Theatre Studies: Traditional and Modern
Handbook 2007/8
The course is in two parts. The first part will examine ‘classic’ plays, representative of
different periods and genres. These texts will be approached within their theatrical
and social contexts and with reference to literary and theatre theory.
Texts for 2007/8 are: King Lear (Shakespeare), The Duchess of Malfi (John Webster),
The Rover (Aphra Behn), Lear (Nathum Tate), The Recruiting Officer (George
Farquhar), Black-Eyed Susan (Douglas William Jerrold) and The Importance of
Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde). Tate’s Lear and Black-Eyed Susan are included in the
printed version of this course handbook
The second part of the course, divided into five blocks, looks at significant
developments in the theatre from the beginning of the Twentieth Century to the
present day: the Theatre of the Absurd; the Theatre of Cruelty; Feminist Theatre;
Post-colonial Theatre; and American Theatre. We will consider plays by Beckett,
Ionesco, Kane, Churchill, Wertenbaker, Soyinka, Khan-Din, Miller, Williams and
Hansberry.
Please note that although this is not a practical course, you will be encouraged to read
the texts with performance in mind. Videos will be used where available and theatre
visits will be organised.
Texts for term one to be read in the order given:
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear (1603-6), ed. J. L. Halio, The New
Cambridge Shakespeare, 2005
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (1614), New Mermaids, A & C Black, 2003
Aphra Behn, The Rover (1677), Methuen Student Editions, 1993
George Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer (1706), New Mermaids, A & C Black
Publishers Ltd, 1991
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Norton, 2006
You should aim to have read the first three of these before we return. In
addition, try to see some plays in performance, especially if you can see any by
the dramatists listed above. You will have the option of reviewing a play as part
of the assessment.
Pippa Guard and Harry Derbyshire
020 8331 8984/020 8331 9953
p.guard@greenwich.ac.uk/h.g.derbyshire@greenwich.ac.uk
Theatre Studies: Traditional and Modern
Term 1: Traditional
Classes will take place each Monday afternoon between 2.00 and 4.00 in L001.
Week 1 (October 1st)
Lecture: Social and familial breakdown in King Lear
Seminar discussion
Week 2 (October 8th)
Lecture: Staging disorder in King Lear
Seminar discussion
Week 3 (October 15th)
Lecture: Reformation and unruly women in The
Duchess of Malfi
Seminar discussion
Week 4 (October 22nd)
Lecture: Staging reform in The Duchess of Malfi
Seminar discussion
Week 5 (October 29th)
Lecture: Libertinism and feminism in The Rover
Seminar discussion
Week 6 (November 5th)
Tutorial week
There will be no lecture or seminar this week, but there
will be a theatre trip to Much Ado About Nothing
presented by Red Shift Theatre at the Greenwich
Theatre, Crooms Hill on Wednesday November 7th at
1.30 p.m.
Week 7 (November 12th)
Lecture: Staging subversion in The Rover
Seminar discussion
Week 8 (November 19th)
Lecture: Suppressing subversion: Tate’s Lear
Seminar discussion
Week 9 (November 26th)
Lecture: The Recruiting Officer
Seminar discussion
Week 10 (December 3rd)
Lecture: Black Ey’d Susan
Seminar discussion
Week 11 (December 10th)
Lecture: The Importance of Being Earnest
Seminar discussion
Assessment
Term One (Traditional)
1.
Presentation, review or textual analysis – 12.5%
Presentation
12-15 minutes
DEADLINE: The day of the seminar
in which your chosen topic is discussed
OR
Review of a play seen in
relation to the course
1500 words
DEADLINE: November 14th
OR
Textual Analysis of 2-3
pages of text
1500 words
2.
DEADLINE: November 14th
Essay – 25%
Essay 2000-2500 words
DEADLINE: December 5th
Term Two (Modern)
1.
Presentation or review – 12.5%
Presentation
12-15 minutes
DEADLINE: The day of the seminar
in which your chosen topic is discussed
OR
Review of a play seen in
relation to the course
1500 words
2.
DEADLINE: February 11th
Essay – 25%
Essay 2000-2500 words
DEADLINE: March 3rd
Term Three
Exam
Two hours
25%
The exam will consist of TWO parts. You will answer:
(a) ONE question relating to The Recruiting Officer, Black Ey’d Susan or The
Importance of Being Earnest from Term One.
(b) ONE question which will involve textual analysis. There will be extracts from
the five plays to be studied in the last three weeks of term two and the first two weeks
of term three: Death and the King’s Horseman, East is East, Death of a Salesman,
A Streetcar Named Desire, A Raisin in the Sun.
The rubric for the second question will read:
Discuss ONE of the following extracts with reference to themes,
characterisation, action, setting, language and any appropriate visual/sound
effects. Your answer should consider how the scene contributes to the play’s
overall meaning and theatrical impact.
You are advised to place the extract briefly in context before focussing on the
dramatic detail, making use of quotations from the extract to support your points.
Aim to be analytical rather than descriptive.
Please note that you may not use a given play in more than one form of
assessment.
Assessment details for term one
1.
Presentation, review or analysis
(a) Seminar presentation (12-15 minutes)
Seminar presentations may take a variety of forms but should not exceed 12-15
minutes each. The purpose is to demonstrate your critical understanding and to
stimulate group discussion.
