Featured White Papers
- PCI DSS therapy for the smaller retailer (McAfee)
- Oct. 14th: Simplified IT with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) (ZDNet)
- The rise of Web commuting (Citrix Online)
Content provided in partnership with
Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century. - Review - book review
Contemporary Review, March, 2001
Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century. Richard Eyre and Nicholas Wright. Bloomsbury. [pound]30.00. 400 pages. ISBN 0-7475-4789-0. The two great strengths of the British theatre have been its insularity and the English language. In the twentieth century much of the insularity disappeared and the British stage borrowed from abroad, largely from its American cousins and by the end of the century emerged even stronger than it had been at the beginning.
This book is an examination of the twentieth century changes: the 'people, the plays, the ideas that had come together over the last hundred years or so to bring about the flowering that we see today'. In particular the authors are concerned with writers, actors and directors. Rather surprisingly, perhaps, the first chapter is devoted to Shakespeare but 'British theatre is set on a seam of Shakespeare, like a land that sits over a massive mineral deposit. Along with our landscape and our climate, Shakespeare is our greatest national as set'. There are also intriguing chapters on the role of Irish writers, on America's influence and on Oscar Wilde. The authors wear their learning with great ease. They have written with enthusiasm and commitment and have given readers a thoroughly enjoyable, as well as highly informative, survey.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
