The Theatre of Martin Crimp: Second Edition

by Aleks Sierz, Patrick Lonergan (Editor), Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (Editor)

Overview

First published in 2006, Alek's Sierz's The Theatre of Martin Crimp provided a groundbreaking study of one of British theatre's leading contemporary playwrights. Combining Sierz's lucid prose and sharp analysis together with interviews with Martin Crimp and a host of directors and actors who have produced the work, it offered a richly rewarding and engaging assessment of this acutely satirical playwright. The second edition additionally explores the work produced between 2006 and 2013, both the major new plays and the translations and other work.

The second edition considers The City, the 2008 companion play to The Country, Play House from 2012 and the new work for the Royal Court in late 2012. The two works that have brought Crimp considerable international acclaim in recent years, the updated rewrite of The Misanthrope which in 2009 played for several months in the West End starring Keira Knightley, and Crimp's translation of Botho Strauss's Big and Small (Barbican, 2012), together with Crimp's other work in translation are all covered. The Theatre of Martin Crimp remains the fullest, most readable account of Crimps's work for the stage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408184417
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/05/2013
Series:	Critical Companions
Edition description:	2nd Revised ed.
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a lecturer in modern British theatre whose seminal study, In-Yer-Face Theatre, defined a new generation of writers and their work. In 2006 Methuen Drama published his guide, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, which was followed up by 2012's Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s. Sierz's journalism has featured in the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent. He is a widely read, highly regarded critic of modern British theatre.

Aleks Sierz FRSA is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, UK, and author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011) and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama 2012). He also works as a journalist, broadcaster, lecturer and theatre critic.

Patrick Lonergan is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at University of Galway, Ireland.

Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. is professor of theatre arts at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA, the author and editor of ten books including The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films, and a contributor to numerous volumes on sci-fi, pop culture and religion, including essays on Godzilla, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica. His areas of expertise include Japanese theatre, African theatre, Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, stage combat and comedy. He is co-editor with Patrick Lonergan of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama's Critical Companions series.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction: 'At two shifts from reality'
1. 'A Knock at the Door'
2. 'Denial, Brutality and Sheer Human Confusion'
3. 'Privileged Distance from Death and Dismemberment'
4. 'French is my Film or TV'
5. 'Dialogue is Inherently Cruel': Martin Crimp in Conversation
6. 'Hearing their Voices'
7. 'Viewed with Hostility and Suspicion'
8. 'My Plays Emit Criticism'
9. Conclusion
10. The Interviews
Appendix: Attempts on His Life
Afterword
Timeline
Notes
Bibliography
Index