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A Country Girl
by Nancy CarsonA must-read sweeping saga, full of intrigue, romance and page-turning drama . . .
Country Girls (The\country Girls Trilogy Ser. #1)
by Edna O'BrienEdna O'Brien's wonderful, wild and moving novel shocked the nation on its publication in 1960. Adapted for the stage by the author, The Country Girls, the play, is a highly theatrical and free-flowing telling of this classic coming of age story.
Country House: Polish Theatre Archive
by Stanislav I. Witkiewicz D. GerouldCountry House, a ''comedy with corpses,'' is a wicked subversion of all those realistic psychological dramas of jealousy, adultery, murder and suicide that ask to be taken seriously. Witkacy's send-up assumes the form of a ghost story full of surprises, in the course of which an entire family of four is gleefully dispatched to the other world. When it was first performed in 1923 in Torun, Country House was judged unsuitable for the general public because it derided moral, social and dramatic convention. Three years later, as directed by the playwright himself in Lwów, the drama proved an unexpected success with audiences (although it only ran for four nights) and ever since has been among Witkacy's most frequently performed works. Today we can appreciate Country House not only as a systematic demolition of stage realism, but also as an anxious probing of the elusive boundaries between life and death, exposing the ''dark places'' of the human psyche that make us laugh nervously.
Country House: Polish Theatre Archive
by Stanislav I. Witkiewicz D. GerouldCountry House, a ''comedy with corpses,'' is a wicked subversion of all those realistic psychological dramas of jealousy, adultery, murder and suicide that ask to be taken seriously. Witkacy's send-up assumes the form of a ghost story full of surprises, in the course of which an entire family of four is gleefully dispatched to the other world. When it was first performed in 1923 in Torun, Country House was judged unsuitable for the general public because it derided moral, social and dramatic convention. Three years later, as directed by the playwright himself in Lwów, the drama proved an unexpected success with audiences (although it only ran for four nights) and ever since has been among Witkacy's most frequently performed works. Today we can appreciate Country House not only as a systematic demolition of stage realism, but also as an anxious probing of the elusive boundaries between life and death, exposing the ''dark places'' of the human psyche that make us laugh nervously.
Country Music (Modern Plays)
by Simon StephensDramatic new play of crime and redemption by winner of Pearson Most Promising New Playwright Award, 2001A story of crime and redemption, starting at the mouth of the River Thames and moving across England over twenty years. It begins with a life choice for Jamie Carris and ends with a re-union with his young daughter. It is also a story about a killer.
Country Music: One Minute - Country Music - Motortown - Pornography - Sea Wall (Modern Plays)
by Simon StephensDramatic new play of crime and redemption by winner of Pearson Most Promising New Playwright Award, 2001A story of crime and redemption, starting at the mouth of the River Thames and moving across England over twenty years. It begins with a life choice for Jamie Carris and ends with a re-union with his young daughter. It is also a story about a killer.
A Country Scandal (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Anton Chekhov Alex SzogyiA Russian version of Don Juan is the focus of Chekhov's first play, a farce in which a newly arrived schoolmaster proves irresistible to the bored women of a provincial community. Platonov's charm lies in his novelty, and his seductions are strictly passive as a libidinous widow, her idealistic stepdaughter, and an earnest student vie for his romantic attentions. Discovered in 1923, two decades after Chekhov's death, this play was written while the author was still a medical student. Adapted and translated by Alex Szogyi, it offers the trenchant wit and rich characterizations typical of the dramatist's later works. Woven amid the love affairs, suicide attempts, parties, and shootings are the customary themes of Chekhovian theater: the passions and frailties of human nature, the futility of the search for happiness, and the alternating episodes of comedy and tragedy that shape every life.
The Country Wife: A Comedy, As It Is Acted At The Theatre-royal. Written By Mr. Wycherley
by William WycherleyOriginally performed and published in 1675, this five-act play parodies the vices and hypocrisies of Restoration London. The plot centers on the eponymous country wife, Margery, whose suspicious husband, Mr. Pinchwife, keeps her isolated. On a rare outing to the theater, Margery encounters the aptly named Mr. Horner. A notorious rake who feigns impotence to trick his way into the intimate company of married ladies, Horner soon schools Margery in the art of deception and realizes Pinchwife's worst fears. Bursting with racy dialog and bawdy humor, this comic masterpiece offers an enduring blend of cynicism, satire, and farce. The elegance of the play's construction and the glamour of its setting provide a piquant contrast to its earthy celebration of lust and human folly. The Country Wife has been periodically vilified for its immorality but remains ever popular for its lively characters, witty double entendres, and sophisticated drama.
