Municipal General Establishment “Lyceum “Vector”
Britain As I See It
The Theatre
Executed by
Anna Turkovskaya
11 A
Supervised by
N.M. Zhuravleva
Khabarovsk
2008
Plan:
• The Famous English Theatres
- The Theatre Royal/Drury Lane
- The Royal Opera House/Covent Garden
- The National Theatre (NT)
• The Greatest Of the English Dramatists
- William Shakespeare
- George Bernard Shaw
- Oscar Wild
The Famous English Theatres
► The Theatre
Royal/Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is theatre in Covent
Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of
London. The building faces Catherine Street and
backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is
the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same
location dating back to of 1663, making it the oldest
London theatre. For its first two centuries, Drury Lane
could "reasonably have claimed to be London's
leading theatre" and thus one of the most important
theatres in the English-speaking world. Through most
of that time, it was one of a small handful of patent
theatres that were granted monopoly rights to the
production of "legitimate" (meaning spoken plays,
rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with
music) drama in London.
• The Royal Opera House/Covent Garden
This theatre is situated near the former
site of the Covent Garden Market in
central London. It is the leading theatre
of opera and ballet in London. The
present building was opened in 1858 and
is now the home of the Royal Opera
(founded in 1946) and Royal Ballet
(founded in 1931) companies. The theatre
presents spectacular productions with
international stars. The repertoire is
classical. And this theatre is expensive.
The top price for opera is £100 and for
ballet £37.
The National Theatre (NT)
It took over the hundred years to establish a
national theatre company. It's first director
from 1962 was Lawrence Olivier. This is the
first state theatre Britain has ever had. A
special building for it was opened in 1976. It
has three theatres in one: "The Oliver
theatre", the biggest is for the main classical
repertoire; "The Lyttilton", a bit smaller is
for new writing and for visiting foreign
countries and "The Cottesloe theatre", the
smallest is used for experimental writing and
productions.
The Greatest Of the English
Dramatists
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April
1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English
language. He is often called England's national
poet. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154
sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several
other poems. His plays have been translated into
every major living language, and are performed
more often than those of any other playwright. And
his the most famous works are: “As You Like It”,
“Hamlet”, “Othello”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “A
Midsummer Night's Dream”, “King Lear”,
“Macbeth”.
His Quotations:
"All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts...“
As You Like It
“To be or not to be: that is the question”
“Hamlet”
“There is nothing either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so”
“Hamlet”
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2
November 1950) was a world-famous Irish
playwright. Shaw's first profitable writing was
music and literary criticism, but he had a bent for
drama: during his career he wrote more than 60
plays. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many
brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society.
He is the only person to have been awarded both
the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar
(1938). These, respectively, were for his
contributions to literature, and for his work on the
film Pygmalion.
His famous works: “Widowers' Houses ”, “Arms
and the Man”, “Major Barbara”, “Pygmalion”,
“You never can tell” etc.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (October
16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish
playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short
stories. Known for his barbed wit, he was one
of the most successful playwrights of late
Victorian London, and one of the greatest
celebrities of his day. As the result of a famous
trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was
imprisoned for two years of hard labour after
being convicted of the offence of "gross
indecency." His famous works: “The Ideal
Husband”, “Lady Windermere's Fan”, “A
Woman of No Importance”, “The Importance
of Being Earnest” etc.
QUESTIONS:
• Can you name three famous theatres
I've told you about in this presentation?
And what do you know about them?
• Which plays by Shakespeare do you
know?
• How many plays George Bernard Shaw
had written?
• For How many tears Oscar Wilde had
been imprisoned?
The Sources of information:
• The Internet:
http://wikipedia.ru
• “The World Of Britain”, Moscow, Versiya.
Bogoroditskaya, Khrustalyova