This is the first book to provide a critical history of one of the American theater's most famous plays, Death of a Salesman. Brenda Murphy offers a detailed account of the most significant Salesman productions throughout the world, on the stage as well as in film, radio, and television. The play has also provided a number of memorable interpretations by actors such as Dustin Hoffman, George C. Scott, Frederic March, and Mel Gibson. The volume includes a production chronology, bibliography, discography, videography, and photographs from key productions.

Chekhov's masterpiece, about a Russian family losing its ancestral home, combines a lament for a vanishing past with a hopeful dream of the future. In the century since its first performance, The Cherry Orchard has undergone a wide range of conflicting interpretations: tragic and comic, naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical. Beginning with the 1904 premiere at Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, this study traces the performance history of one of the landmark plays of the modern theatre. Considering the work of such directors as Anatoly Efros, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Brook, and...

This is the first book-length study of Oscar Wilde's play Salome. Often drawing on little-known sources, the authors provide a detailed stage history of this controversial work, and its transformation into opera, dance and film with such major innovators as Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Serge Diaghilev, Peter Brook, Salvador Dali, Lindsay Kemp and Steven Berkoff contributing to Salome's contemporary reputation.

David Bradby's study explores the impact of Waiting for Godot and its influence on acting, directing, design, and the role of theater in society. After discussing the first productions in France, Britain and America, he examines subsequent productions in Africa, Eastern Europe, Israel, America, China and Japan. The book assesses interpretations by Bert Lahr and Ben Kingsley, as well as such directors as Roger Blin, Susan Sontag, Sir Peter Hall, and Beckett himself. It also contains an extensive production chronology, bibliography and illustrations from major productions.

This is the first comprehensive study in English of Brecht's Mother Courage in production. Peter Thomson provides a detailed account of Brecht's own production in 1949 and then explores how the play has been transmitted--from Joan Littlewood's production in 1956 to the Royal National Theatre in 1995. The book also examines interpretations by Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson, and Richard Schechner, among others. Seminal productions from the continent are also analyzed and a final chapter examines the play's influence on among others, Peter Brook, and highlights the new urgency of the text in light...

A Streetcar Named Desire revolutionized the modern stage and this book offers the first continuous history of the play in production from 1947 to 1998. Chapters survey major national premieres by the world's leading directors including Seki Sano, Luchino Visconti, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau and Laurence Olivier. Interpretations by Black and gay theater companies also receive analyses, and transformations into other media, such as ballet, film, television, and opera (premiered in 1998) form an important part of the overall study.

This is the first detailed study of one of the most important plays in contemporary theater. In this fascinating look at the modern stage, Stephen Bottoms draws on original archival material and sources including an exclusive interview with Edward Albee. The Introduction considers the text of the play itself; part one provides a survey of the major productions from 1962 to 1999, including the film. Part two examines shifting critical responses to the play and the third and final part offers a detailed examination of five different performances.

Since its premiere in Rome in 1921, Six Characters in Search of an Author has gained worldwide recognition. Pirandello's challenge to stage representation was taken up by leading directors and changed theater's perception of itself. Jennifer Lorch examines the play's impact through close analysis of individual productions in the context of theater history and practice. Her book includes a chronology of the most important productions, a bibliography and illustrations from major productions.

This is the first full production history of Long Day's Journey Into Night, by Eugene O'Neill. It provides a detailed account of the most significant productions throughout the world, on stage, film, and television. The book conveys the unique interpretations of the Tyrone family by such actors as Fredric March, Jason Robards, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Katharine Hepburn, Colleen Dewhurst, Ruby Dee, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, and Alan Bates, among other distinguished theatre artists. This history includes a production chronology, bibliography, discography and videography.

Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus (or Oedipus Rex) has exerted more influence than any other drama, ancient or modern, on the history of theatre, and this influence has extended far beyond the boundaries of the western theatrical tradition to include African and Oriental theatre histories as well. This volume traces Sophocles paradigmatic ancient tragedy from its first appearance on the stage in the fifth century BC to present day productions. The afterlife of Oedipus has played a key role in the history of ideas, and this volume examines its centrality to the history of stage censorship and...