The Cambridge History of British Theatre, Volume 3

Front Cover
Jane Milling, Peter Thomson, Baz Kershaw, Joseph Walter Donohue (Jr.)
Cambridge University Press, Dec 9, 2004 - Drama - 598 pages
This volume explores the rich and complex histories of English, Scottish and Welsh theatres in the "long" twentieth century since 1895. Twenty-three original essays by leading historians and critics investigate the major aspects of theatrical performance, ranging from the great actor-managers to humble seaside entertainers, from between-wars West End women playwrights to the roots of professional theatre in Wales and Scotland, and from the challenges of alternative theatres to the economics of theatre under Thatcher. Detailed surveys of key theatre practices and traditions across this whole period are combined with case studies of influential productions, critical years placed in historical perspective and evaluations of theatre at the turn of the millennium. The collection presents an exciting evolution in the scholarly study of modern British theatre history, skilfully demonstrating how performance variously became a critical litmus test of the great aesthetic, cultural, social, political and economic upheavals in the age of extremes.

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Contents

art entertainment audiences
3
The London stage 18951918
35
touring and early repertory theatre
60
4 Popular theatre 18951940
87
Cicely Hamiltons Diana of Dobsons 1908
110
1926
133
Social commitment and aesthetic experiment 18951946
167
part ii
193
14 The establishment of mainstream theatre 19461979
326
15 Alternative theatres 19462000
351
Developments in the profession of theatre 19462000
377
Theatre Workshops Oh What a Lovely War 1963
397
British theatre and commerce 19792000
426
decentralisation innovation
448
Theatre in Scotland in the 1990s and beyond
470
Theatre in Wales in the 1990s and beyond
485

Ena Lamont Stewarts Men Should Weep 1947
228
Welsh theatres
242
refashioning a myth performances of the tale
273
an introduction
291
English theatre in the 1990s and beyond
498
Bibliography
513
Index
533
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About the author (2004)

Baz Kershaw is Chair of Drama at the Department of Drama, University of Bristol. He is the author of The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention (1992) and The Radical in Performance: Between Brecht and Baudrillard (1999), and has been published in a number of journals including the Theatre Journal, New Theatre Quarterly and Studies in Theatre and Performance.