Some Explicit Polaroids


Book Description

From the celebrated and controversial writer of Shopping and Fucking Some Explicit Polaroids premiered at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London in October 1999 in a production directed by Max Stafford-Clark for Out of Joint, prior to a national tour. "There are few stage authors writing more interestingly than Mark Ravenhill . . . He is - it is now yet more evident - a searing, intelligent, disturbing sociologist with a talent for satirical dialogue and a flair for sexual sensationalism" (Financial Times)




Some Explicit Polaroids


Book Description

From the celebrated and controversial writer of Shopping and Fucking Some Explicit Polaroids premiered at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London in October 1999 in a production directed by Max Stafford-Clark for Out of Joint, prior to a national tour. "There are few stage authors writing more interestingly than Mark Ravenhill . . . He is - it is now yet more evident - a searing, intelligent, disturbing sociologist with a talent for satirical dialogue and a flair for sexual sensationalism" (Financial Times)




Drama and the Postmodern


Book Description




Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s


Book Description

British theatre of the 1990s witnessed an explosion of new talent and presented a new sensibility that sent shockwaves through audiences and critics. What produced this change, the context from which the work emerged, the main playwrights and plays, and the influence they had on later work are freshly evaluated in this important new study in Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwriting series. The 1990s volume provides a detailed study by four scholars of the work of four of the major playwrights who emerged and had a significant impact on British theatre: Sarah Kane (by Catherine Rees), Anthony Neilson (Patricia Reid), Mark Ravenhill (Graham Saunders) and Philip Ridley (Aleks Sierz). Essential for students of Theatre Studies, the series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and study of the theatre produced from the 1950s to 2009. Each volume features a critical analysis of the work of four key playwrights besides other theatre work, together with an extensive commentary on the period. Readers will understand the works in their contexts and be presented with fresh research material and a reassessment from the perspective of the twenty-first century. This is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1990s.




British Theatre of the 1990s


Book Description

This exciting book uniquely combines interviews with scholars and practitioners in theatre studies to look at what most people feel is a pivotal moment of British theatre - the 1990s. With a particular focus on 'in-yer-face theatre', this volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of contemporary British theatre.




Ravenhill Plays: 1


Book Description

"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation" Time Out "There are few stage authors writing more interestingly than Mark Ravenhill ... He is - it is now yet more evident - a searing, intelligent, disturbing sociologist with a talent for satirical dialogue and a flair for sexual sensationalism." - Financial Times Shopping and Fucking: "is a darkly humorous play for today's twenty-somethings ... a real coup de theatre" - Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard Faust: "...an intelligent and witty reappropriation of the legend ... alive, pertinent and disturbing" - Michael Coveney, Observer Handbag: "...combines urban grit with sly wit, and reveals Mark Ravenhill as a writer of real daring" - Daily Telegraph Some Explicit Polaroids: "laudably ambitious, pulsates with energy ... very funny" - Financial Times




After In-Yer-Face Theatre


Book Description

This book revisits In-Yer-Face theatre, an explosive, energetic theatrical movement from the 1990s that introduced the world to playwrights Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh, Mark Ravenhill, Jez Butterworth, and many others. Split into three sections the book re-examines the era, considers the movement’s influence on international theatre, and considers its lasting effects on contemporary British theatre. The first section offers new readings on works from that time period (Antony Neilson and Mark Ravenhill) as well as challenges myths created by the Royal Court Theatre about the its involvement with In-Yer-Face theatre. The second section discusses the influence of In-Yer-Face on Portuguese, Russian and Australian theater, while the final section discusses the legacy of In-Yer-Face writers as well as their influences on more recent playwrights, including chapters on Philip Ridley, Sarah Kane, Joe Penhall, Martin Crimp, Dennis Kelly, and Verbatim Drama.




The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy


Book Description

The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy is a detailed study of the idea of the tragic in the political plays of David Hare, Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane, and Jez Butterworth. Through an in-depth analysis of over sixty of their works, Sean Carney argues that their dramatic exploration of tragic experience is an integral part of their ongoing politics. This approach allows for a comprehensive rather than selective study of both the politics and poetics of their work. Carney's attention to the tragic enables him to find a common discourse among the canonical English playwrights of an older generation and representatives of the nineties generation, challenging the idea that there is a sharp generational break between these groups. Finally, Carney demonstrates that tragic experience is often denied by the social discourse of Englishness, and that these playwrights make a crucial critical intervention by dramatizing the tragic.




The Cane


Book Description

It will be the biggest send off any teacher has ever had. No teacher is as loved. After 45 years as a dedicated teacher, Edward is looking forward to the imminent celebration to mark his retirement. But his home is under siege. A mob of angry students have gathered. A brick has been thrown through the window, he and his wife haven't left the house for six days, and now his estranged daughter has arrived with her own questions. Why would they attack the most popular teacher in the school? The Cane explores power, control, identity and gender as well as considering the major failure of the echo-chamber of liberalism.




Reading the Canon


Book Description

‘Reading the Canon’ explores the relation between the production of literary value and the problem of periodization, tracing how literary tastes, particular reader communities, and sites of literary learning shape the organization of literature in historical perspective. Rather than suggesting a political critique of the canon, this book shows that the production of literary relevance and its tacit hierarchies of value are necessary consequences of how reading and writing are organized as social practices within different fields of literary activity. ‘Reading the Canon’ offers a comprehensive theoretical account of the conundrums still defining contemporary debates about literary value; the book also features a series of historically-inflected author studies—from classics, such as Shakespeare and Thomas Pynchon, to less likely figures, such as John Neal and Owen Johnson—that illustrate how the idea of literary relevance has been appropriated throughout history and across a variety of national and transnational literary institutions.