The Country Wife (Oberon Modern Plays)
by William Wycherley Tanika GuptaThis new version of William Wycherley 's most famous classic, The Country Wife has been adapted by Tanika Gupta, one of the country 's leading playwrights. This contemporary farce tells the story of twenty-something friends and rivals on their journey through love and liberation.Following Hardeep 's return to London he begins broadcasting his newly invented celibate state in a bid to attract women keen to reignite his passion for them. With this deception more than successful his endeavours turn to the naive country wife, Preethi, Alok's virgin bride to settle unfinished business between old friends. A fast paced comedy laced with deception, disguise and lustful behaviour brought about by double standards, adultery and promiscuous living.Country Wife was performed at the Watford Palace theatre in October 2004
The Country Wife (New Mermaids)
by William Wycherley Tiffany Stern James Ogden'He's a fool that marries, but he's a greater fool that does not marry a fool.'This bawdy, hilarious, subversive and wickedly satirical drama pokes fun at the humourless, the jealous, and the adulterous alike. It features a country wife, Margery, whose husband believes she is too naïve to cuckold him; and an anti-hero, Horner, who pretends to be impotent in order to have unrestrained access to the women keen on 'the sport'. A number of licentious and hypocritical women request Horner's services – the country wife among them. The Country Wife has provoked powerfully mixed reactions over the years. The seventeenth century libertine king Charles II saw it twice, and is said to have joined the 'dance of the cuckolds' at the end of one performance; the eighteenth century actor-playwright David Garrick declared it 'the most licentious play in the English language'; the Victorian Macaulay compared it to a skunk, because it was 'too filthy to handle and too noisome even to approach'. Twentieth century productions heralded it a Restoration masterpiece. Sexually frank, and as ready to criticise marriage as infidelity, the virtuosity, linguistic energy, brilliant wit, naughtiness and complexity of this ribald play have made it a staple of the modern stage. This student edition contains a lengthy, entirely new introduction, by leading scholar, Tiffany Stern, with a background on the author, structure, characters, genre, themes, original staging and performance history, as well as an updated bibliography and a fully annotated version of the playtext.
The Country Wife: A Comedy, As It Is Acted At The Theatre-royal. Written By Mr. Wycherley (New Mermaids)
by William Wycherley Tiffany Stern James Ogden'He's a fool that marries, but he's a greater fool that does not marry a fool.'This bawdy, hilarious, subversive and wickedly satirical drama pokes fun at the humourless, the jealous, and the adulterous alike. It features a country wife, Margery, whose husband believes she is too naïve to cuckold him; and an anti-hero, Horner, who pretends to be impotent in order to have unrestrained access to the women keen on 'the sport'. A number of licentious and hypocritical women request Horner's services – the country wife among them. The Country Wife has provoked powerfully mixed reactions over the years. The seventeenth century libertine king Charles II saw it twice, and is said to have joined the 'dance of the cuckolds' at the end of one performance; the eighteenth century actor-playwright David Garrick declared it 'the most licentious play in the English language'; the Victorian Macaulay compared it to a skunk, because it was 'too filthy to handle and too noisome even to approach'. Twentieth century productions heralded it a Restoration masterpiece. Sexually frank, and as ready to criticise marriage as infidelity, the virtuosity, linguistic energy, brilliant wit, naughtiness and complexity of this ribald play have made it a staple of the modern stage. This student edition contains a lengthy, entirely new introduction, by leading scholar, Tiffany Stern, with a background on the author, structure, characters, genre, themes, original staging and performance history, as well as an updated bibliography and a fully annotated version of the playtext.
Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher (PDF)
by Philip J. FinkelpearlThe seventeenth-century English collaborative authors Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were not only the most popular playwrights of their day but also literary figures highly esteemed by the great critics of the age, Jonson and Dryden. Concentrating on the passions of the royalty and high nobility in a courtly atmosphere, their dramas are now usually seen as epitomizing a decadent turn in theater at the end of the Jacobean period. Philip Finkelpearl sets out to change this view by revealing the subtle political challenges contained in the plays and by showing that they criticize rather than exemplify false values. The result is a wholly new conception of this pair of dramatists and of the entire question of the relationship between the Crown and the theater in their time. Finkelpearl presents new biographical material revealing that Beaumont and Fletcher had good and sufficient reasons to be critical of the court and the king, and he shows that their most important works--especially The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Philaster, A King and No King, and The Maid's Tragedy have such criticism as a central concern. Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher offers much information on the nature of the "public" and "private" theaters at which these plays were presented and on Jacobean censorship. The book is an impressive explanation of why Beaumont and Fletcher were a central force in the Age of Shakespeare.Originally published in 1990.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The Court Comedies of John Lyly: A Study in Allegorical Dramaturgy
by Peter SaccioThe nature of Renaissance allegory has been the subject of much investigation, notably by Spenserian scholars. The subject is now enlarged through a study of the plays of the Elizabethan Court dramatists of the 1580's and early 1590’s, particularly the comedies of John Lyly. Mr. Saccio rejects the older "topical readings" of Lyly; by extensive interpretation of particular plays he describes three distinct kinds of allegorical operation apparent in successive phases of Lyly’s career and suggests that they form an important paradigm of the development of English drama itself.Originally published in 1969.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Courtesans and Cuckolds: A Glossary of Renaissance Dramatic Bawdy (Routledge Library Editions: Renaissance Drama)
by James T. HenkeThis title, first published in 1979, is a glossary of the bawdy vocabulary that was used in Renaissance Drama. One of the primary functions of this gloss of literary bawdy is to interpret imaginative uses of the language rather than simply record the generally accepted uses and meanings, with its principal task to make the dialogue of the plays more intelligible to the reader. With examples of bawdy language used in the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and John Webster amongst many others, this title will be of great interest to students of literature and performance studies.
