Michael Patterson

Strategies of Political Theatre (eBook, PDF)

Post-War British Playwrights

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. Mai 2003
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780511058943
• Artikelnr.: 38215945

Autorenporträt

Michael Patterson was born and educated in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. After thirty five years working in Marketing and Senior Management, with Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Esselte, redundancy gave him the opportunity his own on line business, selling lamination machines and consumables, as well as finding time to write crime novels. It also gave him the time to concentrate on his writing. Married with two children, he lives in Frimley Green, Surrey.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgements
Brief chronology, 1953-1989
Introduction
Part I. Theory: 1. Strategies of political theatre: a theoretical overview
Part II. Two Model Strategies: 2. The 'reflectionist' strategy: 'kitchen sink' realism in Arnold Wesker's Roots (1959)
3. The 'interventionist' strategy: poetic politics in John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (1959)
Part III. The Reflectionist Strain: 4. The dialectics of comedy: Trevor Griffiths's Comedians (1975)
5. Appropriating middle-class comedy: Howard Barker's Stripwell (1975)
6. Staging the future: Howard Brenton's The Churchill Play (1974)
Part IV. The Interventionist Strain: 7. Agit-prop revisited: John McGrath's The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil (1973)
8. Brecht revisited: David Hare's Fanshen (1975)
9. Rewriting Shakespeare: Edward Bond's Lear (1971)
10. The strategy of play: Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine (1979)
Conclusion
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.