The presentations will be organised at the beginning of the course. You will be given
a text on which to present on a specific day. The topic of your presentation will be
selected by you from the essay question topics, which you will present to the group in
a lively way using the OHP.
In each case you will direct our attention to the topics you are addressing and outline
your key points using the OHP. Use the OHP for quotations and illustrations.
Consider providing us with a handout. You may also include any of the following:
 Practical performance to illustrate interpretation of aspects of the play topic(s)
 Three-dimensional set design or plans justified with reference to interpretation
 Costume design ideas/illustrations justified in relation to the play topic(s)
Please note that although you will be assessed orally, you should submit an outline
of the structure of your presentation, listing your key points and including a
Bibliography, with any handouts and OHP material to Registry, using the
presentation Header sheet. This should be done on the day of the presentation or no
later than two days afterwards.
A suggested structure for a successful presentation:
a) Tell us the areas or topic(s) you have selected for your presentation from the essay
list and indicate your approach (e.g. will you be using theory? performance
illustration? visual aids? handouts? criticism that you wish to challenge?). Use the
OHP to make clear the points you will want to make or investigate, and explain what
you will do and why.
b) Tell us the books/articles you have read and in what ways these have been helpful.
c) Using a series of cards on which you have recorded the main points, the OHP for
quotations and ideas, and any other visual aids that will help you make the
presentation lively and informative, present your ideas to us.
d) End by indicating areas for further exploration and help lead the group discussion.
Do not sit back and say nothing - your presentation continues into the discussion and
it forms part of the assessment.
NB:



If you prepare a handout please make sure that you use it and give us
enough time to read it. Explain what you expect us to get out of it.
Practice your presentation beforehand to make sure you don’t have too
little or too much material.
Try very hard not to read a prepared script - talk to us!
(b) Review of a play seen for the course (1500 words)
The play that we are recommending your review for the course this year is Much Ado
About Nothing, presented by Red Shift Theatre at the Greenwich Playhouse. We will
be organising a group booking for the matinee show at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday
November 6th, but you can if you choose attend any performance between the 6th and
the 10th. The deadline for submission of the review is November 14th.
A review needs to demonstrate that you can respond to the visual and verbal elements
of performance, e.g. the setting, costume, lighting, interpretation of character, use of
space, musical and sound effects, and also think about what the play means or might
be saying. A review is both a description and an evaluation of the play, the production
and the performance. Reviews are written in the present tense.
A suggested structure for a successful review:
1.
Where, i.e. in what kind of theatre, is the performance? Do you consider the
theatre appropriate for the play? Why? Reflect on your experience as a member of the
audience: what was it like to stand at the Globe? Was a West End theatre suitable for
an ancient Greek play? Did Shakespeare ‘work’ in a modern theatre?
2.
You will be watching a classic play as interpreted by a contemporary production
group. Think carefully about this and about the choices that have been made in
relation to the visual and other aspects of staging, acting and directing:
(a) Consider the nature and effect of the set(s) and its relationship to the action.
You might draw it/them. How was a particular period or location or atmosphere
suggested? How did the production move from one set or location to the next?
How did you know the action was taking place in a different location?
(b) Were you aware of any significant props or lighting effects which suggested
a non-twentieth century world or was the modern world insisted upon?
(c)What did the costumes reveal about characters, period, class etc?
(d) How were the characters being interpreted? How was the language handled?
Were you conscious of poetry? Regional dialects? Tone and vocabulary which
betrayed class? Were any characters pivotal? Who dominated at any given
moment and why?
3.
Think about the themes of the play and the kind of ideas you have encountered
in relation to the plays studied on the course. Did the play enact a process of
disruption, disorder and/or reformation? How were the women represented at different
stages in the play? Did you think the play subversive in any respects? How did it end?
Make sure that you spend time analysing, and not just describing, what you saw.
It is a good idea to read the play first, but bear in mind that you are responding
to a live and specific interpretation of it.
If you read any professional reviews from the Internet or newspapers, be sure to
acknowledge that you have done so. Bear in mind that theatre critics are not
writing academically: you don’t need to replicate their style.
(c) Textual Analysis (1500 words)
Select two or three continuous pages of King Lear, The Duchess of Malfi or The
Rover that you believe represent a significant moment in the play and in which you
feel the theme of disorder, disruption and/or reformation is evident. Offer a detailed
analysis, with reference to the action (what are the characters doing?), character
conflict and relationships, setting, language (tone of voice used, poetry or prose? the
effect of particular words), and any appropriate visual/sound effects, describing how
each contributes to the scene’s significance and the play’s themes.
A suggested structure for a successful analysis:

Start by justifying your choice of extract (and attach the pages being analysed
with your response).

Place it briefly in context: where in the play does it appear? Does it need to be
understood in relation to any particular scene that the audience has already
seen? Does it sow the seeds for any particular scene that is yet to come?

Proceed to analyse the dramatic detail and how it contributes to the play’s
themes and dramatic effect. Think about conflict between characters, the
language used (tone, feeling, imagery, choice of significant word), the action
and anything else you consider relevant in your chosen passage.

To show that you are focusing on the specific moment of the play that you
have selected, you are advised to make use of quotation from the extract.

At all times aim to be critical and analytical rather than descriptive.
2.
Essay
Select ONE of the following questions and write a 2,000-2,500 word essay with
reference to one or more of the plays studied for the course from weeks 1-7: King
Lear; The Duchess of Malfi, The Rover.
