings of the plays

Analysis of notable recent Shakespeare films and productions

Enhanced contextual material on race and empire, gender roles and the theatre in politics

With fully updated further reading throughout and a wide range of case studies and examples,Shakespeare: The Basics is an indispensable introduction for college and university students of literature and theatre, but also for anyone with an interest in the world’s most influential dramatist.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction: William Shakespeare 1564-2024

Shakespeare’s Life: An Outline

Shakespeare’s Afterlife

Shakespeare Goes to College

Shakespeare 2025

How to Use this Book

PART I

Chapter 1. Shakespeare’s Language

Writing for a Theatre Audience

Box 1.1: Shakespeare’s Audiences

Simple or Complex, the Language is Dramatic

Verse and Prose

Box 1.2: Playtexts in Shakespeare’s Time

Rhetorical Figures and Tropes

Box 1.3: Some Rhetorical Figures and Tropes

Rhetoric and Dramatic Action

Box 1.4: Social Hierarchy in Shakespeare’s England

Chapter 2. Shakespeare’s Theatre

The Open Air Playhouse

Indoor Playhouses

Acting Style

Box 2.1: Males Playing Women

Representation on the Early Modern Stage

Box 2.2: Theatre’s Enemies

Dramatic Forms and Metatheatre

Chapter 3. Shakespeare on the Modern Stage

Paul Robeson’s 1930 Othello

Othello at the National Theatre (2022)

Box 3.1: Shakespeare, Race and Empire

Cheek by Jowl’s 1991 As You Like It

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre (2019)

Chapter 4. The Shakespeare Film

Filming Shakespeare

Tragedy on Screen in 2018 and 2021: King Lear and The Tragedy of Macbeth

Globalized American Shakespeare at the Millennium: Ten Things I Hate About You (1999) and O (2001)

PART II

Chapter 5. Comedy: The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It andTwelfth Night

Men, Women and Marriage in The Taming of the Shrew

Box 5.1: Women and Marriage in Shakespeare’s England

Language and Power in Measure for Measure

Language and the Outsider in The Merchant of Venice

Humans and Nature in As You Like It

Ambiguity, Language and Desire in Twelfth Night

Chapter 6. The History Plays: Richard II, Henry IV (Part 1) andHenry V

Feudalism in Historical Perspective: Richard II

Box 6.1: Christianity in Shakespeare’s England

Language, Meaning and Historical Change in Richard II

Power and Performance in Henry V and Henry IV, Part 1

Box 6.2: Shakespeare’s Theatre and Political Freedom of Expression

The Subversive Subplot: Henry V and Henry IV, Part 1

Women and Masculinity in the History Plays

Chapter 7. Tragedy: Hamlet,Macbeth, Othello, King Lear andRomeo and Juliet

Tragedy and Historical Conflict

Box 7.1: London

Hamlet and Tragic Division

Tragic Kingship in Macbeth

Past, Present and Future in Othello

Unmasking Power inKing Lear

Tragedy and Love in Romeo and Juliet

Chapter 8. The Romance Plays: The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest

Female Authority in The Winter’s Tale

Contesting the Female: Miranda in The Tempest

Wonder and Artifice in The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale

Freedom in The Tempest

Romance and Time

Chronology

Glossary

Index

Shortlisted for the 2017 Theatre Book Prize What is it about theatre, compared to other kinds of cultural representation, which provokes such a powerful reaction? Theatrical Unrest tells the compelling tales of ten riots whose cause lies on stage. It looks at the intensity and evanescence of the live event and asks whether theatre shares its unrepeatable quality with history. Tracing episodes of unrest in theatrical history from an Elizabethan uprising over Shakespeare's Richard II to Sikhs in revolt at Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's Behzti, Sean McEvoy chronicles a selection of extreme public responses to this inflammatory art form. Each chapter provides a useful overview of the structure and documentation of one particular event, juxtaposing eyewitness accounts with newspaper reports and other contemporary narratives. Theatrical Unrest is an absorbing account of the explosive impact of performance, and an essential read for anyone interested in theatre's often violent history.

Jez Butterworth is undoubtedly one of the most popular and commercially successful playwrights to have emerged in Britain in the early twenty-first century. This book, only the second so far to have been written on him, argues that the power of his most acclaimed work comes from a reinvigoration of traditional forms of tragedy expressed in a theatricalized working-class language. Butterworth's most developed tragedies invoke myth and legend as a figurative resistance to the flat and crushing instrumentalism of contemporary British political and economic culture. In doing so they summon older, resonant narratives which are both popular and high-cultural in order to address present cultural crises in a language and in a form which possess wide appeal. Tracing the development of Butterworth's work chronologically from Mojo (1995) to The Ferryman (2017), each chapter offers detailed critical readings of a single play, exploring how myth and legend become significant in a variety of ways to Butterworth's presentation of cultural and personal crisis.

This book offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to all of the plays of Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe is a playwright whose work taps into the central concerns of his age, many of which are still important to us - religious uncertainty, the clash between Islam and Christianity, the discovery of America, ideas of sexuality and gender identity, and the role of the marginalised inidividual in society. The book contains six chapters, each on a specific aspect of Marlowe's work and its cultural contexts: Marlowe's life and death; the Marlowe canon; the theatrical contexts and stage history of the plays; Marlowe's distinctive interest in old and new branches of knowledge; the ways in which he transgresses against established norms and values; and the major issues which have been raised in critical discussions of his plays. Each chapter allows students to see the significance, scope and distinctive contribution made by Marlowe in all his plays, and his place in the development of Renaissance drama. Key Features *Covers all of Marlowe's plays, including Tamburlaine the Great, Doctor Faustus, Edward II and The Jew of Malta *Emphasises how daring Marlowe's ideas were at the time as well as their relevance to readers today *Covers the theatrical contexts of Marlowe's plays and their performance history *Reassesses Marlowe's achievement as well as his relationship to Shakespeare