Verse Drama in England, 1900-2015 Art, Modernity and the National Stage

Modern Verse Drama explores the emergence of the form at the turn of the century and its development into the twenty-first, offering key case studies of well-known verse dramatists alongside explorations of less-discussed but equally influential writers within the form.

Dramatists discussed include T. S. Eliot, Gordon Bottomley, Charles Williams, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Ronald Duncan, Christopher Fry, John Arden, Anne Ridler, Tony Harrison, Ted Hughes, and Caryl Churchill. The book explores the negotiation of these dramatists with the changing position of verse drama in relation to constructions of national and communal audience, aesthetic challenge, and dramatic heritage. Key to the study is the self-conscious positioning of many of these dramatists in relation to an assumed mainstream tradition – and the various critical responses that that positioning has provoked.

Introduction: A National Theatre Tradition and the Alternative Aesthetic of the New
1. Origins and Heritage
2. Community
3. Form and Politics
4. Aesthetic Definitions and the Avant-Garde
5. A National Tradition
6. Contemporary Trends: Fringe and Fury
7. Contemporary Trends: Alternative Heritage
Conclusion
Endnotes
Index

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