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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (Arcturus Classics)

We should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality. - Oscar WildeFirst performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest is a play in three acts full of mix-ups, unexpected plot twists, mistaken identities and extraordinary quickfire wit.Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax both fall in love with a man called Ernest who doesn't exist. That's because he's the invention of Jack Worthing, who needed a black-sheep of a brother to blame his bad behaviour on. Things become complicated when Jack falls in love with Gwendolen, his friend Algernon falls for Cecily and nobody knows who anybody else is any more as the plot heads for disaster.This is Wilde's most popular play and its unforgettable characters, including the redoubtable Lady Bracknell, still cut the mustard today as Wilde's wit and wordplay raise low English farce to brilliant heights.Also includes:• An Ideal Husband• Lady Windermere's FanABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.

Scenography and Art History: Performance Design and Visual Culture

Scenography and Art History reimagines scenography as a critical concept for art history, and is the first book to demonstrate the importance and usefulness of this concept for art historians and scholars in related fields. It provides a vital evaluation of the contemporary importance of scenography as a critical tool for art historians and scholars from related branches of study addressing phenomena such as witchy designs, Early Modern festival books, live rock performances, digital fashion photography, and outdoor dance interventions. With its nuanced and detailed case studies, this book is an innovative contribution to ongoing debates within art history and visual studies concerning multisensory events. It extends the existing literature by demonstrating the importance of a reimagined scenography concept for comprehending historical and contemporary art histories and visual cultures more broadly. The book contends that scenography is no longer restricted to the traditional space of the theatre, but has become an important concept for approaching art historical and contemporary objects and events. It explores scenography not solely as a critical approach and theoretical concept, but also as an important practice linked with unrecognized labour and broader political, social and gendered issues in a great variety of contexts, such as festive culture, sacred settings, fashion, film, or performing arts. Designed as a key resource for students, teachers and researchers in art history, visual studies, and related subjects, the book, through its cross-disciplinary frame, does consider, implicitly and explicitly, the roles of both scenography and art in society.

Brecht Collected Plays: Good Person of Szechwan; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (World Classics)

Published by Methuen Drama, the collected dramatic works of Bertolt Brecht are presented in the most comprehensive and authoritative editions of Brecht's plays in the English language.This sixth volume of Brecht's Collected Plays contains three plays he wrote while in exile during the early stages of the Second World War. In Brecht's famous parable The Good Person of Szechwan, the gods come to earth in search of a thoroughly good person. Noone can be found until they meet Shen Te, a prostitute with a heart ofgold. Rewarded by the gods, she gives up her profession and buys atabacco shop but finds it is impossible to survive as a good person ina corrupt world without the support of her ruthless alter ego Shui Ta.The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a savage satire on the rise of Hitler, wittily transposed to gangland Chicago. Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today. Written in 1940 during Brecht's exile in Finland, Puntila is one of hisgreatest creations, to be ranked alongside Galileo and Mother Courage.A hard-drinking Finnish landowner, Puntila suffers from a dividedpersonality: when drunk he is human and humane; when sober, surly andself-centred. The play contains some of the best comedy Brecht wrotefor the theatre. The translations are ideal for both study and performance. The volume is accompanied by a full introduction and notes by the series editor John Willett and includes Brecht's own notes and relevant texts as well as all the important textual variants.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Student Editions)

'Williams's favourite among his plays, [Cat on a Hot Tin Roof] is perhaps his most impassioned and articulate statement on human isolation, the wrenching problems of communication between people and the ways in which death defines life.' NEW YORK TIMESIn Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a Southern family meet to celebrate 'Big Daddy' Pollitt's 65th birthday. But as the party unfolds, the facade of a happy family gathering is fractured by sexual frustration, repressed love and greed in the light of their father's impending death. This edition includes a commentary by Benjamin Hudson, which explores the major themes of the play, including illness and mortality; white supremacy through the plantation setting; mendacity and 'fake news'; alcoholism and addiction; as well as sexuality, womanhood and mid-century notions of masculinity. It draws attention to the context of the play, including the cultural, social and political landscape of the Mississippi Delta and St. Louis; the first-hand witnessing of Black life in the South; homosexuality and outsider sympathy; and American conservatism and the idealised 1950s family. It also delves into recent productions and adaptations of the play, including the Bollywood and Antoine Fuqua film adaptations.

