The Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Theatre

by Simon Shepherd

• ISBN13: 9780521690188
• ISBN10: 0521690188
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

British theatre has long been regarded as a world-leader in terms of its quality, creativity and range. Starting in 1900, this book introduces the features that characterise modern and current British theatre. These features include experimental performances under motorways alongside plays by Stoppard and Ayckbourn, amateur theatre and virtual spaces, the emergence of the director, the changing role of writers and political and community shows. The book is clearly divided into four sections: where it happens, who does it, what they make and why they do it. It discusses theatre buildings and theatre which refuses buildings; company organisation, ensembles and collectives, and different sorts of acting. A large section describes the major work done for the stage, from Shaw through to Complicite, via poetic drama, different sorts of realism and documentary drama. The Introduction stands apart from other accounts of modern British theatre by bringing together buildings, people and plays.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. x
Foreword	p. xiii
Where it happens	p. 1
National theatre	p. 1
A central theatre	p. 1
A racial theatre	p. 3
A people's theatre	p. 6
A nationalised theatre	p. 9
A concrete building	p. 13
Buildings and their people	p. 17
Actor-managers	p. 17
Owners	p. 18
Managers	p. 22
Buildings	p. 24
State funding	p. 29
Audience	p. 31
Who is the audience?	p. 32
What is an audience?	p. 35
Against the theatre institution	p. 41
Shows without theatres	p. 48
Performance for specific communities	p. 48
Performances in specific places	p. 50
Interfaces	p. 52
Useless buildings	p. 56
Who does it	p. 65
The organisation of actors and companies	p. 65
Repertory	p. 66
Ensembles	p. 68
Collectives	p. 73
Collaborations	p. 76
The work of actors	p. 79
The emergence of training	p. 79
Producing the English actor	p. 80
Producing the 'modern' actor	p. 82
Amateurs	p. 86
Actors as activists	p. 90
Non-acting	p. 93
The politics of performing modes	p. 97
Directors	p. 102
The emergence of the director	p. 102
Methods of direction	p. 104
Company style	p. 108
Writers	p. 110
What they make	p. 119
The readable tradition	p. 119
Shaw	p. 120
Travers and Coward	p. 122
Stoppard and Ayckbourn	p. 125
Poetic drama	p. 129
The reappearance of the Chorus	p. 129
Verse and poetry	p. 131
Marginalising the poetic	p. 134
Realisms	p. 136
Naturalisms	p. 136
Expressive realism	p. 139
Abstracting realism	p. 149
Deferring to the real: theatre as 'document'	p. 158
'Cruelties'	p. 165
Other than words	p. 173
Atmospheres	p. 174
Being physical	p. 178
Provisional fictions	p. 180
Duress and duration	p. 183
Why they do it	p. 189
Movements and manifestos	p. 189
Responsible theatres: the Whig tradition	p. 189
The Workers' Theatre Movement	p. 190
Feminist theatres	p. 193
Suffrage	p. 193
Second-phase feminism	p. 195
Gay theatres	p. 200
'Black' theatres	p. 205
Theatre of disability	p. 210
'Community' and 'applied' theatres	p. 213
Theatre in education	p. 214
Community theatre	p. 215
Applied theatre	p. 216
Making good theatre	p. 220
Afterword	p. 228
Bibliography	p. 229
Index	p. 240
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