A masterpiece of eighteenth-century Japanese puppet theater, Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees is an action-packed play set in the aftermath of the twelfth-century Genji-Heike wars. It follows the adventures of the military commander, Yoshitsune, as he tries to avoid capture by his jealous older brother and loyal henchmen. The drama, written by a trio of playwrights, popularizes Japan's martial past for urban Edo audiences. It was banned only once in its long history, for a period after World War II, because occupying American forces feared its nationalizing power. In this expert transl... View More...
Western drama, having all but disappeared during the Dark Ages, reemerged spontaneously in the liturgy and life of the medieval church. Vernacular miracle plays of England's Middle Ages were performed by lay people -- many by trade guilds -- unschooled in church Latin, but familiar with the biblical events upon which the dramas were based. Morality plays provided moral instruction, their principal characters vivid personifications of virtue and vice. The most durable of the morality plays has proven to be Everyman, whose central character, summoned by Death, must face final judgment on the str... View More...
Western drama, having all but disappeared during the Dark Ages, reemerged spontaneously in the liturgy and life of the medieval church. Vernacular miracle plays of England's Middle Ages were performed by lay people -- many by trade guilds -- unschooled in church Latin, but familiar with the biblical events upon which the dramas were based. Morality plays provided moral instruction, their principal characters vivid personifications of virtue and vice. The most durable of the morality plays has proven to be Everyman, whose central character, summoned by Death, must face final judgment on the str... View More...
Western drama, having all but disappeared during the Dark Ages, reemerged spontaneously in the liturgy and life of the medieval church. Vernacular miracle plays of England's Middle Ages were performed by lay people -- many by trade guilds -- unschooled in church Latin, but familiar with the biblical events upon which the dramas were based. Morality plays provided moral instruction, their principal characters vivid personifications of virtue and vice. The most durable of the morality plays has proven to be Everyman, whose central character, summoned by Death, must face final judgment on the str... View More...
Anne Elliot fell deeply in love with a handsome young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, at the age of nineteen. But because he had neither fortune nor rank to recommend him, Anne's mentor and friend, Lady Russell, persuaded her to break off the engagement. Eight years later, Anne has lived to regret her decision. She never stopped loving Frederick - and when he returns from sea a Captain, she can only watch as every eligible young woman falls at his feet. Can the pair rekindle a love that was lost but not forgotten? This new adaptation was commissioned and first produced by Salisbury Playhou... View More...
"Marked by the aching articulation, scathing wit and deep convictions of a mature artist with a complete vision."--Frank Rich, The New York Times "If Arthur Miller had married Noel Coward, their son would have been Robbie Baitz." --Andr Bishop, from the Preface Jon Robin Baitz startled the theatrical world with the 1985 debut of The Film Society. A frank examination of the controlling forces behind a nearly bankrupt private school for boys in South Africa, The Film Society introduced a young playwright with an extraordinarily mature grasp of people, language and society. Baitz's recent works ... View More...
From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, "Time catches up with genius ... Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century." The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone--or something--named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The... View More...
From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, "Time catches up with genius ... Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century." The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone--or something--named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The... View More...
Here are six plays that stand as landmarks of the modern drama: Chekhov's THREE SISTERS repeats, in terms of a handful of people, the spasms of a dying society. Isben's THE MASTER BUILDER is the tragedy of the modern romantic, caught between desire and reality. Shaw's MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION shocked England and America; this play was the first honest attempt in our era to deal with prostitution. O'Casey's RED ROSES FOR ME is about a Protestant worker of Dublin who is a symbol of the ravaging conflicts in Ireland--and in man. Williams's THE GLASS MENAGERIE is a tender, despairing portrait of ... View More...
'You'd like that, would you, your most private, pinkest, tenderest - small bird, small bird, small fragile - stolen from you, slammed down onto the slab, the block, poked at and paraded.' The children swing their legs on the chairs. The student delivers the presentation. The older woman stands with the gun. The young couple arrives at the house. The house is returning to nature. A movie is being made. The truth is being plundered. But the house is still lived in and the spirit to resist is strong. Janet Adler and Margaret Gibb were conceptual artists working in New York at the end of the last ... View More...
'You'd like that, would you, your most private, pinkest, tenderest - small bird, small bird, small fragile - stolen from you, slammed down onto the slab, the block, poked at and paraded.' The children swing their legs on the chairs. The student delivers the presentation. The older woman stands with the gun. The young couple arrives at the house. The house is returning to nature. A movie is being made. The truth is being plundered. But the house is still lived in and the spirit to resist is strong. Janet Adler and Margaret Gibb were conceptual artists working in New York at the end of the last ... View More...