Remember that you do not have to agree with any quotations given. The aim of your
essay is to substantiate whatever point of view or argument you propose. Try to show
that you are capable of fresh, original thinking based on a close critical reading of the
text. If you use secondary sources (critical or reference works, articles or points of
view from the Internet) you must acknowledge your sources correctly, and you should
indicate what your own view is rather than just let the critic do the talking.
You must ensure that your work is set out properly and always includes a properly
presented Bibliography. Failing to do this will lose you marks. Guidelines and
examples of good practice are given in this handbook.
1. ‘Classic plays are subversive because they subverted audience expectations in their
day and continue to do so.’ Discuss this view with reference to at least ONE play.
2. Analyse the causes and effects of disorder, disruption or reformation in one play.
3. ‘It is the female characters in classic play texts who challenge the traditional order.’
Critically examine this view with close reference to at least one play.
4. ‘The root of social and political disorder is invariably the family.’ Discuss the
representation and function of the family in at least one play with this view in mind.
5. Critically examine power relations and their significance in any one play. Make
sure that you consider the source and nature of the power and think about how power
is communicated dramatically, both verbally and visually.
6. Discuss the representation of madness in ONE play.
7. Discuss the significance of theatricality and disguise in relation to the theme of
disruption and/or reformation in at least one play.
8. ‘Classic texts traditionally end in ways which restore the status quo.’ Is this true?
Examine the last scene or scenes or act of ONE play identifying and commenting on
the ending for each of the characters in the light of the quotation.
9. Discuss the significance and dramatisation of conflict between men or between men
and women in ONE play, making detailed reference to specific moments in the play.
Guidance on the presentation of written work
These pages are designed to help you to avoid some of the most common errors in the
layout of written work. Credit is given for written work that is clearly set out and
follows academic conventions, so it is in your interests to study these guidelines and
try to follow them as closely as you can. If you have time, it would be a good idea to
re-read them just before you print your essay off ready to hand in, in order to make
sure that you have set it out correctly. Some of what follows you should remember as
general rules from level one, and some particularly applies to writing about theatre.
First, it’s a good idea to write out the essay question in full at the start of your essay.
Not only will this make sure that the reader knows what the task is to which you are
responding, it will concentrate your mind on exactly what you are being asked to do.
Your first priority in any essay should be to make sure that you answer the question,
and this may not be as straightforward as you initially think it is.
The titles of plays should always be given in italics, e.g. The Importance of Being
Earnest. This also applies to the titles of novels, books of criticism and films. The
titles of articles and poems (except very long poems) are given in inverted commas,
e.g. ‘Theatre and Cruelty’.
Essays should be written in paragraphs. Paragraphs contain a number of related
sentences that combine to make a particular point, just as a number of paragraphs
combine to convey the overall argument of your essay. Every essay should have an
introductory and a concluding paragraph, and no paragraph should ever consist of just
one sentence. Paragraphs should always be separated from one another by a blank line,
and the first line of each paragraph should be indented using the tab key.
All essays should be double-spaced so that tutors have room to make detailed
comments on your work. In Microsoft Word a passage can be double-spaced by
selecting it, then clicking on ‘Format’ on your toolbar, then ‘Paragraph’ and then, on
the ‘Indents and spacing’ window, selecting ‘double’ or ‘1.5 lines’ as your ‘Line
spacing’.
Every essay must include a bibliography, in which all the books and/or articles that
you have consulted are listed alphabetically by author. Information on the translator
(where applicable), place of publication, name of publisher and year of publication
should be given as in the following example (n.b. you don’t have to put it in a box!):
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, Drama Classics, London: Nick Hern,
1995.
Sometimes you may want to list a collection of essays. In this case the work is listed
by its editor, as in:
Bentley, Eric (ed.), The Theory of the Modern Stage, 3rd edn, London: Penguin, 1992.
Alternatively, if you only refer to one essay in a collection, you can choose to list that
essay in your bibliography by its author, like this:
Artaud, Antoine, ‘The Theatre of Cruelty’, in Eric Bentley (ed.), The Theory of the
Modern Stage, 3rd edn, London: Penguin, 1992, pp. 55-75.
If you quote from the internet in your essay, your bibliography must include the
author and title of the work as well as the URL (the full web address) and the date on
which you accessed that site. Internet citations should look like this:
Fort, Alice B. and Herbert S. Kates (1935), ‘The Importance of Being Earnest: A
Synopsis of the Play by Oscar Wilde’, at
http://www.theatrehistory.com/irish/importance_of_being_earnest.html (accessed 14
June 2004).
Often authors and even titles are missing from internet articles, and this may well be a
sign that the piece is not an authoritative one and is therefore of little use to you. Our
advice is to use the internet selectively if you use it at all. The bulk of the material
available online is not of degree-level standard and much of it is unreliable (you could
easily find yourself quoting an American high school student who knows less than
you do!).
Full guidance on quoting from plays appears overleaf. You will note that, in all cases,
a page reference must be given. This allows the reader of your essay to look up the
passage that you have quoted for him or herself. Page references can seem confusing
but there is always a way to present the information clearly:




Quotes from your primary text need only be accompanied by the page number
in brackets, e.g. (p. 12) or (pp. 12-13) if your quote goes over more than one
page.
Quotes from other texts, for instance critical works, should be accompanied by
the author’s name and the page number, e.g. (Case, p. 113). You need only
give the author’s name because the reader can find the full reference in your
bibliography.
