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The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre Aleks Sierz

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre By Aleks Sierz

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre by Aleks Sierz


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Summary

A lively guided tour through British theatre from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre Summary

The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years by Aleks Sierz

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 sixteenth century, four hundred years ago when there was not a single theatre in the land. In the company of a series of well-characterised 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 Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre Reviews

I am bowled over by The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre... I've read many histories of theatre in my time, some very dry and academic and others rather more basic and banal for young readers or people still in the foothills of the Everest of theatre history. But never before have I chortled and marvelled my way through anything quite so informative and entertaining - and for the authors to have done both with such aplomb is quite an achievement... -- Susan Elkin * The Stage *
It combines the latest insights of today with the story of yesterday. It reads like a fast-moving ride on a theatre-go-round - only much more informative. The gossip is fun, too. -- Christopher Frayling
From Elizabethan penny stinkards to iffy, unstoppable Binkie Beaumont, here is a spry, vivid overview of that throbbing and wondrous organism, British theatre. -- Quentin Letts * Daily Mail *

About Aleks Sierz

Aleks Sierz FRSA is an author and journalist whose books include In-Yer-Face Theatre (Faber, 2001). He is editor of The Methuen Drama Book of 21st Century British Plays (2010) and co-editor of The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights (2011). Lia Ghilardi is an internationally recognized leader in the field of cultural urban development, who lectures widely in universities across Europe. Lia's background is in urban sociology (Trento University, Italy); she has an MA with Distinction in Arts Criticism from City University (London) and a Diploma in Creative Thinking Skills from the De Bono Seminars Programme (Malta).

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction: The main argument of the book, with a few notes on what the Romans did for us. The Middle Ages: minstrels, mystery plays and pageants. 1. Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre. 1558-1603. James Burbage entrepreneur. The Globe, The Rose and London's Bankside. Playwrights Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe. Case studies: Thomas Heywood, Shakespearean bawdy, the Globe rebuilt and Richard II in Essex's rebellion. 2. Jacobean and Caroline theatre. 1603-42. Stuart patronage and the creation of indoor theatres. Masques, revenge tragedy and cavalier playwrights. Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher and Richard Brome. Case studies: John Webster's White Devil, City Comedy, censorship and puritanism. 3. Restoration theatre. 1660-1707. Rival companies and French influences. William Wycherley, William Congreve and John Vanbrugh. John Dryden, poetry, neo-classicism and criticism. Thomas Betterton, Colley Cibber and Drury Lane. Case studies: Nell Gwynne and women actors (Mrs Barry), George Farquhar, Aphra Behn. 4. Georgian theatre. 1707-95. Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Haymarket and Bristol Old Vic. David Garrick, Charles Macklin and Sarah Siddons. Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer, Henry Fielding's satire, Richard Steel, and pantomime. Case studies: censorship (Licensing Act 1737), the Shakespeare industry, Ira Aldridge, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, Richmond Yorks theatre. 5. Regency theatre. 1795-1837. Rise of the West End. Richard Brindsley Sheridan's School for Scandal. Edmund Kean, the Kembles. Clown Joe Grimaldi. Case studies; critics, music hall, Price Riots at Covent Garden. 6. Victorian theatre. 1837-1901. William Charles Macready, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. Manners, Melodrama and extravaganza. Dion Boucicault and Oscar Wilde. Case studies: Tom Robertson's Caste, J M Barrie's Peter Pan. 7. Edwardian theatre. 1901-18. Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Court Theatre and the Harley Granville Barker and J E Vedrenne seasons, 1904-7. Rise of the regional reps. George Bernard Shaw, influence of Ibsen and Chekhov. New social drama. Arthur Wing Pinero. Case studies: Vesta Tilley and the music hall. 8. Interwar theatre. 1918-45. Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan and JB Priestley; Sean O'Casey. John Gielgud and Sybil Thorndike. Case studies: Noel Coward's The Vortex, RC Sherriff's Journey's End, Ben Travers's Rookery Nook and Unity Theatre. 9. Postwar theatre. 1945-79. The rise of state-subsidised theatre. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Angry Young Men, Poetic Drama, National Theatre, RSC and alternative theatres. The regions. Case studies: George Devine and Look Back in Anger, Theatre Workshop, Saved and the abolition of censorship, Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, Edinburgh Festival, Marat Sade. 10. Postwar theatre. 1945-79. Part Two. 11. Theatre after Thatcher. 1979-2010. West End blockbuster musicals. Women playwrights. Event Theatre. In-Yer-Face Theatre. Return of political theatre (verbatim). Case studies: Asian drama from Ayub Khan Din's East Is East to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's Behzti, new black playwrights, national treasures (Alan Bennett/Tom Stoppard/Micheal Frayn). Afterword: Contemporary theatre (2011-14). Index

Additional information

GOR007453165
9781783192083
1783192089
The Time Traveller's Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years by Aleks Sierz
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
20150302
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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