Kirjahaku

British theatre of the past fifty years has been brilliant, varied, and controversial, encompassing invigorating indigenous drama, politically didactic writing, the formation of such institutions as the National Theatre, the exporting of musicals worldwide from the West End, and much more. This entertaining and authoritative book is the first comprehensive account of British theatre in this period.Dominic Shellard moves chronologically through the half-century, discussing important plays, performers, directors, playwrights, critics, censors, and agents as well as the social, political, and financial developments that influenced the theatre world. Drawing on previously unseen material (such as the Kenneth Tynan archives), first-hand testimony, and detailed research, Shellard tackles several long-held assumptions about drama of the period. He questions the dominance of Look Back in Anger in the 1950s, arguing that much of the theatre of the ten years prior to its première in 1956 was vibrant and worthwhile. He suggests that theatre criticism, theatre producers, and such institutions as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company have played key roles in the evolution of recent drama. And he takes a fresh look at the work of Terence Rattigan, Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Alan Ayckbourn, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and other significant playwrights of the modern era.The book will be a valuable resource not only for students of theatre history but also for any theatre enthusiast.

The first in-depth biography of theater genius Kenneth Tynan, looking behind the celebrity myth to show how Tynan’s eloquence and fervor helped change the course of theater in Britain and America Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980) lived one of the most intriguing theater lives of his century. A brilliant writer, critic, and agent provocateur, he made friends or enemies of nearly every major actor, playwright, impresario, and movie mogul of the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. He wrote for the Evening Standard, the Observer, and the New Yorker; served eleven years as dramaturg for Britain’s newly formed National Theatre, and spent his final years in Los Angeles. This biography offers the first complete appraisal of Tynan’s powerful contribution to post-war British theater, set against the context of the fifties, sixties, and seventies and his own turbulent life. Dominic Shellard highlights Tynan’s writings of 1952–1963, when the coruscating young critic came to prominence. He discusses how Tynan took his place at the vanguard of the new realist movement, helped to establish subsidized theater, fought censorship, and assisted in the creation of such groundbreaking theatrical phenomena as Oh Calcutta! in1970. The book reveals both the public and private Tynan, an outspoken, explicit, and sometimes savage critic who became one of the most influential theater figures of the twentieth century.

A book on Harold Hobson's theatre criticism