The Case for Terence Rattigan, Playwright

The Case for Terence Rattigan, Playwright PDF Author: John A. Bertolini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319409972
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This book asserts the extraordinary quality of mid-twentieth century playwright Terence Rattigan’s dramatic art and its basis in his use of subtext, implication, and understatement. By discussing every play in chronological order, the book also articulates the trajectory of Rattigan’s darkening vision of the human potential for happiness from his earlier comedies through his final plays in which death appears as a longed for peace. New here is the exploration through close analysis of Rattigan’s style of writing dialogue and speeches, and how that style expresses Rattigan’s sense of life. Likewise, the book newly examines how Rattigan draws on sources in Greek and Roman history, literature, and myth, as well as how he invites comparison with the work of other playwrights, especially Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare. It will appeal broadly to college and university students studying dramatic literature, but also and especially to actors and directors, and the play-going, play-reading public.

The Case for Terence Rattigan, Playwright

The Case for Terence Rattigan, Playwright PDF Author: John A. Bertolini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319409972
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book asserts the extraordinary quality of mid-twentieth century playwright Terence Rattigan’s dramatic art and its basis in his use of subtext, implication, and understatement. By discussing every play in chronological order, the book also articulates the trajectory of Rattigan’s darkening vision of the human potential for happiness from his earlier comedies through his final plays in which death appears as a longed for peace. New here is the exploration through close analysis of Rattigan’s style of writing dialogue and speeches, and how that style expresses Rattigan’s sense of life. Likewise, the book newly examines how Rattigan draws on sources in Greek and Roman history, literature, and myth, as well as how he invites comparison with the work of other playwrights, especially Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare. It will appeal broadly to college and university students studying dramatic literature, but also and especially to actors and directors, and the play-going, play-reading public.

British Playwrights, 1880-1956

British Playwrights, 1880-1956 PDF Author: William W. Demastes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313032653
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
From 1880 to 1956, when John Osborne transformed the British theater world with Look Back in Anger, British playwrights made numerous lasting contributions and provided a foundation for the innovations of dramatists during the latter half of the 20th century. This reference profiles the life and work of some 40 British playwrights active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of whom are also known for their work as novelists and poets. Included are figures such as W. H. Auden, Max Beerbohm, Noel Coward, T. S. Eliot, John Galsworthy, Graham Greene, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. Each entry provides a biographical overview; a list of major plays and summaries of their critical reception; a list of minor plays, adaptations, and productions; an assessment of the playwright's career; and archival and bibliographical information. Included in this reference book are alphabetically arranged entries for some 40 British playwrights active from 1880 through 1956. Entries are written by expert contributors, with each entry providing a biographical overview; a list of major plays, premieres, and significant revivals, along with a summary of the critical reception of these works; a listing of additional plays, adaptations, and productions; an assessment of the playwright's career and contributions, with reference to published evaluations in magazines, journals, dissertations, and books; a listing of locations housing unpublished archival material, if available; a selected bibliography of the dramatist's published plays and of essays and articles by the playwright on aspects of the theater; a selected bibliography of secondary sources; and, when available, a listing of previously published bibliographies on the playwright.

The Pocket Guide to Plays & Playwrights

The Pocket Guide to Plays & Playwrights PDF Author: Maureen Hughes
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1844687260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Everything you need to know about plays and playwrights in one handy guide by leading expert Maureen Hughes who has had one of her 8 musicals produced in the West End and teaches musical theater. Covering everything from the top playwrights through the centuries to a comprehensive A-Z listing of plays from around the world. Accessibility is a key selling point with factboxes highlighting key or curious facts about the subject.

A Reader's Guide to Modern British Drama

A Reader's Guide to Modern British Drama PDF Author: Sanford Sternlicht
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815630760
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This book reveals the influences of modern history and psychology on British drama; the all-important influence of Irish dramatists like Wilde, Shaw, O’Casey, and Beckett; the significance of the Independent Theatre of J. T. Grein and the early Royal Court Theatre; the gay community’s contribution to the British theater; the powerful new feminist drama; and the British festival theater. Auseful tool for readers wishing to know more about Britain’s great dramatic tradition and vital contemporary theater, for students pursuing drama studies, and for libraries in need of an accessible reference work.