If there is more than one book by the author you are quoting in your
bibliography, you should give the date as well so that it’s clear which one you
are referring to, e.g. ‘Case, 1995, p. 44’.
A page reference for a quote from an essay in a collection would look like this:
‘(Artaud, in Bentley, p. 32)’.
Lastly, plagiarism is easy for tutors to detect. Penalties for plagiarism vary from a
requirement to re-write the essay for a maximum grade of 40 to failure of the course,
the year or even the degree. These penalties are enforced, so make sure that you
provide full references for any material that you use that is not your own.
Quoting dramatic dialogue in poetry and prose
The best and clearest way of quoting from plays such as King Lear and The Duchess
of Malfi (which make use of poetry) is to indent the whole quotation (this means that a
wider margin appears on the left hand side of the page). The following example
illustrates the main features – the rules or guidelines- which are then listed.
In his dying moments, Bosola’s sense of the random nature of existence is stronger
than ever:
Oh I am gone.
We are only like dead walls, or vaulted graves,
That ruined, yields no echo. (p. 133)
His experiences over the course of the play have only confirmed his gloomiest
thoughts.
Notice:
 You introduce the quotation with a colon (:)
 You leave a space before and after the quotation
 You indent the whole quotation and set it out as poetry exactly as it appears in
the text, with the correct punctuation used in your edition
 You give a page reference (Make sure that your Bibliography gives the edition
of the play you are using, otherwise the page reference won’t make sense)
If you want to include dialogue (two or more characters speaking) you should set it
out as the following example shows you.
Goneril and Regan push their father to a state of outrage by whittling away at his
status:
GONERIL:
REGAN:
LEAR:
Hear me, my lord:
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?
What need one?
O, reason not the need! (p. 1090)
Having proudly allocated riches and land in the play’s first scene, Lear suddenly finds
himself a supplicant for the resources of others.
Notice:



You introduce the quotation with a colon (:)
You leave a space before and after the whole quotation
You indent the whole quotation


You include the names of the characters who are speaking using
capitals, followed by a colon
You give a page ref (the edition you are using will be in the
Bibliography)
If you want to quote a line or a few words you integrate them into your own writing:
The Duchess is conscious that many of the qualities she exhibits are more usually
associated with men; as she says, ‘Whether I am doomed to live, or die, / I can do
both like a prince’ (p. 62). The pride with which she carries herself even as her
situation grows more perilous gives further credence to this idea.
Notice:
 You use quotation marks. (N.B. You DON’T use quotation marks for the
longer, indented quotations illustrated above)
 You give a page reference (making sure the edition used is in your
Bibliography)
 You ensure that the sentence that includes the quotation makes grammatical
sense
 You indicate where there is a break between lines with a slash (/)
If you are quoting prose you follow the guidelines as outlined for poetic drama, but
you do not begin each line of a long speech with a capital letter as you would with
poetry. The following should help you. The best advice is to urge you to copy the
quotation exactly as you find it in the original.
When the Fool enters he offers Kent his fool’s cap and he then explains why he thinks
Kent might appear to be a fool:
FOOL: Let me hire him, too: here’s my coxcomb.
[Offers KENT his cap]
LEAR: How now, my pretty knave, how dost thou?
FOOL: [To KENT] Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb.
LEAR: Why, my boy?
FOOL: Why? For taking one’s part that’s out of favour. [To KENT]
Nay, and thou canst not smile as the wind sits, thoul’t catch cold
shortly. There, take my coxcomb; why, this fellow has banished
two on’s daughters and did the third a blessing against his will; if
thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb. (p. 37)
The Fool speaks in a riddling way which can be hard to understand at first.
Notice: the colon to introduce the quotation; the space before and after the quotation;
the indenting of the whole quote; the stage directions in italics; sentences rather than
lines begin with a capital; the page reference at the end
The Bibliography
It is very important that every essay you submit includes a Bibliography, and that this
Bibliography is properly set out.
Please use the following very short bibliography as a guide line to show you how to
do it. Copy the format exactly. If you are still not sure check the Guidance on the
presentation of written work, from which some of the individual examples have
been taken, or ask your seminar leader.
The Bibliography should list everything you have read for an essay, including the
plays, theory extracts, criticism and anything accessed on the Internet. A reader
consulting your Bibliography should have enough details to enable him/her to find the
books and/or articles you list.
Get into the habit of recording the full information on anything you read or borrow
from the library. It will save you a lot of time checking when you come to write your
essay.
Bibliography
Artaud, Antoine, ‘The Theatre of Cruelty’, in Eric Bentley (ed.), The Theory of the
Modern Stage, 3rd edn, London: Penguin, 1992, pp. 55-75.
Case, Sue-Ellen, Feminism and Theatre, New Directions in Theatre, London:
Macmillan, 1988.
Esslin, Martin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd edn, London: Methuen, 1980.
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, Drama Classics, London: Nick Hern,
1995.
Fort, Alice B. and Herbert S. Kates (1935), ‘The Importance of Being Earnest: A
Synopsis of the Play by Oscar Wilde’, at
http://www.theatrehistory.com/irish/importance_of_being_earnest.html (accessed 14
June 2004).
Notice:






Entries are given in alphabetical order by author’s surname.