Measures Taken and Other Lehrstucke (Modern Plays)

The Lehrstücke (or 'learning-plays') lie at the heart of Brechtian theatre.Written during 1929 and 1930, years of far-reaching political and economic upheaveal in Germany and the period of Brecht's most sharply Communist works, these short plays show an abrupt rejection of most of the trappings of conventional theatre.The Lehrstücke are spare and highly formalized pieces intended for performance by amateurs, on the principle that the moral and political lessons contained in them can best be taught by participation in an actual production. There is nothing in the drama of the twentieth century to match the precision of their language and the economy of their theatrical technique.

A Memory of Two Mondays: All My Sons; Death Of A Salesman; The Crucible; A Memory Of Two Mondays; A View From The Bridge (Student Editions)

'A gentle, lyrical, Chekhovian evocation of the past, with that special unpretentious charm that special works sometimes have.'NEW YORK TIMESAt an auto-parts warehouse in Brooklyn, life seems frozen in time: as workers of every age commute in, nothing ever seems to change. Newcomer Bert, only 18 years old, hopes to escape this world, earnestly saving his wages for college… but can such a dream survive his workplace's haze of hopelessness, despondency and alcoholism?A vivid rendering of life under the Great Depression, A Memory of Two Mondays perfectly captures the anxieties and concerns of the 1930s, autobiographically reflecting Miller's own experience as an 18-year-old in this period.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Stephen Marino, with commentary and notes that explore the play's production history (including excerpts from an interview with director Rob Roznowski) as well as the dramatic, thematic and academic debates that surround it.

Twelve Angry Men (G - Reference,information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)

The Confidential Clerk: A Play (classic Reprint)

The Confidential Clerk was first produced at the Edinburgh Festival in the summer of 1953.'The dialogue of The Confidential Clerk has a precision and a lightly felt rhythm unmatched in the writing of any contemporary dramatist.' Times Literary Supplement'A triumph of dramatic skill: the handling of the two levels of the play is masterly and Eliot's verse registers its greatest achievement on the stage - passages of great lyrical beauty are incorporated into the dialogue.' Spectator

Mousetrap (PDF)

A snowstorm traps a group of strangers with an unknown killer in the world's longest running play.

Theatre and the Threshold of Death: Lectures on the Dying Arts (Thinking Through Theatre)

On the eve of a global pandemic, Kathleen Gough, a theatre professor, becomes immersed in the lives of five artist-mystics, each of whom is a pioneer in her field: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the first known musical composer; Eleanora Duse (1858-1924), the first modern actor in the Western world; Simone Weil (1909-1943), philosopher, activist, and mystic, whom Albert Camus called “the only great spirit of our time”; Marina Abramovic (b. 1946), “the grandmother of performance art”; and Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), the first known (and belatedly acknowledged) abstract painter. Each time Gough crosses a threshold into their world, she is compelled to attend courses, seminars and workshops that are simultaneously about dying and healing.Curious to learn more about the relationships between art practice, dying, and healing, Gough imagines the five artists as wisdom teachers in a mystery school. In a series of eight lectures, she turns to performance theory to provide a framework for engaging with the unknown world. In Theatre and the Threshold of Death, Gough makes a persuasive argument for the world-making power of relational thinking in our increasingly polarized age.

The Crucible (Student Editions #24)

Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!In a small tight-knit community, gossip and rumour spread like wildfire, inflaming personal grievances until no-one is safe from accusation and vengeance. The Crucible is Arthur Miller's classic dramatisation of the witch-hunt and trials that besieged the Puritan community of Salem in 1692. Seen as a chilling parallel to the McCarthyism and repressive culture of fear that gripped America in the 1950s, the play's timeless relevance and appeal remains as strong as when the play opened on Broadway in 1953.This new edition includes an introduction by Soyica Diggs Colbert, that explores the play's production history as well as the dramatic, thematic, and academic debates that surround it; a must-have resource for any student exploring The Crucible.

