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Noël Coward: The Playwright’s Craft in a Changing Theatre

Autor Professor Russell Jackson
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 29 noi 2023
This is the first book-length work to draw extensively on unpublished archive material to document the composition and reception of some of Noël Coward's most significant plays. It examines his working practices as a playwright, from manuscript to performance. This study argues that, while he did not embrace any of the more radical theatrical 'isms' of his time, Coward experimented with both form and content. He adapted the familiar 'well-made' formulas, while also emphasizing theatrical self-consciousness and an exploration of radical social and sexual relationships. After an overview of Coward's career and the reception of his plays, the work discusses selected texts from successive phases of Coward's career, including some unproduced or uncompleted work and perennially popular plays such as The Vortex, Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Blithe Spirit and Present Laughter. This study also explores how, in the aftermaths of two world wars, as major changes in social and political circumstances suggested new approaches to dramaturgy, Coward's post-1945 work failed to achieve the same success he had enjoyed in earlier periods. The final chapter examines Coward's approach to his craft in response to the new theatrical and cultural environment, and the new freedom in the treatment of homosexuality represented by Suite in Three Keys and his final, uncompleted play, Age Cannot Wither.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781350246102
ISBN-10: 1350246107
Pagini: 228
Dimensiuni: 138 x 216 mm
Greutate: 0.27 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury Publishing
Colecția Methuen Drama
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom

Caracteristici

Informed by access to previously unpublished archive material held by the Noel Coward Foundation in London and in the Cadbury Research Collection at the University of Birmingham Library

Notă biografică

Russell Jackson is Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Cuprins

AcknowledgementsPrefaceNote on ReferencesIntroduction1. The 1920s: From the 'Breezy Wisdom of Youth' to the International Set2. The 1930s: Old and New Designs for Living3. The 1940s: Wartime Entertainment, Post-war Discontent4. The 1950s: Keeping a Public, Losing the Critics5. The 1960s: A 'Rendezvous with the Past' and New DirectionsConclusionBibliographyIndex

Recenzii

A revealing and lovingly researched account of Noël Coward, the brilliant craftsman, as he devotedly drafts and redrafts his plays in an effort to satisfy his own innovative conception of theatrical form.
Noël Coward himself would have scoffed at the idea of close critical exegesis of his plays. But the great, and often moving, thing about Russell Jackson's book is its revelation that Coward wrote and re-wrote constantly, listened to criticism and advice from his inner circle - and from his producers Jack Wilson and, especially, Binkie Beaumont - and acted on it. He was a star writer and performer, but also a star collaborator, an essential virtue in theatre. Using previously unpublished archival material, and discussing such recently published plays as Semi-Monde and Volcano, Jackson provides fresh, crisp analysis of the writer's craft and of the plays themselves, locating them deftly in their cultural habitat and period, and sensitively charting Coward's perhaps unjust decline from popular and critical favour. And we learn so much - not least, that Madame Arcati's real name (deleted) was Gladys Stephens!
An invaluable addition to Coward scholarship. It combines incisive literary criticism with meticulous detective work, giving endless insights into a remarkable body of work. A joy for actors, directors and anyone who loves these plays.
A highly impressive contribution to scholarship on modern drama. It presents a wealth of new research and a very thorough, lucid and enjoyable account of Coward's work as playwright across all the decades of his career.