Courtesans and Cuckolds: A Glossary of Renaissance Dramatic Bawdy (Routledge Library Editions: Renaissance Drama)
by James T. HenkeThis title, first published in 1979, is a glossary of the bawdy vocabulary that was used in Renaissance Drama. One of the primary functions of this gloss of literary bawdy is to interpret imaginative uses of the language rather than simply record the generally accepted uses and meanings, with its principal task to make the dialogue of the plays more intelligible to the reader. With examples of bawdy language used in the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and John Webster amongst many others, this title will be of great interest to students of literature and performance studies.
Cousin Betty
by Honoré De BalzacLa Cousine Bette (French pronunciation: [la kuzin bɛt], Cousin Bette) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of these is Baron Hector Hulot, husband to Bette's cousin Adeline. He sacrifices his family's fortune and good name to please Valérie, who leaves him for a tradesman named Crevel. The book is part of the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of Balzac's novel sequence La Comédie humaine ("The Human Comedy").
Cousin Pons
by Honoré De BalzacMild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is an ageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living a placid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with his friend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to fine dining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and a dedication to the collection of antiques. When these relatives become aware of the true value of his art collection, however, their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls away as they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man's inheritance. Taking its place in the Human Comedy as a companion to Cousin Bette, the darkly humorous Cousin Pons is among of the last and greatest of Balzac's novels concerning French urban society: a cynical, pessimistic but never despairing consideration of human nature.
Covering McKellen: An Understudy's Tale (Oberon Books)
by David WestonWINNER OF THE 2011 THEATRE BOOK PRIZEThe new edition of the acclaimed memoir by David Weston, chronicling the year he spent as Ian McKellen's understudy in the Royal Shakespeare Company's tour of King Lear.Shakespeare's greatest play, directed by the most experienced and acclaimed director in the land, starring one of our very finest actors at the very peak of his powers... What could possibly go wrong?The stage is set for what promises to be one of the greatest tours in the history of theatre. Take a front row seat as a whole host of stars led by Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Trevor Nunn set off to take the world by storm with their new production of King Lear only to endure injuries, critical backlash and almost constant controversy.As understudy to the King himself, Weston’s frank and funny account takes us right through from the London rehearsals to the historical Stratford Season, back to the glittering West End, and then out across the globe. Punctuated with hilarious celebrity anecdotes, insightful travelling tales, and lessons for any aspiring thespian, Weston deftly lifts the curtain the on Royal Shakespeare Company's much heralded tour and reveals the chaos underneath.
Covering Shakespeare: An Actor's Saga of Near Misses and Dogged Endurance
by David WestonDavid Weston has spent a lifetime acting in Shakespeare’s plays, and has been directed by Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and Simon Croft. Chosen as Ian McKellen’s understudy in the RSC’s King Lear, he toured the world and recorded his experiences in his diary, which became the award-winning Covering Shakespeare: An Understudy’s Tale, called ‘Salty, evocative and informative’ by the Daily Mail. It went on to win the prestigious I.T.R. Theatre Book of the the Year Prize for 2012. With Covering Shakespeare he goes even further, tracing his sixty-two year association with the Bard. He has appeared in twenty-nine of the thirty-seven plays, many several times, and has worked with all the major companies to the outmost limits of the Fringe, from Hollywood to Hong Kong, with the great, the mediocre and the forgotten. He has stories and reminiscences about them all, written in his inimitable style.
The Cow Play (Modern Plays)
by Ed HarrisIt's unusual, isn't it, for a girl to grow a tail at my age?Owen can't seem to write, Thom's exhaust pipe is ruined, and Holly is turning into a cow. As the situation worsens Owen is forced to choose between his blunt and exciting friend Thom, or his love for the increasingly bovine Holly. Owen knows the effects Holly's transformation are having on him, but he is scared that if he gives up on the one he loves, he'll be no better than Thom – a man who is the epitome of opportunism and shallow self-interest. The Cow Play is a hilarious, touching and bizarre story, an absurd black comedy about the ethics of trying to save those we love.
