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Sappho
by Lawrence Durrell'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)
by Sophocles E. F. Watling (Translator Introduction‘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
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawThis volume features the play Misalliance, which explores the incongruities of human nature and family life, and Shaw's one-act burlesque, The Fascinating Foundling.
Arthur Miller Plays 1: All My Sons; Death of a Salesman; The Crucible; A Memory of Two Mondays; A View from the Bridge
by Arthur Miller"The greatest American dramatist of our age." (Evening Standard)In this collected works, five of Arthur Miller's most-produced and popular plays are brought together in a new edition, alongside an exclusive introduction by Ivo van Hove, the celebrated contemporary director of Miller's works.All five plays were written by Miller within a ten-year period which began with his first Broadway hit, All My Sons, in 1947 which led Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times to state that 'theatre has acquired a genuine new talent.' This was followed in 1949 by his exploration of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman, which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.The Crucible followed in 1953, produced during the McCarthy era and becoming a parable of the witch-hunting practices of a government determined to root-out Communists. A View from the Bridge, originally performed in 1955, concerns the lives of longshoremen in the Brooklyn waterfront and has remained one of Miller's most produced plays. Originally presented as a one-act companion piece to A Memory of Two Mondays, both plays explore the dreams and working lives of ordinary Americans in the early decades of the 20th century.Freshly edited and featuring a bold new design, this updated edition of Arthur Miller Plays 1is a must-have for theatre fans and students alike.
Reading Lessons: The books we read at school, the conversations they spark and why they matter
by Carol AthertonAn English teacher's love letter to reading and the many ways literature can make us, and our lives, better.How can a Victorian poem help teenagers understand YouTube misogyny? Can Jane Eyre encourage us to speak out? What can Lady Macbeth teach us about empathy? Should our expectations for our future be any greater than Pip’s? And why is it so important to make space for these conversations in the first place?In a career spanning almost three decades, English teacher Carol Atherton has taught generations of students texts that will be familiar to many of us from our own schooldays. But while the staples of exam syllabuses and reading lists remain largely unchanged, their significance – and their relevance – evolves with each class, as it encounters them for the first time.Each chapter of Reading Lessons invites us to take a fresh look at these novels, plays and poems, revealing how they have shaped our beliefs, our values, and how we interact as a society. As she recalls her own development as a teacher, Atherton emphasizes the vital, undervalued role a teacher plays, illustrates how essential reading is for developing our empathy and makes a passionate case for the enduring power of literature.'Beautifully written, sensitive and full of warmth ... A vital point of reflection for anyone who has taught, or been taught, English literature' Jeffrey Boakye'A love letter to literature itself ... At a time when English is under attack as an academic subject, Carol Atherton’s powerful defence of it reminds us what we are in danger of losing' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of The Turning Point
A Streetcar Named Desire (Student Editions)
by Tennessee WilliamsThis revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Bess Rowen, Visiting Assistant Professor at Villanova University, US, which looks in particular at the play's treatment of rape, vulnerable people, mental institutions (especially in connection to Williams's own family), sexuality and sexual desire.A Streetcar Named Desire shows a turbulent confrontation between traditional values in the American South - an old-world graciousness and beauty running decoratively to seed - set against the rough-edged, aggressive materialism of the new world. Through the vividly characterised figures of Southern belle Blanche Dubois, seeking refuge from physical ugliness in decayed gentility, and her brutal brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, Tennessee Williams dramatises his sense of the South's past as still active and often destructive in modern America.METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains:· A chronology of the play and the playwright's life and work· An introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created· A succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece· An analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text· A bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study
Man and Superman: A Comedy And A Philosophy (Bernard Shaw Library)
by George Bernard Shaw Stanley Weintraub Dan LaurenceShaw began writing MAN AND SUPERMAN in 1901 and determined to write a play that would encapsulate the new century's intellectual inheritance. Shaw drew not only on Byron's verse satire, but also on Shakespeare, the Victorian comedy fashionable in his early life, and from authors from Conan Doyle to Kipling. In this powerful drama of ideas, Shaw explores the role of the artist, the function of women in society, and his theory of Creative Evolution.As Stanley Weintraub says in his new introduction, this is "the first great twentieth-century English play" and remains a classic exposé of the eternal struggle between the sexes.
Plays Unpleasant: Pleasant And Unpleasant, Volume 1 - Primary Source Edition
by George Bernard Shaw David Edgar Dan LaurenceWith Plays Unpleasant, Shaw issued a radical challenge to his audiences' complacency and exposed social evils through his dramatization of the moral conflicts between youthful idealism and economic reality, promiscuity and marriage, and the duties of women to others and to themselves. His first play, Widowers' Houses, depicts Harry Trench's dilemma on learning that the inheritance of his fiancée comes from her father's income as a slum landlord. In The Philanderer, charismatic Leonard Charteris proposes marriage to Grace, while he is still involved with the beautiful Julia Craven - who is not inclined to give him up so easily. And in Mrs Warren's Profession, Vivie Warren is forced to reconsider her own future when she discovers that her mother's immoral earnings funded her genteel upbringing.