After the name of the author include the translator if relevant, the series of
which the book is a part (e.g. New Directions in Theatre, Drama Classics) if
relevant, then the city of publication, the name of the publisher, and the year of
publication.
The punctuation should be copied exactly – notice that there are commas after
each piece of information, except city of publication which is followed by a
colon (:).
The titles of plays and books should be in italics. Do NOT add inverted
commas.
Inverted commas should be used for the titles of articles and short poems.
The full web address and date of accessing internet information should be
given after the list of books and articles. Include the author and title of the
work if possible.
Secondary Reading for Term One
Please note that books have been selected on the basis of their usefulness to the course.
If you find other books that are helpful to you, let us know. Please make use of the
Bibliography of the most up to date books for further reading if you are interested.
William Shakespeare, King Lear
Dollimore and Sinfield (eds) Political Shakespeare (particularly the essay by
McLuskie)
Jay L. Halio
Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s King Lear
Alexander Leggatt
King Lear (Shakespeare in Performance series)
Fintan O’Toole
Shakespeare is Hard, but so is Life: A Radical Guide
to Shakespearean Tragedy
Kiernan Ryan
King Lear (new Casebooks series)
Shakespeare
King Lear (Cambridge School Shakespeare edition
edited by Bain, Morris and Smith)
Next term when you study Samuel Beckett you might be interested to read Jan Kott’s
‘King Lear, or Endgame’, an essay which appears in Kott’s Shakespeare: Our
Contemporary and also in King Lear: A Casebook edited by Frank Kermode.
If you take Contemporary British Theatre at level 3, you will study Edward Bond’s
Lear (1971) which is based on King Lear.
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
Joyce E. Peterson
Nicholas Brooke
Eileen Allman
Huston Diehl
G. Blakemore Eva (ed)
Curs’d example: The Duchess of Malfi and
commonweal tragedy
Horrid laughter in Jacobean tragedy
Jacobean revenge tragedy and the politics of virtue
Staging Reform and reforming the Stage
Elizabethan-Jacobean drama
Aphra Behn, The Rover
Derek Hughes
and Janet Todd (eds)
Janet Todd (ed.)
Heidi Hutner (ed.)
Deborah C.
Payne Fiske (ed.)
Susan J. Owen (ed.)
Richard W. Bevis
The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn Studies
Rereading Aphra Behn : history, theory, and criticism
The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration
Theatre
A Companion to Restoration Drama
Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1660-1789
Tate’s Lear and George Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer
Richard W. Bevis
James Black (ed.)
Raymond A.
Anselment (ed.)
Max Stafford-Clark
Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1660-1789
The History of King Lear (by) Nahum Tate,
introduction and notes
Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux’
Stratagem: a Casebook
Letters to George: the account of a rehearsal
Douglas Jerrold, Black Ey’d Susan and Melodrama
Michael Booth
Maurice Willson Disher
Michael Kilgariff (ed)
Kerry Powell (ed)
Frank Rahill
George Rowell (ed)
Michael Slater
Theatre in the Victorian Age
Melodrama: Plots that Thrilled
The Golden Age of Melodrama: Twelve Nineteenth
Century Melodramas (introduction)
The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and
Edwardian Theatre (particularly David Mayer’s
chapter ‘Encountering Melodrama’ and Heidi J.
Holder’s chapter ‘The East-End Theatre’)
The World of Melodrama
Nineteenth Century Plays (contains Black Ey’d Susan)
Douglas Jerrold: A Life
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Ed Cohen
Richard Ellmann
Margery Morgan (ed)
Kerry Powell
Peter Raby
Peter Raby (ed)
Elaine Showalter
Alan Sinfield
William Tydeman (ed)
Talk on the Wilde Side: toward a genealogy of a
discourse on male sexualities
Oscar Wilde (biography)
File on Wilde
Oscar Wilde and the Theatre of the 1890s
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader’s
Companion
The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde
Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de
Siècle
The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the
Queer Movement
Wilde Comedies: A Casebook (Macmillan Casebooks)
Theatre Studies: Traditional and Modern – Terms Two and Three
‘We surely need theatre that wakes us up heart and nerves’ (Antonin Artaud)
‘How, as women, can we go to the theatre without lending our complicity to the
sadism directed against women?’ (Hélène Cixous)
‘The term post-colonialism implies… both an ongoing liberation and an ongoing
oppression.’ (Mark Fortier)
‘In a curious paradox, the Depression… inspired a drama which celebrated the
resistant spirit and presumed that history would bend to the will and the
imagination’ (Christopher Bigsby)
Theatre Studies: Modern will take a whistle-stop tour through some of the more
significant developments in theatre in the modern period, from approximately 1930
onward. We will begin with two examples of the Theatre of the Absurd, before
turning to the more extreme vision of Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty; we will look at the
work of women dramatists and consider how drama can embody a feminist ethic; we
will look at two plays that expose us to different postcolonial perspectives; and finally
(exhausted but triumphant) we will look at three landmark plays from the USA.
Throughout the course you will be expected to think critically about the relationship
between theory, theatre practice and criticism. Please note that although this is not a
practical course, you will be encouraged to read the text with performance in mind.
The exam at the end of the course will assess your ability to do this.
