Modern British Playwriting: The 1950's Voices, Documents, New Interpretations

Essential for students of theatre studies, Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwritingseries provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to 2009 in six volumes. Each volume features a critical analysis and reevaluation of the work of four key playwrights from that decade authored by a team of experts, together with an extensive commentary on the period . Modern British Playwriting: The 1950sprovides an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of the theatre of the decade together with a detailed study of the work of T.S Eliot (by Sarah Bay-Chen) , Terence Rattigan (David Pattie), John Osborne (Luc Gilleman) and Arnold Wesker (John Bull). The volume sets the context by providing a chronological survey of the 1950s, a period when Britain was changing rapidly and the very fabric of an apparently stable society seemed to be under threat. It explores the crisis in the theatrical climate and activity in the first part of the decade and the shift as the theatre began to document the unease in society, before documenting the early life of the four principal playwrights studied in the volume. Four scholars provide detailed examinations of the playwrights' work during the decade, combining an analysis of their plays with a study of other material such as early play drafts, interviews and the critical receptions of the time. An Afterword reviews what the writers went on to do and provides a summary evaluation of their contribution to British theatre from the perspective of the twenty-first century.

David Pattie is Professor of Drama at the University of Chester, UK. Series editors: Richard Boon, Emeritus Professor of Drama, the University of Hull, UK, and Philip Roberts, Emeritus Professor in the School of English, University of Leeds, UK.

Foreword by the General Editors Richard Boon (Emeritus, University of Hull) and Philip Roberts (Emeritus, University of Leeds)Introduction: Living in the 1950sTheatre in the 1950sIntroducing the Playwrights: T. S. Eliot; Terence Rattigan; John Osborne; Arnold WeskerT. S. Eliot (Sarah Bay-Chen, University at Buffalo - State University of New York, USA)Terence Rattigan (David Pattie, University of Chester, UK)John Osborne (Luc Gilleman, Smith College, Northampton, USA)Arnold Wesker (John Bull, University of Reading, UK)DocumentsAfterwordSelect BibliographyReferencesNotesIndex