| The Methuen Drama Book of Plays from the Sixties: Roots; Serjeant Musgrave's Dance; Loot; Early Morning; The Ruling Class Contributor(s): Wesker, Arnold (Author), Bond, Edward (Author), Orton, Joe (Author) |
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ISBN: 1408105888 ISBN-13: 9781408105887 Publisher: Methuen Drama OUR PRICE: $24.65 Product Type: Paperback Published: April 2009 Annotation: Here are five outstanding plays from the British theater of the 1960s. Bold, challenging, and iconoclastic, these plays are landmarks of postwar British theater. The volume includes: "Roots "by Arnold Wesker, "Serjeant Musgrave's Dance "by John Arden, "Loot "by Joe Orton, "Early Morning "by Edward Bond, and "The Ruling Class "by Peter Barnes. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Drama | Anthologies (multiple Authors) - Drama | European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Series: Methuen Drama Modern Plays |
| Physical Information: 1.4" H x 5" W x 7.5" (0.95 lbs) 544 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Five outstanding plays from the British theatre of the 1960s. This volume contains major works by five of the most important playwrights ot emerge during the late fifties and early sixties. Bold, challenging and iconoclastic, these plays are landmarks of post-war British theatre. Roots by Arnold Wesker focuses on the homecoming of young Beatie Bryant who returns to her family of Norfolk farm workers with stories of her boyfriend Ronnie. Serjeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden is set in a mining town in the 19th century, with a group of soldiers returned from a colonial war. But when Musgrave is asked to keep the peace with the colliery workers, he decides to do so in a rather unusual way. Loot by Joe Orton is a brilliant parody of the skeleton-in-the-cupboard crime genre, exploding the very notions of English decency, good citizenry and traditional 'positions'. Edward Bond's Early Morning re-imagines the time of Victoria and Albert caught up in a military coup plotted by Disraeli. Peter Barnes' Ruling Class describes the fall out in an aristocratic family after the 14th Earl commits suicide and leaves his estate to a schizophrenic Franciscan friar who is under the illusion that he is Jesus. |
Contributor Bio(s): Orton, Joe: - Joe Orton (1933-1967) was an English playwright noted for his black comedies, which combine genteel dialogue with violent and shocking action. Orton left home at 16 to train as an actor. His subversive style of humour first revealed itself in a bizarre incident in 1962, when he and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell were jailed for defacing library books. The two had carefully removed jacket blurbs from middle-brow novels and substituted their own, mostly scatological, counterfeits. Orton delighted in shocking audiences by breaking taboos surrounding sexuality and death in conventionally structured 'black' farces involving epigrammatic dialogue and frenetic, convoluted plots. Thus, in Entertaining Mr Sloane (1964), a young lodger attempts to lure a woman and her brother into providing him with all he needs, only to find he has become each one's sexual plaything; Loot (1965) is a parody of a detective story involving much comic business with a coffin and a corpse; and What the Butler Saw (1969) stylishly turns farce on its head. Orton was a homosexual in a period before the liberalization of British law, and this side of his life is described in detail in his posthumously published diaries. He was battered to death by Halliwell (who subsequently committed suicide) during a domestic argument at their home in Islington, North London.Bond, Edward: - Edward Bond is widely regarded as the UK's greatest and most influential playwright. His plays include The Pope's Wedding (Royal Court Theatre, 1962), Saved (Royal Court, 1965), Early Morning (Royal Court, 1968), Lear (Royal Court, 1971), The Sea (Royal Court, 1973), The Fool (Royal Court, 1975), The Woman (National Theatre, 1978), Restoration (Royal Court, 1981) and The War Plays (RSC at the Barbican Pit, 1985).Wesker, Arnold: - Arnold Wesker, (b. 1932), is one of Britain's seminal post-war playwrights. His varied writings include essays, short stories, poetry, journalism and 49 plays, which have been translated into 18 languages. His plays include The Kitchen (1957), Roots (1958), Chips with Everything (1962), Shylock (1976), and Honey (2005). He holds honorary doctorates from the University of East Anglia, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, and Denison University in Ohio and was knighted in the 2006 New Year's Honours list. |