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre PDF Author: Aleks Sierz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350429619
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
British theatre is booming. But where do these beautiful buildings and exciting plays come from? And when did the story start? To find out we time travel back to the age of the first Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century, four hundred years ago when there was not a single theatre in the land. In the company of a series of well-characterized fictional guides, the eight chapters of the book explore how British theatre began, grew up and developed from the 1550s to the 1950s. The Time-Traveller's Guide to British Theatre tells the story of the movers and shakers, the buildings, the playwrights, the plays and the audiences that make British theatre what it is today. It covers all the great names - from Shakespeare to Terence Rattigan, by way of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw - and the classic plays, many of which are still revived today, visits the venues and tells their dramatic stories. It is an accessible, journalistic account of this subject which, while based firmly on extensive research and historical accuracy, describes five centuries of British creativity in an interesting and relevant way. It is celebratory in tone, journalistic in style and accurate in content.

The Theatre Guide

The Theatre Guide PDF Author: Trevor R. Griffiths
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408103133
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
With over 500 entries on the most important plays and playwrights performed today, The Theatre Guide provides an authoritative A - Z of the contemporary theatre scene. From Aristophanes to Mark Ravenhill, The Alchemist to The Talking Cure, the Guide is both biographically detailed and critically current, while an extensive cross-referencing system allows for wider perspectives and new discoveries. Stimulating, observant and informative, The Theatre Guide is an essential companion and reference tool for anyone with an active interest in drama.

Changing Performance

Changing Performance PDF Author: D. Keith Peacock
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110711
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This book examines changes in performance practice in mainstream British theatre since 1945 which focus on the attempt by directors and companies to replace the realism of inter-war theatre with more physically and vocally expressive acting and ensemble approach to production processes. The aim was to replace the capitalist line-management approach of the commercial theatre with a more democratic collaborative structure that would encourage contribution to the creation of the performance text by the director, writer, actors, designers and technicians. Theatre is viewed as a mode of socio-cultural practice and its evolution in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century is explored in the context of changes in cultural perception, state subsidy, the social status of theatre, technology, and aesthetic influences from abroad. The study focuses not on dramatic texts but on mainstream productions that represent stages in an aesthetic evolution. They include Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version (1946); Theatre Workshop's A Taste of Honey (1958) and Oh What a Lovely War (1963); The Royal Shakespeare Company's The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1962), The Wars of the Roses (1963), The Theatre of Cruelty Laboratory (1964), The Marat-Sade (1964) and US (1966); Steven Berkoff's Metamorphosis (1969) and Complicite's The Three Lives of Lucy Cabrol (1994).

Terence Rattigan: A Biography

Terence Rattigan: A Biography PDF Author: Geoffrey Wansell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849432678
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 647

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Book Description
The greatest plays of Terence Rattigan (1911-77) - including The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables and The Winslow Boy - are now established classics. There have been regular revivals of his work, including recent productions in the West End, at Chichester Festival Theatre and by the Peter Hall Company, which makes the first paperback edition of Geoffrey Wansell's acclaimed biography particularly timely. From the heady days of Rattigan's early success to the darker days of his decline in popularity, Wansell paints a captivating portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest theatrical lights. Geoffrey Wansell is vice president of the Terence Rattigan Society: www.theterencerattigansociety.co.uk

A Dictionary of Writers and their Works

A Dictionary of Writers and their Works PDF Author: Christopher Riches
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019251850X
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 1431

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Book Description
Over 3,200 entries An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers. This online-exclusive new edition adds 60,000 new words, including over 50 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last five years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. Each entry provides details of a writer's nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Modern British Playwriting: The 1950s

Modern British Playwriting: The 1950s PDF Author: David Pattie
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408129299
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Essential for students of theatre studies, Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwriting series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to 2009 in six volumes. Each volume features a critical analysis and reevaluation of the work of four key playwrights from that decade authored by a team of experts, together with an extensive commentary on the period . Modern British Playwriting: The 1950s provides an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of the theatre of the decade together with a detailed study of the work of T.S Eliot (by Sarah Bay-Cheng) , Terence Rattigan (David Pattie), John Osborne (Luc Gilleman) and Arnold Wesker (John Bull). The volume sets the context by providing a chronological survey of the 1950s, a period when Britain was changing rapidly and the very fabric of an apparently stable society seemed to be under threat. It explores the crisis in the theatrical climate and activity in the first part of the decade and the shift as the theatre began to document the unease in society, before documenting the early life of the four principal playwrights studied in the volume. Four scholars provide detailed examinations of the playwrights' work during the decade, combining an analysis of their plays with a study of other material such as early play drafts, interviews and the critical receptions of the time. An Afterword reviews what the writers went on to do and provides a summary evaluation of their contribution to British theatre from the perspective of the twenty-first century.