Androcles and the Lion: Overruled; Pygmalion
by Dan Laurence George Bernard ShawAndrocles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.
The Glass Menagerie (Student Editions)
by Tennessee WilliamsThis revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Daniel Ciba, which looks in particular at the play as a piece of realism or experimentalism and considers the play through the lens of Queer Identity. The introduction includes discussion of very recent revivals and adaptations of the play across the world.The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams' first great popular success and an autobiographical play about his mother and sister, launched the brilliant and controversial career of this ground-breaking American playwright. Set in St Louis during the depression era of the 1930s, it is the poignant drama of a family's gradual disintegration, under pressure both from outside and within. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: · A chronology of the play and the playwright's life and work · an introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created · a succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece · an analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text · a bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.
The New Soviet Theatre (Routledge Revivals)
by Joseph MacleodFirst Published in 1943, The New Soviet Theatre presents Joseph Macleod’s take on the development and rapid changes in the Soviet Theatre since late 1930s. Through scattered articles and reports, books and bulletins, and his own visits to the USSR, Macleod showcases what we know as ‘Socialist Realism’. He brings themes like the shortcomings of the old theatre; the audience beyond the Caucasus; new socialist audiences; Alexey Popov of the Central Theatre of the Red Army; new writers and new plays; and popularity of Shakespeare both in the central theatres and in remoter and unexpected places. Written graphically but founded on scholarship this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of history of theatre, European theatre, theatre and performance studies.
The New Soviet Theatre (Routledge Revivals)
by Joseph MacleodFirst Published in 1943, The New Soviet Theatre presents Joseph Macleod’s take on the development and rapid changes in the Soviet Theatre since late 1930s. Through scattered articles and reports, books and bulletins, and his own visits to the USSR, Macleod showcases what we know as ‘Socialist Realism’. He brings themes like the shortcomings of the old theatre; the audience beyond the Caucasus; new socialist audiences; Alexey Popov of the Central Theatre of the Red Army; new writers and new plays; and popularity of Shakespeare both in the central theatres and in remoter and unexpected places. Written graphically but founded on scholarship this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of history of theatre, European theatre, theatre and performance studies.
John Bull's Other Island: And Major Barbara [and How He Lied To Her Husband]
by George Bernard ShawShaw’s story is rife with such ‘beyond opinions’, as an Anglo-Irish Protestant, a Dubliner in London, and a socialist living in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. In one sense, as a Protestant choosing to live in London, he is a John Bull, yet he remains Irish – an Irish Bull, something alluded to in his one play set in Eire, John Bull’s Other Island.
Pygmalion: A Romance In Five Acts (classic Reprint)
by George Bernard Shaw Nicholas GrenePygmalion both delighted and scandalized its first audiences in 1914. A brilliantly witty reworking of the classical tale of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with his perfect female statue, it is also a barbed attack on the British class system and a statement of Shaw's feminist views. In Shaw's hands, the phoneticist Henry Higgins is the Pygmalion figure who believes he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, into a duchess at ease in polite society. The one thing he overlooks is that his 'creation' has a mind of her own.
The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play
by Dan Laurence George Bernard Shaw‘A tearing, flaring, revivalist drama’ was how Desmond MacCarthy described The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Set in America’s Wild West and aptly subtitled ‘A Sermon in Crude Melodrama’, this single-act play concerns the conversion of a horse thief desperate to ‘keep the devil’ in him and die game. Published in 1909, it brought Shaw into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain of England, who banned it on the grounds of alleged blasphemy, and it was twelve years before the play was performed in a London theatre. In an interview Shaw commented, ‘I am sorry that Fanny’s First Play has destroyed the cherished legend that I am an unpopular playwright … for the first time I have allowed a play of mine to run itself to death … And the worst of it is it will not die.’ First performed in 1911, the play is a delightful farce in which Shaw debates some of his favourite subjects: middle-class morality, marriage, parents and children and women’s rights. And, deliberately concealing his authorship, Shaw took the opportunity to satirize contemporary drama critics who, he claimed, ‘do not know dramatic chalk from dramatic cheese when it is no longer labelled for them.’
Ben Jonson (Routledge Revivals)
by John PalmerOriginally published in 1934, Palmer’s biography of famous playwright Ben Jonson delves into his life and works and what he achieved in both. As first poet laureate of England, Jonson’s life presents a fascinating look into the state of literature and theatre in renaissance Britain which Palmer presents in great detail. This title will be of interest to students of literature.
Ben Jonson (Routledge Revivals)
by John PalmerOriginally published in 1934, Palmer’s biography of famous playwright Ben Jonson delves into his life and works and what he achieved in both. As first poet laureate of England, Jonson’s life presents a fascinating look into the state of literature and theatre in renaissance Britain which Palmer presents in great detail. This title will be of interest to students of literature.