Please read as many of the following play texts as possible, in the order given:
Samuel Beckett
Eugène Ionesco
Waiting for Godot (Faber)
Rhinoceros (Penguin, or wait to buy a cheap edition when
we arrange a trip to see this play in performance)
Sarah Kane
Cleansed (singly or in Complete Plays, Methuen)
Caryl Churchill
Top Girls (Methuen, Student Edition)
Timberlake Wertenbaker Our Country’s Good (Methuen Student Edition)
Wole Soyinka
Death and the King’s Horseman (Methuen Student
Edition)
Ayub Khan-Din
East is East (Nick Hern)
Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman (Penguin)
Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin)
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun (Methuen)
Please read in addition the following theory and criticism extracts:
Antonin Artaud
Sue Ellen Case
‘The Theatre of Cruelty: First Manifesto’ in The Theory of
the Modern Stage, edited by Eric Bentley
Extracts from ‘Theatre and Cruelty’ in this handbook
‘Towards a New Poetics’, in this handbook
Theatre Studies: Traditional and Modern
Term 2: Modern
Classes will take place each Monday afternoon between 2.00 and 4.00 in L001.
Week 1 (January 7th)
Lecture: Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and the Theatre
of the Absurd
Seminar discussion
Week 2 (January 14th)
Lecture: Ionesco’s Rhinoceros: Existentialism as
Political Stand
Seminar discussion
Week 3 (January 21st)
Lecture: Antonin Artaud’s ‘Theatre of Cruelty’
Seminar discussion
Week 4 (January 28th)
Lecture: Cruel to be Kind?: Kane’s Cleansed
Seminar discussion
Week 5 (February 4th)
Lecture: Top Girls and Churchill’s Feminist Aesthetic
Seminar discussion
Week 6 (February 11th)
Tutorial week
There will be no lecture or seminar this week.
Week 7 (February 18th)
Lecture: Theatre as Unifying Force in Wertenbaker’s
Our Country’s Good
Seminar discussion
Week 8 (February 25th)
Lecture: An African Tragedy: Soyinka’s Death and the
King’s Horseman
Seminar discussion
Week 9 (March 3rd)
Lecture: Coming Home to Roost: East is East by Ayub
Khan-Din
Seminar discussion
Week 10 (March 10th)
Lecture: Miller’s Death of a Salesman: The Great
American Play?
Seminar discussion
Theatre Studies: Traditional and Modern
Term 3: Modern (continued)
Classes will take place each Monday afternoon between 2.00 and 4.00 in L001.
Week 1 (April 7th)
Lecture: The American Mythology of A Streetcar
Named Desire
Seminar discussion
Week 2 (April 14th)
Lecture: Theatre and Civil Rights: Hansberry’s A Raisin
in the Sun
Seminar discussion
Week 3 (April 21st)
Revision session in the usual slot
Week 4 (April 28th)
Free for individual revision
Weeks 5-7 (May 6th –
23rd)
Assessment period
The Theatre Studies exam will take place during this
period, the date to be confirmed
Assessment details for terms two and three
1.
Presentation or review
See the guidelines on giving a presentation or writing a review in the ‘Assessment
details for term one’ at the front of this booklet. You will be advised of the play that
we will be recommending for the review when details can be confirmed.
2.
Essay
Select ONE of the following questions and write a 2,000-2,500 word essay with
reference to one or more of the plays and/or theoretical texts studied for the course
from weeks 1-7: Waiting for Godot, Rhinoceros, The Theatre of Cruelty, Cleansed,
Top Girls, Our Country’s Good. Bear in mind the importance of proper academic
presentation and that it is essential to provide full references for all quotations and
include a properly set out Bibliography. Refer to the guidelines provided earlier in this
handbook.
1. ‘Structureless and meaningless.’ Critically consider this view of the Theatre of the
Absurd with reference to Waiting for Godot and Rhinoceros.
2. Discuss what you understand by the term ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ with close reference
to Artaud’s ‘The Theatre of Cruelty: First Manifesto’ and ‘Theatre and Cruelty’, and
consider whether anything you have read or seen for the course meets some or all of
Artaud’s requirements.
3. Is Cleansed a harsh, Artaudian assault on the sensibilities, or can you detect a
feminist aesthetic at work? Relate the play closely to EITHER Artaud’s ideas OR
feminist theatre theory in illustration of your response.
4. In what ways do TWO plays chosen from the following challenge traditional
preconceptions about theatre: Waiting for Godot, Rhinoceros, Cleansed, Top Girls?
5. ‘Plays that are not realistic in form may nonetheless be about real life’. Consider
this view with reference to TWO of the following: Waiting for Godot, Rhinoceros,
Cleansed.
6. ‘Women’s plays confront women’s issues.’ Do you agree? Are there issues which
you would be happy to label ‘women’s issues’? Consider the quoted view critically
with reference to TWO of the following: Cleansed, Top Girls, Our Country’s Good.
7. What are the central points made by Sue Ellen Case in her article ‘Towards a New
Poetics’? How far can you relate what she is saying to ONE of the following plays by
women: Cleansed, Top Girls, Our Country’s Good?
8. ‘Form follows function’. Discuss the relationship between the kind of point a
playwright wants to make and way in which he or she has articulated that point in
theatrical form with reference to any two plays studied on this course.
3.
Exam
The exam will consist of TWO parts. You will answer:
(a) ONE essay question relating to The Recruiting Officer, Black Ey’d Susan or
The Importance of Being Earnest from Term One.
(b) ONE question which will involve textual analysis. There will be extracts from
the five plays to be studied in the last three weeks of term two and the first two weeks
of term three: Death and the King’s Horseman, East is East, Death of a Salesman,
A Streetcar Named Desire, A Raisin in the Sun.
