The Oxford Guide to Plays

Now in paperback,The Oxford Guide to Playsoffers a marvelous beideker to 1000 of the most important plays in world theater. Covering everything fromThe SeagullandThe TempesttoDancing at Lughnasa, Angels in America, andThe Heidi Chronicles, this volume is the perfect resource for everyone who loves or works in the theater. Here is indeed a wealth of essential information. Written by theater authority Michael Patterson, each entry includes the title, author, date of composition, date of first performance, genre, setting, the composition of the cast, and more. In addition, the author provides an engaging synopsis of the plot and a brief commentary, perhaps on the context of the play, or the reasons for its enduring popularity. Around 80 of the most significant plays--fromThe OresteiatoWaiting for Godot--receive more detailed coverage. The book covers every possible genre of theater, from burlesque and farce to kabuki, masque, mystery play, No, romantic comedy, satire, and tragedy. An index of characters helps the reader locate favorite roles, and trace the trajectory of major historical and legendary figures--such as Iphigenia--through world drama, even in plays that do not have entries in the dictionary. An index of playwrights, with dates, allows the reader to find all the plays included by a particular author. Anyone with a professional, amateur, academic, or recreational interest in the theater will want this book. Whether you want to find out the author of a play, or to see when it was first performed, or to decide if a play would be suitable for your theater company or drama group, this book will provide the answers to all your theater questions.

Michael Patterson is Professor of Theater at De Montfort University, Leicester. He has published six books on German theater and one on political theater.