Brecht and the Writer's Workshop: Fatzer and Other Dramatic Projects (World Classics)
by Bertolt Brecht Tom KuhnBrecht was never inclined to see any of his plays as completely finished, and this volume collects some of the most important theatrical projects and fragments that were always to remain 'works in progress'. Offering an invaluable insight into the writer's working methods and practices, the collection features the famous Fatzer as well as The Bread Store and Judith of Shimoda, along with other texts that have never before been available in English.Alongside the familiar, 'completed' plays, Brecht worked on many ideas and plans which he never managed to work up even once for print or stage. In pieces like Fleischhacker, Garbe/Büsching and Jacob Trotalong we see how such projects were abandoned or interrupted or became proving grounds for ideas and techniques. The works collated here span over thirty years and allow the reader to follow Brecht's creative process as he constantly revised his work to engage with new contexts.This treasure-trove of new discoveries is also annotated with dramaturgical notes to present readable and useable texts for the theatre.The volume is edited by Tom Kuhn and Charlotte Ryland, with the translation and dramaturgical edition of each play provided by a team of experienced writers, scholars and translators.
The Roundabout (Oberon Modern Plays)
by J. B. Priestley‘Communism’s all right for a gentleman like yourself, but you’ll get over it.’ The Kettlewells are a dysfunctional family. Richard is an old Etonian whose business ventures are failing. Over one crowded weekend, his daughter Pamela, whom he hardly knows, returns from Russia, a passionate communist; his ex-wife and mistress both turn up; and his butler has a big win at the races. The Roundabout is a funny, touching, highly perceptive look at England in the 1930s, when it looked, just possibly, as if the social order might be changing.
Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture
by Harold PinterArts, Truth and Politics is Harold Pinter's lecture on receipt of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil's Disciple, Caesar And Cleopatra, And Captain Brassbound's Conversion...
by George Bernard Shaw Michael BillingtonShaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. But he also recognized that people wanted to be entertained while educated, and to see purpose mixed with pleasure. In these three plays of ideas, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms - Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story - to turn received wisdom upside down. Set during the American War of Independence, The Devil's Disciple exposes fake Puritanism and piety, while Caesar and Cleopatra, a cheeky riposte to Shakespeare, redefines heroism in the character of the ageing Roman leader. And in Captain Brassbound's Conversion, an expedition in Morocco is saved from disaster by a lady explorer's skilful manipulation of the truth.
Mercer Plays: Where the Difference Begins; A Suitable Case for Treatment; The Governor's Lady; On the Eve of Publication; The Cellar and the Almond Tree; Emma's Time; After Haggerty (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David MercerThe first volume of stage and TV plays by one of the best British TV writersWhere the Difference Begins, a naturalist play for television, is about the "difference" between thirties deprivation and fifties affluence, between material prosperity and its accompanying spiritual and political apathy, as embodied by sixty-year-old railwayman Wilf and his sons; A Suitable Case for Treatment, a play for television, portrays a man who, on account of his communist beliefs, is unable to conform to the world around him and associates more with the gorilla he sees in the zoo than with his own wife; The Governor's Lady is set in colonial Africa focussing on a reactionary central figure; broadcast on BBC TV during the lates 60s and early 70s The Kelvin trilogy (On the Eve of Publication, The Cellar and the Almond Tree and Emma's Time) moves between Britain and Eastern Europe, the the past and the present.After Haggerty, Mercer's first major stage success is, in the playwright's own words "an intervention and a commentary on the supposed revolutionary theatre of 1968 and after."Mercer "demands in my mind the saem love and esteem I feel for Gorky. They share a generosity of spirit, a desire for change, and a savage compassion for those who must be changed." David Jones (director)
An Outline History of the Japanese Drama (Routledge Revivals)
by Frank Alanson LombardStudents of international drama are turning more and more to the study of Japanese drama, desirous to know to what extent its development duplicates or differs from the evolution of drama in other countries. Stimulated by the colour, originality, power, and poetry, they are interested to know more. This title, first published in 1928, traces the general development of the drama of the Japanese. This book will be of interest to students of drama, theatre studies and Asian Studies.
An Outline History of the Japanese Drama (Routledge Revivals)
by Frank Alanson LombardStudents of international drama are turning more and more to the study of Japanese drama, desirous to know to what extent its development duplicates or differs from the evolution of drama in other countries. Stimulated by the colour, originality, power, and poetry, they are interested to know more. This title, first published in 1928, traces the general development of the drama of the Japanese. This book will be of interest to students of drama, theatre studies and Asian Studies.
Brecht Collected Plays: Man Equals Man; Elephant Calf; Threepenny Opera; Mahagonny; Seven Deadly Sins (World Classics)
by Bertolt Brecht John Willett Ralph ManheimPublished 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 second volume of Brecht's Collected Plays brings together some of his most glittering Berlin successes including The Threepenny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Seven Deadly Sins, Man Equals Man and The Elephant Calf. The Threepenny Opera is the story of the mercurial beggar turned entrepeneur Peachum and his battles with the criminal Mac 'the Knife'; Mahagonny, an operatic satire on the search for an American capitalist utopia; The Seven Deadly Sins is a ballet with songs that predicts the downfall of the petty bourgeosie and was first performed as the Nazis planned their book burning exercise. Man equals Man is an exploration of the theory of equality and The Elephant Calf is a play within a play based on an Indian folk story.The translators include W H Auden and Chester Kallman, Ralph Manheim, Gerhard Nellhaus and John Willett. 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.