A Reader's Guide To Modern British Drama (Reader's ... (ISBN 081563076X)

Wonderful, comprehensive work covering over 60 playwrights:
This is a thorough and comprehensive reference handbook for anyone studying modern British drama. The first playwright discussed is Irish-born George Bernard Shaw, who ushered in the modern era of British theater by adapting Isben's thesis dramas for British audiences, inaugurating a Theater of Ideas. Major 20th- (and not a few 21st-) century playwrights (Pinter, Beckett, O'Casey, Coward, D.H. Lawrence, Churchill, Delaney, Shaffer, Stoppard, Hare, to name only a few) are included, as well as many who were not familiar to this reviewer (I'm not a theater expert, only a theatergoer). I enjoyed learning of Sarah Daniels, Stephen Poliakoff, David Storey, Arnold Wesker, and so many more... the information takes the reader to plays as current as SWEET PANIC (Poliakoff, 2004). Author Sanford Sternlicht, a professor of dramatic literature and theory at Syracuse University, has published dozens of works, including many literary biographies (studies of Chaim Potok, Galsworthy, Stephen Spender, John Masefield, Padraic Colum, James Herriot, C.S. Forester, and others) and, more recently, reference works on Modern Irish drama and Modern American drama, also from the READER'S GUIDE series. He's co-edited several books of new plays from the Abbey Theatre, and his love for and thorough knowledge of all British theater shines here within A READER'S GUIDE TO MODERN BRITISH DRAMA. The book examines the plays and their creators against a background of British history from 1899 to the present, and an illuminating chapter outlining 19th-century influences on the world of modern British drama opens the work, along with brief chapters on the historical events, frequent social and cultural upheavals, and political changes in post-imperial Britain in the 20th century and how they influenced its playwrights. The contributions of the feminist and gay communities are discussed, as well as the influences of the new multiculturalism and especially the vital influence of the Irish dramatists Shaw, Wilde, O'Casey, and Beckett, and the importance of J.T. Grein and the early Royal Court Theatre. So very much clear, concise, and readable information is held in this (relatively) slender volume! And it's so well organized (including a great index and a selected critical bibliography) , that any drama student, professor, or lover of theater can go immediately to any of the 60+ playwrights and hundreds of plays covered, and find wonderful overviews. The lives of the playwrights are as fascinating to read about as their plays -- at times moreso, as truth is forever stranger than fiction. I was especially happy to learn more about David Hare, Frederick Lonsdale, Sarah Kane, and Edward Bond. I recommend this title highly, as well as Sternlicht's other recent works, READER'S GUIDE TO MODERN AMERICAN DRAMA and READER'S GUIDE TO MODERN IRISH DRAMA. Gems, all.