This book is an account of a public seminar held in honour of Jan Kott's influential study, Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Attracting international contributors, the seminar focused on the relevance of her study for Shakespearian theatre today.
This book is an account of a public seminar held in honour of Jan Kott's influential study, Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Attracting international con...
In his new book, John Elsom considers the drama of international politics from the viewpoint of a theatre critic, someone who sits in life's stalls and takes notes in semi-darkness. He relates how grand narratives of human behaviour grew from the insights of Darwin, Descartes and the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, to become the unacknowledged state religion of the West, High Modernity. He argues that the primary aim of most European ministries of culture, together with Western media companies, is to promote aspects of this faith. With a dazzling range of examples, from George Bush's New...
In his new book, John Elsom considers the drama of international politics from the viewpoint of a theatre critic, someone who sits in life's stalls an...
Cold War Theatre, first published in 1992, " "provides an account of the theatrical history within the context of East/West politics. Its geographical span ranges from beyond the Urals to the Pacific Coast of the US, and asks whether the Cold War confrontation was not in part due to the cultural climate of Europe.
Taking the McCarthy era as its starting point, this readable history considers the impact of the Cold War upon the major dramatic movements of our time, East and West. The author poses the question as to whether European habits of mind, fostered by their cultures, may not have...
Cold War Theatre, first published in 1992, " "provides an account of the theatrical history within the context of East/West politics. Its geographi...
Since the Second World War, we have witnessed exciting, often confusing developments in the British theatre. This book, first published in 1976, presents an enlightening, objective history of the many facets of post-war British theatre and a fresh interpretation of theatre itself. The remarkable and profound changes which have taken place during this period range from the style and content of plays, through methods of acting, to shapes of theatres and the organisational habits of managers. Two national theatres have been brought almost simultaneously into existence; while at the other end of...
Since the Second World War, we have witnessed exciting, often confusing developments in the British theatre. This book, first published in 1976, prese...
This book, first published in 1981, sets out the critical reaction to some fifty key post-war productions of the British theatre, as gauged primarily through the contemporary reviews of theatre critics. The plays chosen are each, in their different ways, important in their contribution to the development of the British theatre, covering the period from immediately after the Second World War, when British theatre fell into decline, through the revival of the late 1950s, to the time in which this book was first published, in which British theatre enjoyed a high international reputation for...
This book, first published in 1981, sets out the critical reaction to some fifty key post-war productions of the British theatre, as gauged primari...
We have not been driven into Brexit at the point of a gun or out of economic necessity, but purely for cultural reasons. State of Paralysis explores the climate of opinion in Britain that has led to more than seventy years of indecision about our relationship with our continental neighbours and our role on the world's stage. The post-war years saw many dramatic changes: the arrival of weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear industries, space travel, civil rights, global warming, the Internet, the digitalisation of behaviour and the loss of Empire.
The aim of the...
We have not been driven into Brexit at the point of a gun or out of economic necessity, but purely for cultural reasons. State of Paralysis explo...