SECTION A
In Section A you will answer an essay question on The Recruiting Officer; BlackEy’d Susan or The Importance of Being Earnest. There will be a question on each.
Because this is an essay question it is important that you make sure you address the
specific topic being referred to, and take time to plan a relevant and clearly structured
response. It may help you to devise a paragraph plan before you start to write down
your answer. Don’t just tell us everything you know about a given play – answer
the question!
SECTION B
The rubric for the second question will read:
Discuss ONE of the following extracts with reference to themes,
characterisation, action, setting, language and any appropriate visual/sound
effects. Your answer should consider how the scene contributes to the play’s
overall meaning and theatrical impact.
You are advised to place the extract briefly in context before focusing on the
dramatic detail, making use of quotations from the extract to support your points.
Aim to be analytical rather than descriptive.
Some guidance on textual analysis:
Read the text freshly and carefully with performance in mind: try to visualise it;
imagine what it might look and sound like ‘live’. Be responsive to all the visual and
aural elements and think what they might communicate to an audience in relation to
character and themes.
Although you will be analysing one small section of a play, you need to know the
whole play in detail in order to understand the section’s significance: you will need to
be aware of ‘information’ provided earlier (set, costume, character) as well as the
themes and form of the play as a whole.
Last year’s exam paper appears at the end of the printed version of this booklet for
your guidance.
Secondary Reading for Term Two
Books have been selected on the basis of their usefulness to the course. If you find
other books that are helpful to you, let us know. Please make use of the Bibliography
of the most up to date books for further reading if you are interested.
General Criticism and Theory
Peter Barry
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and
Cultural Theory
Susan Bennett
Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception
Eric Bentley (ed.)
The Theory of the Modern Stage (contains essays by Artaud)
George W. Brandt (ed.) Modern Theories of Drama (helpful for Artaud and
Feminism)
Peter Buse
Drama + Theory: Critical Approaches to Modern British
Drama (includes chapters on Churchill and Wertenbaker)
Brian Docherty (ed.) Twentieth Century European Drama
Richard Drain (ed.)
Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook (helpful for
Artaud and Soyinka)
Martin Esslin
The Theatre of the Absurd
Mark Fortier
Theory/Theatre: An Introduction
Christopher Innes
Modern British Drama 1890-1990
Adrian Page (ed.)
The Death of the Playwright? Modern British Drama and
Literary Theory
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Steven Connor
Colin Counsell
Brian Docherty
Francis Doherty
Martin Esslin
Beryl S. Fletcher et al
John Fletcher and
John Spurling
Sidney Homan
James Knowlson
Shimon Levy
John Pilling (ed.)
John Pilling
Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text
Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth
Century Theatre (see chapter four, ‘Beckett and the AvantGarde’)
Twentieth Century European Drama (see the essay by L.S.
Butler)
Samuel Beckett
The Theatre of the Absurd (see Chapter One, ‘Samuel
Beckett: The search for self’)
A Student’s Guide to the Plays of Samuel Beckett
Beckett: A Study of his Plays
Beckett’s Theaters: Interpretations for Performance
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett’s Self -Referential Drama: The Three I’s
The Cambridge Companion to Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Eugène Ionesco, Rhinoceros
Claude Bonnefoy
Richard N. Coe
Martin Esslin
Conversations with Eugène Ionesco
Ionesco: A Study of his Plays
The Theatre of the Absurd (see Chapter Three, ‘Eugène
Ionesco: Theatre and anti-theatre’)
Ronald Hayman
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Notes and Counter-Notes
Rosette C. Lamont (ed.) Ionesco: A Collection of Critical Essays
Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty
Antonin Artaud
Stephen Barber
Eric Bentley (ed.)
The Theatre and its Double
Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs
The Theory of the Modern Stage (contains ‘The Theatre of
Cruelty, First and Second Manifestos’ by Artaud)
George W. Brandt (ed.) Modern Theories of Drama (contains ‘The Theatre of
Cruelty, First Manifesto’ and ‘An End to Masterpieces’ by
Artaud)
Edward Braun
The Director and the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski
Brian Docherty (ed.) Twentieth Century European Drama (the essays by Knapp
and Day)
Richard Drain (ed.)
Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook (contains ‘Letter
to Comoedia’ and extracts from ‘The Theatre of Cruelty, First
Manifesto’ and ‘An Affective Athleticism’ by Artaud)
Michael Huxley and
The Twentieth Century Performance Reader (contains
Noel Witts (eds)
‘Theatre and Cruelty’ by Artaud)
Claude Schumacher (ed.) Artaud on Theatre
Timothy Wiles
The Theater Event: Modern Theories of Performance
Sarah Kane, Cleansed
Sarah Kane
Graham Saunders
Complete Plays (see the introduction by David Greig)
‘Love me or kill me’: Sarah Kane and the theatre of
extremes
Aleks Sierz
In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (includes a
chapter on Kane which includes a section on Cleansed)
Heidi Stephenson and Rage and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting
Natasha Langridge
(includes a chapter-length interview with Kane)
Feminist Theatre
Elaine Aston
Elaine Aston and
Janelle Reinelt (eds)
An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre
The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women
Playwrights (see ‘Women playwrights and the challenge of
feminism in the 1970s’ by Michelene Wandor, pp. 53-68)
Gayle Austin
Feminist Theories for Dramatic Criticism (see the
introduction)
George W. Brandt (ed.) Modern Theories of Drama (see ‘Political Dynamics: The
Feminisms’ by Michelene Wandor)
Sue-Ellen Case
Feminism and Theatre
Mark Fortier
Theory/Theatre (see the section on feminist and gender
theory, pp. 107-131)
Maggie B. Gale and
Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New
Viv Gardner (eds)
Historiographies (see particularly John Deeney’s ‘Workshop
to Mainstream: Women’s Playwriting in the Contemporary
British Theatre’, pp. 142-162, which discusses Churchill and
Keatley)
Lizbeth Goodman
Contemporary Feminist Theatres: To Each Her Own
Lizbeth Goodman with The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance
Jane de Gay (eds)
Helene Keyssar(ed.)