Cyrano de Bergerac: A Heroic Comedy in Five Acts

This is Edmond Rostand's immortal play in which chivalry and wit, bravery and love are forever captured in the timeless spirit of romance. Set in Louis XIII's reign, it is the moving and exciting drama of one of the finest swordsmen in France, gallant soldier, brilliant wit, tragic poet-lover with the face of a clown. Rostand's extraordinary lyric powers gave birth to a universal hero--Cyrano De Bergerac--and ensured his own reputation as author of one of the best-loved plays in the literature of the stage. This translation, by the American poet Brian Hooker, is nearly as famous as the original play itself, and is generally considered to be one of the finest English verse translations ever written.

A Soviet Theatre Sketch Book (Routledge Revivals)

First Published in 1951, A Soviet Theatre Sketch Book presents Joseph Macleod’s take on Russian Theatre in a semi-fictional way to show the effect of the productions upon different audiences. By using his pen as an artist uses his pencil, he gives, for the first time, an account of theatre audiences as composed of individual human beings and is able to paint the scenes vividly without neglecting the technical methods of the Soviet stage. By supple use of the sketch- book form, theatres, theatre-schools, actors, and actresses including some no longer appearing are painted into an all-over view of Russian and Ukrainian post-war life. In this book the author writes less immediately about the Soviet Union and does not depend on topicality or stop press news. Joseph Macleod and his wife visited the Soviet Union as the guests of the Russian and Ukrainian Societies for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of theatre, history of theatre, and performance studies.

A Soviet Theatre Sketch Book (Routledge Revivals)

First Published in 1951, A Soviet Theatre Sketch Book presents Joseph Macleod’s take on Russian Theatre in a semi-fictional way to show the effect of the productions upon different audiences. By using his pen as an artist uses his pencil, he gives, for the first time, an account of theatre audiences as composed of individual human beings and is able to paint the scenes vividly without neglecting the technical methods of the Soviet stage. By supple use of the sketch- book form, theatres, theatre-schools, actors, and actresses including some no longer appearing are painted into an all-over view of Russian and Ukrainian post-war life. In this book the author writes less immediately about the Soviet Union and does not depend on topicality or stop press news. Joseph Macleod and his wife visited the Soviet Union as the guests of the Russian and Ukrainian Societies for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of theatre, history of theatre, and performance studies.

Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, Volume 2

Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw. The five plays are:In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden); The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day; The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170; Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000; As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920 The plays were published with a preface titled The Infidel Half Century, and first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre.

The Doctor's Dilemma: With A Preface On Doctors - Primary Source Edition

Shaw's humorous satire of the medical profession.

Hedda Gabler and Other Plays (Penguin Classics Ser.)

Four of Ibsen's most important plays in superb modern translations, part of the new Penguin Ibsen series.In these four unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the complex nature of truth, the tension between freedom and responsibility, and the terrible pull that the past exerts over the present. In The Wild Duck, an idealist destroys a family by exposing the lie behind his friend's marriage. In Rosmersholm, a respectable man is driven to extremes by guilt over his wife's death, while in The Lady from the Sea a woman is caught between her family and the enticement of the wild sea. And in Hedda Gabler, one of Ibsen's most famous and vivid anti-heroines struggles to break free from the conventional life she has created for herself, with tragic results.The new Penguin series of Ibsen's major plays offer the best available editions in English, under the general editorship of Tore Rem. The plays have been freshly translated by the best modern translators and are based on the recently published, definitive Norwegian edition of Ibsen's works. They all include new introductions and editorial apparatus by leading scholars.Vol. 1: Peer Gynt and BrandVol. 2: A Doll's House and Other PlaysVol. 3: Hedda Gabler and Other PlaysVol. 4: The Master Builder and Other Plays

