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Modern British Playwriting: The 1990's: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations
Contributor(s): Sierz, Aleks (Author), Saunders, Graham (Contribution by), Rees, Catherine (Contribution by)
ISBN: 1408181339     ISBN-13: 9781408181331
Publisher: Methuen Drama
OUR PRICE:   $133.65  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: January 2014
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Drama | European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
- Literary Criticism | Drama
Dewey: 822.914
LCCN: 2012451212
Series: Decades of Modern British Playwriting
Physical Information: 1" H x 5.4" W x 8.6" (1.00 lbs) 288 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

British theatre of the 1990s witnessed an explosion of new talent and presented a new sensibility that sent shockwaves through audiences and critics. What produced this change, the context from which the work emerged, the main playwrights and plays, and the influence they had on later work are freshly evaluated in this important new study in Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwriting series.

The 1990s volume provides a detailed study by four scholars of the work of four of the major playwrights who emerged and had a significant impact on British theatre: Sarah Kane (by Catherine Rees), Anthony Neilson (Patricia Reid), Mark Ravenhill (Graham Saunders) and Philip Ridley (Aleks Sierz).

Essential for students of Theatre Studies, the series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and study of the theatre produced from the 1950s to 2009. Each volume features a critical analysis of the work of four key playwrights besides other theatre work, together with an extensive commentary on the period. Readers will understand the works in their contexts and be presented with fresh research material and a reassessment from the perspective of the twenty-first century. This is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1990s.

Contributor Bio(s): Sierz, Aleks: - Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a lecturer in modern British theatre whose seminal study, In-Yer-Face Theatre, defined a new generation of writers and their work. In 2006 Methuen Drama published his guide, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, which was followed up by 2012's Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s. Sierz's journalism has featured in the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent. He is a widely read, highly regarded critic of modern British theatre.

Aleks Sierz FRSA is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, UK, and author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011) and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama 2012). He also
works as a journalist, broadcaster, lecturer and theatre critic.Rees, Catherine: - Dr Catherine Rees is lecturer in Drama at Lougborough University with a specialism in contemporary Irish theatre and 20th-Century British drama, specifically focusing on questions of nationalism, gender, postcolonialism and postmodernity.Saunders, Graham: - Graham Saunders is Reader in Theatre Studies at the University of Reading. He has written extensively on contemporary British theatre, including three volumes on the work of Sarah Kane, is the author of Patrick Marber's Closer (Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2008) and co-editor of Cool Britannia: Political Theatre in the 1990s (Palgrave, 2008).Roberts, Philip: - Philip Roberts is Emeritus Professor in the School of English of the University of Leeds, UK, where until 2004 he was Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies and Director of the Workshop Theatre.Ridley, Philip: - "Philip Ridley was born in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin's School of Art and his work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and Japan. As well as three books for adults (Crocodilia, In The Eyes of Mr Fury and Flamingos in Orbit) - and the highly acclaimed screenplay for the The Krays feature film (winner of the Evening Standard Best Film of the Year Award) - he has written eleven adult stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney, the multi award-winning The Fastest Clock in the Universe, Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River, Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights, Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award), Shivered (nominated Off-West End Best New Play Award), Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award) and Radiant Vermin, plus several plays for young people: Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children's Books), Sparkleshark and Brokenville (collectively known as The Storyteller Sequence), and a play for the whole family, Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award). He has also written books for children, including Scribbleboy (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), ZinderZunder, Vinegar Street, Zip's Apollo and the bestseller Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith's Mind-Boggling Books Award), the stage play of which - adapted by Ridley himself - was premiered at the Birmingham Rep Theatre in 2002. He has also directed three feature films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin - winner of eleven international awards (including the prestigious George Sadoul Prize) - The Passion of Darkly Noon (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival) and Heartless (winner of The Silver Meliers Award for Best Fantasy Film). For the latter two films, Philip Ridley co-wrote a number of original songs, one of which, Who Will Love Me Know? (performed by P.J. Harvey), was voted BBC Radio 1's Top Film Song of 1998 and has since been covered by the techno-house band Sunscreem (as Please Save Me), becoming both a club and viral hit. In 2010 Ridley, along with song-writing collaborator Nick Bic?t, formed the music group Dreamskin Cradle and their first album, Songs from Grimm, is available on iTunes, Amazon and all major download sites. Philip Ridley is also a performance artist in his own right, and his highly charged readings of his ongoing poetry sequence Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures (first embarked on when he was a student) have proved increasingly popular in recent years. In 2012 What's On Stage named him a Jubilee Playwright (one of the most influential British writers to have emerged in the past six decades). Philip Ridley has won both the Evening Standard's Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. The only person ever to receive both prizes."Ravenhill, Mark: - Mark Ravenhill is one of the most distinctive contemporary UK playwrights. He burst on to the theatre scene in 1996 with the huge hit Shopping and Fucking. He has continued to garner critical acclaim for plays that include Some Explicit Polaroids, Mother Clap's Molly House, and more recently Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre, Royal Court, Paines Plough, The Gate Theatre, April 2008).