Feminist Theatre and Theory (see the first two articles)
Janelle Reinelt and
Critical Theory and Performance (see the section on
Joseph Roach
feminism)
Michelene Wandor
Carry on Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics
Caryl Churchill, Top Girls
Elaine Aston and
Janelle Reinelt (eds)
The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women
Playwrights (see ‘Caryl Churchill and the politics of style’ by
Janelle Reinelt, pp. 174-193)
Elaine Aston and
Theatre as Sign System: A Semiotics of Text and
George Savona
Performance (uses Top Girls)
Peter Buse
Drama + Theory: Critical Approaches to Modern British
Drama (see ‘Towards a citational history – Churchill with
Benjamin’, pp. 111-129, which focuses on Top Girls)
Geraldine Cousin
Churchill: The Playwright
Linda Fitzsimmons
File on Churchill
Lizbeth Goodman (ed) Literature and Gender (Chapter 8 is on Top Girls)
Amelia Kritzer
The Plays of Caryl Churchill: Theatre of Empowerment
Adrian Page
The Death of the Playwright? Modern British Drama and
Literary Theory (see the chapter on Churchill by J. Thomas)
Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Country’s Good
Elaine Aston and
Janelle Reinelt (eds)
Peter Buse
The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women
Playwrights (see ‘Language and identity in Timberlake
Wertenbaker’s plays’ by Susan Carlson, pp. 134-149)
Drama + Theory: Critical Approaches to Modern British
Drama (see ‘Culture and colonies – Wertenbaker with Said’,
pp. 153-171, which focuses on Our Country’s Good)
British and Irish Women Dramatists since 1958: A Critical
Handbook
Trevor R. Griffiths
and Margaret
Llewellyn-Jones (eds)
Heidi Stephenson and Rage and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting
Natasha Langridge
(includes a chapter-length interview with Wertenbaker)
Post-Colonial Theatre and Theory
Brian Crow with
Chris Banfield
Mark Fortier
Helen Gilbert and
Joanne Tompkins
Lizbeth Goodman
An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theatre (includes chapters
on Fugard and Soyinka)
Theory/Theatre (see section on post-colonial theory, pp. 192216)
Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics (considers
Fugard and Soyinka)
Contemporary Feminist Theatres: To Each Her Own
(includes a section on black theatre)
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman
James Gibbs
James Gibbs (ed.)
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka
Death and the King’s Horseman (the Methuen Student
Edition, edited by Jane Plastow contains helpful background
material including an interview with Soyinka)
Ayub Khan-Din, East is East
As far as we are aware, nothing has yet been published in book form on East is East.
An interview, some background material and some helpful web links are included in
this handbook, and you might try searching for relevant newspaper articles using
Lexis Nexis, an electronic database available in the library.
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
Christopher Bigsby
A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Century American
Drama 2: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Christopher Bigsby
Modern American Drama 1945-2000 (See Chapter Four,
‘Arthur Miller: the moral imperative’)
Christopher Bigsby
Writers in Conversation (one of them being Miller)
Neil Carson
Arthur Miller
Ronald Hayman
Arthur Miller
Joseph Wood Krutch The American Drama since 1918: An Informal History
Robert A. Martin (ed.) Arthur Miller: New Perspectives
Arthur Miller
Timebends
Leonard Moss
Arthur Miller
Benjamin Nelson
Arthur Miller: Portrait of a Playwright
Dennis Welland
Arthur Miller: A Study of his Plays
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Christopher Bigsby
A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Century American
Drama 2: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Christopher Bigsby
Modern American Drama 1945-2000 (See Chapter Three,
‘Tennessee Williams: the theatricalising self’)
Roger Boxill
Tennessee Williams
Louis Broussard
American Drama: Contemporary Allegory from Eugene
O’Neill to Tennessee Williams
Albert A. Devlin (ed.) Conversations with Tennessee Williams
Joseph Wood Krutch The American Drama since 1918: An Informal History
Brenda Murphy
Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan: A Collaboration in the
Theatre
Stephen S. Stanton (ed.) Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
Gerald Berkowitz
Christopher Bigsby
Samuel A. Hay
Catharine Hughes
Brenda Murphy (ed.)
American Drama of the Twentieth Century
Modern American Drama 1945-2000 (See Chapter Ten,
‘Redefining the centre: politics, race, gender’)
African American Theatre: An Historical and Critical
Analysis
American Playwrights 1945-75
The Cambridge Companion to American Women
Playwrights (See Chapter Nine, ‘From Harlem to Broadway:
African American Women Playwrights at Mid-Century’ by
Margaret B. Wilkerson