The Cow Play (Modern Plays)
by Ed HarrisIt's unusual, isn't it, for a girl to grow a tail at my age?Owen can't seem to write, Thom's exhaust pipe is ruined, and Holly is turning into a cow. As the situation worsens Owen is forced to choose between his blunt and exciting friend Thom, or his love for the increasingly bovine Holly. Owen knows the effects Holly's transformation are having on him, but he is scared that if he gives up on the one he loves, he'll be no better than Thom – a man who is the epitome of opportunism and shallow self-interest. The Cow Play is a hilarious, touching and bizarre story, an absurd black comedy about the ethics of trying to save those we love.
Coward Plays: Salute to the Brave/Time Remembered; Long Island Sound; Volcano; Age Cannot Wither; Design For Rehearsing (World Classics)
by Noël CowardCoward Plays: 9 offers up a fascinating selection of Noël Coward's lesser-known works. Salute to the Brave/Time Remembered (1940) follows Leila Heseldyne after she has fled to America, leaving a war-torn Britain and her husband behind; Long Island Sound(1947) sees a writer coerced into a riotous flock of high flying society people with turbulent results; and Volcano (1957) depicts a volcanic eruption as it punctuates the dubious conduct of six individuals on a fictional South Sea island. This volume also includes Design for Rehearsing (1933) was Coward's private satire on the way he , Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne worked on Design for Living. Age Cannot Wither (1967), Coward's last and unfinished play completes the collection as it portrays the boozy reunion of three women in their sixties, who meet without fail every year to reminisce. Together, these works offer a new and intriguing insight into Coward the playwright and his oeuvre that extends well beyond his most well-known works such as Private Lives, Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever. The volume is introduced by Coward expert and scholar Barry Day.
Coward Plays: Hay Fever; The Vortex; Fallen Angels; Easy Virtue (World Classics)
by Noël CowardThis first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Cowardand the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley,Coward's first biographer. Hay Fever, a comedy of badmanners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who haveall been invited independently for a weekend at their country housenear Maidenhead. The Vortexwas a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction ontothe stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned. Fallen Angels, which is written for two star actresseswas described as 'degenerate', 'vile', 'obscene', 'shocking' - thesecond half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologuebetween the two women. Easy Virtue is an elegant, laconic tribute to alost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directlyto the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentallyhypocritical 20s society. "He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur everagain in theatre history" Terence Rattigan
Coward Plays: Private Lives; Bitter-Sweet; The Marquise; Post-Mortem (World Classics)
by Noël CowardThe plays in this volume demonstrate the extraordinary skill andversatility Coward's writing achieved in the late 1920s.The volume containshis best-loved classic, Private Lives, which was an immeditate hit whenit was first staged in 1930. Coward's sparkling dialogue and reparteehave ensured the play's popularity ever since. Of Bitter-Sweet in 1929 Noël Coward wrote that it was "a musical that gaveme more complete satisfaction than anything else I had yet written. Notespecially on acount of its dialogue or its lyrics or its music or itsproduction but as a whole." The Marquise is an "eighteenth centurycomedy" filled with maids and duels, whilst Post-Mortem is avilification of war that contains some of Coward's most powerfulwriting.
Coward Plays: Blithe Spirit; Present Laughter; This Happy Breed; Tonight at 8.30 (ii) (World Classics)
by Noël CowardVolume Four of Noël Coward's plays contains a selection of Coward'splays from the thirties and forties which includes Blithe Spirit, acomedy that centres around the spirit medium Madame Arcati. The playthat mocks sudden death was produced at precisely the moment when bombswere bringing it to Britain "I shall ever be grateful, for the almostpsychic gift that enabled me to write Blithe Spirit in five days duringone of the darkest years of the war." The play was for years thelongest-running comedy in the history of British theatre. PresentLaughter follows the life of Garry Essendine, a world-weary,middle-aged projection of the dilettante, debonair persona -self-obsessed and dressing-gowned who struts through the play like aneducated peacock. It is a comedy about the 'theatricals' that Noël bestknew and loved, and was originally a star vehicle for himself. It isthe closest to an autobiographical play that Coward ever wrote.ThisHappy Breed is a saga of a lower middle-class family; and three shorterpieces fromTonight at 8.30 - is a farce set in the South of France,and serves as an oblique tribute to Frederick Lonsdale; The AstonishedHeart is about the decay of a psychiatrist's mind through personalsexual obsession. Red Peppers, which closes the volume, was a cynicaltribute to the lost music halls of the First World War.