Committed Theatre in Post-war Britain

Committed Theatre in Post-war Britain PDF Author: Reade Whiting Dornan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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Book Description

Committed Theatre in Post-war Britain

Committed Theatre in Post-war Britain PDF Author: Reade Whiting Dornan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 570

Get Book Here

Book Description


Post-War British Theatre (Routledge Revivals)

Post-War British Theatre (Routledge Revivals) PDF Author: John Elsom
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317557751
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Since the Second World War, we have witnessed exciting, often confusing developments in the British theatre. This book, first published in 1976, presents an enlightening, objective history of the many facets of post-war British theatre and a fresh interpretation of theatre itself. The remarkable and profound changes which have taken place during this period range from the style and content of plays, through methods of acting, to shapes of theatres and the organisational habits of managers. Two national theatres have been brought almost simultaneously into existence; while at the other end of the financial scale, the fringe and pub theatres have kicked their way into vigorous life. The theatre in Britain has been one of the post-war success stories, to judge by its international renown and its mixture of experimental vitality and polished experience. In this book Elsom presents an approach to the problems of criticism and appreciation which range beyond those of literary analysis.

British Theatre Since the War

British Theatre Since the War PDF Author: Dominic Shellard
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300147910
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
British theatre of the past fifty years has been brilliant, varied, and controversial, encompassing invigorating indigenous drama, politically didactic writing, the formation of such institutions as the National Theatre, the exporting of musicals worldwide from the West End, and much more. This entertaining and authoritative book is the first comprehensive account of British theatre in this period. Dominic Shellard moves chronologically through the half-century, discussing important plays, performers, directors, playwrights, critics, censors, and agents as well as the social, political, and financial developments that influenced the theatre world. Drawing on previously unseen material (such as the Kenneth Tynan archives), first-hand testimony, and detailed research, Shellard tackles several long-held assumptions about drama of the period. He questions the dominance of Look Back in Anger in the 1950s, arguing that much of the theatre of the ten years prior to its premiere in 1956 was vibrant and worthwhile. He suggests that theatre criticism, theatre producers, and such institutions as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company have played key roles in the evolution of recent drama. And he takes a fresh look at the work of Terence Rattigan, Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Alan Ayckbourn, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and other significant playwrights of the modern era. The book will be a valuable resource not only for students of theatre history but also for any theatre enthusiast.

Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender

Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender PDF Author: Michelene Wandor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134773110
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years. Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses: *the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives *the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama *differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968 *the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content.

Understanding Post-War British Society

Understanding Post-War British Society PDF Author: Peter Catterall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134837933
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Too many sociology textbooks begin and end with how society is structured. To understand how society operates it is necessary to explore not only its constituent structures and relationships, but how these structures emerge and why changes occur within them. By bringing together a group of distinguished sociologists and social historians, this book critically appraises the usefulness of current theories in advancing our understanding of contemporary society. It explores British society as dynamic and developing. In the process the authors draw our attention to the fact that society is shaped not just by social policy and structures, but by how far these influence people's life-patterns, attitudes, experience and conduct. Celia Brackenridge (Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, Joan C Brown, Robert G Burgess (University of Warwick), Rosemary Crompton (University of Kent), John Curtice (University of Str

British Literature in Transition, 1940-1960: Postwar

British Literature in Transition, 1940-1960: Postwar PDF Author: Gill Plain
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107119014
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
Examines debates central to postwar British culture, showing the pressures of reconstruction and the mutual implication of war and peace.

Sensational Flesh

Sensational Flesh PDF Author: Amber Jamilla Musser
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479891401
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
No detailed description available for "Sensational Flesh".

Theatres of War

Theatres of War PDF Author: Ted Freeman
Publisher: University of Exeter Press
ISBN: 9780859895590
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Theatres of War is the first full-length study to be devoted to the 'Committed' theatre that flourished in modern France from 1944 to the mid-1950s. During this crucial decade, authors such as Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus, along with other lesser-known dramatists, responded to the issues of their time by contributing a number of tense controversial plays to a distinctive genre of realist theatre. These plays dealt with the ideological, political and moral issues arising from the Second World War, the Cold War and a series of disastrous colonial wars. Theatres of War combines historical contextualisation, pointing up the political and moral debate of the theatre of the period, with detailed analysis of specific plays, making it a useful student text. All quotations are in French with English translations immediately following.

Kenneth Tynan

Kenneth Tynan PDF Author: Dominic Shellard
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300099195
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980) lived one of the most intriguing theatre lives of the twentieth century. A brilliant writer, critic and agent provocateur he made friends or enemies of nearly every major actor, playwright, impresario and movie mogul of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Working on each side of the Atlantic during various periods in his career, Tynan wrote for the Evening Standard, the Observer, and the New Yorker; was lured by Laurence Olivier in the early 1960s to become dramaturg of Britain's newly formed National Theatre; and spent his final years in Los Angeles. This biography offers the first complete appraisal of Tynan's powerful contribution to post-war British theatre, set against the context of the fifties, sixties and seventies of his own turbulent life. Shellard proves beneath the celebrity myths to uncover Tynan the private man and theatre genius. He draws on Tynan's own extensive personal papers and diaries, taped interviews with theatre professionals who knew him and fascinating letters to such correspondents as Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich, George Devine, Peter Brook, Alec Guiness and Terence Rattigan. Shellard highlights Tynan's early writings, when the brilliant young critic came to national prominence, and discusses how Tynan gained a left-wing readership, took his place at the vanguard of the new realist movement, and helped to establish subsidized theatre. He shows how, through indefatigable battles against theatre censorship and railings against the myopia of a politically and culturally insular Britain, Tynan helped create some of the most controversial theatrical events of the 1960s and 70s, including Oh Calcutta! Exploring the public and private sides of Tynan, Shellard reveals an outspoken, explicit and sometimes savage critic who ranks among the most influential theatre figures of the twentieth century.

Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre

Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre PDF Author: Catherine Love
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000839788
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre interrogates the paradoxical nature of theatre texts, which have been understood both as separate literary objects in their own right and as material for performance. Drawing on analysis of contemporary practitioners who are working creatively with text, the book re-examines the relationship between text and performance within the specific context of British theatre. The chapters discuss a wide range of theatre-makers creating work in the UK from the 1990s onwards, from playwrights like Tim Crouch and Jasmine Lee-Jones to companies including Action Hero and RashDash. In doing so, the book addresses issues such as theatrical authorship, artistic intention, and the apparent incompleteness of plays as both written and performed phenomena. Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre also explores the implications of changing technologies of page and stage, analysing the impact of recent developments in theatre-making, editing, and publishing on the status of the theatre text. Written for scholars, students, and practitioners alike, Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre provides an original perspective on one of the most enduring problems to occupy theatre practice and scholarship.