Hedda Gabler and Other Plays (Penguin Classics)

In these three unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the problems of personal and social morality that he perceived in the world around him and, in particular, the complex nature of truth. The Pillars of the Community (1877) depicts a corrupt shipowner’s struggle to hide the sins of his past at the expense of another man’s reputation, while in The Wild Duck (1884) an idealist, believing he must tell the truth at any cost, destroys a family by exposing the lie behind his friend’s marriage. And Hedda Gabler (1890) portrays an unhappily married woman who is unable to break free from the conventional life she has created for herself, with tragic results for the entire family.

Ibsen: An Approach (Routledge Revivals)

This book, first published in 1950, could best be described as a combination of literary, psychological and social criticism. Considerable space is allotted to the personal inner drama of Ibsen, which provides not only a clue to his art but shows how most of his themes inevitably grew out of the other. The author also explores some of those factors which make Ibsen of interest to the generation that were facing the social and spiritual havoc of the post-war period. This book will be of interest to students of literature and theatre.

Ibsen: An Approach (Routledge Revivals)

This book, first published in 1950, could best be described as a combination of literary, psychological and social criticism. Considerable space is allotted to the personal inner drama of Ibsen, which provides not only a clue to his art but shows how most of his themes inevitably grew out of the other. The author also explores some of those factors which make Ibsen of interest to the generation that were facing the social and spiritual havoc of the post-war period. This book will be of interest to students of literature and theatre.

Last Plays: "in Good King Charles's Golden Days"; Buoyant Billions; Farfetched Fables; Shakes Versus Shav; Why She Would not (Bernard Shaw Library)

In Good King Charles's Golden Days: a true history that never happened. A discussion play; the issues of nature, power and leadership are debated between King Charles II ('Mr Rowley'), Isaac Newton, George Fox and the artist Godfrey Kneller. Buoyant Billions: a comedy of no manners.Farfetched fables. Shaw's thoughts simplified.Shakes vs. Shav. Puppets portray Shaw and Shakespeare. The play comprises a comic argument between the two playwrights, an intellectual Punch and Judy.Why She Would Not. His final play.

Plays Extravagant: Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess (Bernard Shaw Library)

This is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes "The Millionairess", "Too True to be Good" and "The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles".

Sappho

'A magician.' The Times'A philosophical play of ideas, exploring loss, war, and incest in Ancient Greece, by the celebrated author of The Alexandria Quartet.Lesbos, Ancient Greece. Lawrence Durrell's intricate play follows vivid characters who represent different attitudes towards the role of the individual in the world, exploring how their lofty ideals are transformed when they become victims of unforeseeable real-life circumstances. Eloquent, tragic, poetic, Durrell's parable is a powerful study of idealism in an imperfect universe, drawing vibrant parallels between the classical world and our modern existence.

The Theban Plays (Penguin Classics): (pdf)

‘O Light! May I never look on you again, Revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting, Sinful in marriage, sinful in shedding of blood!’ The legends surrounding the royal house of Thebes inspired Sophocles (496–406 BC) to create a powerful trilogy of mankind’s struggle against fate. King Oedipus tells of a man who brings pestilence to Thebes for crimes he does not realise he has committed, and then inflicts a brutal punishment upon himself. With profound insights into the human condition, it is a devastating portrayal of a ruler brought down by his own oath. Oedipus at Colonus provides a fitting conclusion to the life of the aged and blinded king, while Antigone depicts the fall of the next generation, through the conflict between a young woman ruled by her conscience and a king too confident in his own authority. E. F. Watling’s masterful translation is accompanied by an introduction, which examines the central themes of the plays, the role of the Chorus, and the traditions and staging of Greek tragedy. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Misalliance and the Fascinating Foundling

This volume features the play Misalliance, which explores the incongruities of human nature and family life, and Shaw's one-act burlesque, The Fascinating Foundling.