Modern British Playwriting: The 1990's Voices, Documents, New Interpretations

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.

Dr Aleks Sierz is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College and author of The Theatre of Martin Crimp and Rewriting the Nation. Series editors: Richard Boon, Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Drama and Music, University of Hull, and Philip Roberts, Emeritus Professor in the School of English, University of Leeds.

General Preface (Richard Boon and Philip Roberts)

Introduction: Living in the Nineties (a chronological survey of the decade; the social, cultural and technological changes)

Chapter 1. Theatre in the 1990s

Chapter 2. Playwrights and Plays: Philip Ridley (by Aleks Sierz); Sarah Kane (Catherine Rees); Anthony Neilson (Trish Reid); Mark Ravenhill (Graham Saunders).

Chapter 3. Documents and Interviews

Chapter 4. Afterword

Select Bibliography