A Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama: 1880 - 2005

by Editor: Mary Luckhurst (University of York, UK )

• ISBN13: 9780470751473
• ISBN10: 0470751479
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This wide-ranging Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama offers challenging analyses of a range of plays in their political contexts. It explores the cultural, social, economic and institutional agendas that readers need to engage with in order to appreciate modern theatre in all its complexity. An authoritative guide to modern British and Irish drama. Engages with theoretical discourses challenging a canon that has privileged London as well as white English males and realism. Topics covered include: national, regional and fringe theatres; post-colonial stages and multiculturalism; feminist and queer theatres; sex and consumerism; technology and globalisation; representations of war, terrorism, and trauma.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. Notes on Contributors. Introduction: Mary Luckhurst (University of York). Part I: Contexts:. 1. Domestic and Imperial Politics in Britain and Ireland: The Testimony of Irish Theatre: Victor Merriman (Waterford Institute of Technology). 2. Reinventing England: Declan Kiberd (University College Dublin). 3. Ibsen in the English Theatre in the Fin de Si+cle: Katherine Newey (University of Birmingham). 4. New Woman Drama: Sally Ledger (University of London). Part II: Mapping New Ground, 1900-1939:. 5. Shaw among the Artists: Jan McDonald (University of Glasgow). 6. Granville Barker and the Court Dramatists: Cary M. Mazer (University of Pennsylvania). 7. Gregory, Yeats and Ireland's Abbey Theatre: Mary Trotter (University of Wisconsin at Madison). 8. Suffrage Theatre: Community Activism and Political Commitment: Susan Carlson (Iowa State University). 9. Unlocking Synge Today: Christopher Murray (University College Dublin). 10. Sean O'Casey's Powerful Fireworks: Jean Chothia (University of Cambridge). 11. Auden and Eliot: Theatres of the Thirties: Robin Grove (University of Melbourne). Part III: England, Class and Empire, 1939-1990:. 12. Empire and Class in the Theatre of John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy: Mary Brewer (University of Wales, Aberystwyth). 13. When Was the Golden Age? Narratives of Loss and Decline: John Osborne, Arnold Wesker and Rodney Ackland: Stephen Lacey (University of Glamorgan). 14. A Commercial Success: Women Playwrights in the 1950s: Susan Bennett (University of Calgary). 15. Home Thoughts from Abroad: Mustapha Matura: D. Keith Peacock (University of Hull). 16. The Remains of the British Empire: The Plays of Winsome Pinnock: Gabriele Griffin (University of Hull). Part IV: Comedy:. 17. Wilde's Comedies: Richard Allen Cave (Royal Holloway, University of London). 18. Always Acting: Noël Coward and the Performing Self: Frances Gray (University of Sheffield). 19. Beckett's Divine Comedy: Katharine Worth (Royal Holloway, University of London). 20. Form and Ethics in the Comedies of Brendan Behan: John Brannigan (University College Dublin). 21. Joe Orton: Anger, Artifice and Absurdity: David Higgins (University of Chester). 22. Alan Ayckbourn: Experiments in Comedy: Alexander Leggatt (University College, University of Toronto). 23. 'They Both Add up to Me': The Logic of Tom Stoppard's Dialogic Comedy: Paul Delaney (Westmont College, California). 24. Stewart Parker's Comedy of Terrors: Anthony Roche (University College Dublin). Part V: War and Terror:. 25. A Wounded Stage: Drama and World War I: Mary Luckhurst (University of York). 26. Staging 'the Holocaust' in England: John Lennard (University of the West Indies, Jamaica). 27. Troubling Perspectives: Northern Ireland, the 'Troubles' and Drama: Helen Lojek (Boise State University). 28. On War: Charles Wood's Military Conscience: Dawn Fowler (researcher, University of York) and John Lennard (University of the West Indies, Jamaica). 29. Torture in the Plays of Harold Pinter: Mary Luckhurst (University of York). 30. Sarah Kane: From Terror to Trauma: Steve Waters (University of Cambridge)Part VI: Theatre since 1968:. 31. Theatre since 1968: David Pattie (University of Chester). 32. Lesbian and Gay Theatre: All Queer on the West End Front: John Deeney (Manchester Metropolitan University). 33. Edward Bond: Maker of Myths: Michael Patterson (De Montfort University, Leicester). 34. John McGrath and Popular Political Theatre: Maria DiCenzo (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada). 35. David Hare and Political Playwriting: Between the Third Way and the Permanent Way: John Deeney (Manchester Metropolitan University). 36. Left in Front: David Edgar's Political Theatre: John Bull (University of Reading). 37. L