Strategies of Political Theatre: Post-War British Playwrights

by Michael Patterson

Overview

Michael Patterson analyzes a group of twentieth century British playwrights' respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for radical restructuring of society. He examines plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill. Each chapter is 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521277327
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Michael Patterson is Professor of Theatre at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is a major British authority on German Theatre, especially twentieth-century political theatre in Germany. He is author of German Theatre Today; The Revolution in German Theatre 1900–1933; Peter Stein; The First German Theatre; German Theatre: A Bibliography and is editor of Georg Büchner: Collected Plays. He has published numerous articles on German Naturalist theatre, Reinhardt, Pirandello, Brecht, concentration camp theatre, Kroetz and East German theatre.

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"...Patterson's book is rich in detail and thoroughly researched, providing a good discussion of the British context in which these writers were working." Text & Presentation, Theatre and Politics, A Review Essay, David S. Escoffery

"...every student of contemporary English theater and drama would be well advised to consult Michael Patterson's study Strategies of Political Theater ." —Comparative Drama

From the Publisher