THE 331x - Theatre History & Dramatic Literature I, II, & III

"Michael Y. Bennett's accessible Introduction explains the complex, multidimensional nature of the works and writers associated with the absurd - a label placed upon a number of writers who revolted against traditional theatre and literature in both similar and widely different ways. Setting the movement in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, Bennett provides an in-depth overview of absurdism and its key figures in theatre and literature, from Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to Tom Stoppard."

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"Fifty years after the publication of Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the Absurd , which suggests that 'absurd' plays purport the meaninglessness of life, this book uses the works of five major playwrights of the 1950s to provide a timely reassessment of one of the most important theatre 'movements' of the 20th century."

Suffused with tenderness, lucidity and humor, this Samuel Beckett play is a comedy in pure, music-hall style. Legendary actress, Irene Worth, stars as Winnie, an optimist who deep down senses she has little to feel "happy" about. Irene Worth gives a tour-de-force performance as she chatters incessantly and cheerily on a variety of subjects. Winnie never allows a day to pass without looking her best and hoping for better. Worth portrays Winnie as the embodiment of humankind's nobler virtues: wise, majestic and committed to her conviction that "this will have been a happy day."

Filmed a year before the author's death in 1989, these special studio recordings of Eh Joe, Footfalls, and Rockaby are brief, concentrated, and pared down to the absolute essentials, even to the exculusion of color are the definitive productions, made in collaboration with the Nobel Laureate himself and featuring his favorite and most-trusted actress, Billie Whitelaw. Together these plays explore the themes of consciousness and self-image in Beckett's inimitale style.

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In Rhinoceros, as in his earlier plays, Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the "movement" is universal: a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to move with the times. Finally, only one man remains. "I'm the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating!" Rhinoceros is a commentary on the absurdity of the human condition made tolerable only by self-delusion. It shows us the struggle of the individual to maintain integrity and identity alone in a world where all others have succumbed to the "beauty" of brute force, natural energy, and mindlessness. Includes (1) Rhinoceros; (2) The Leader; and (3) The Future Is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World

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Methuen Drama student edition: Text in English; play in Spanish with English translation on opposite pages.
Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'. It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play.

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Includes monologues with commentary from: Absent Friends (1974) Alan Ayckbourn -- After the Fall (1964) Arthur Miller -- Antigone (1944) Jean Anouilh -- The Balcony (1956) Jean Genet -- ""The Bald Prima Donna (1950) Eugene Ionesco -- Blithe Spirit (1941) Noel Coward -- Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) James Baldwin -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Tennessee Williams -- Cloud Nine (1979) Caryl Churchill -- The Cocktail Party (1950) T. S. Eliot -- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) Peter Nichols -- East (1975) Steven Berkoff -- Faith Healer (1979) Brian Friel -- The Glass Menagerie (1945) Tennessee Williams -- The Good Person of Sichuan (1939-40) Bertolt Brecht -- Happy Days (1961) Samuel Beckett -- Hello and Goodbye (1965) Athol Fugard -- The House of Blue Leaves (1971) John Guare -- Huis Clos [In Camera/No Exit] (1944) Jean-Paul Sartre -- Icarus's Mother (1965) Sam Shepard -- The Iceman Cometh (1940) Eugene O'Neill -- Jumpers (1972) Tom Stoppard -- La Turista (1967) Sam Shepard -- The Lark (1953) Jean Anouilh -- Long Day's Journey into Night (1940) Eugene O'Neill -- Look Back in Anger (1956) John Osborne -- The Maids (1947) Jean Genet -- The Misunderstanding (1944) Albert Camus -- Napoli Milionaria (1945) Eduardo de Filippo -- Old Times (1971) Harold Pinter -- Otherwise Engaged (1975) Simon Gray -- The Plough and the Stars (1926) Sean O'Casey -- Pygmalion (1912) Bernard Shaw -- The Room (1960) Harold Pinter -- Roots (1959) Arnold Wesker -- The Ruffian on the Stair (1964) Joe Orton -- The Rules of the Game (1919) Luigi Pirandello -- The Ruling Class (1968) Peter Barnes -- Saint Joan (1924) Bernard Shaw -- Saved (1965) Edward Bond -- The Sea (1973) Edward Bond -- Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) David Mamet -- Spring Awakening (1892) Frank Wedekind -- A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) Tennessee Williams -- Summer and Smoke (1948) Tennessee Williams -- Ubu Rex (1896) Alfred Jarry -- A View from the Bridge (1955) Arthur Miller -- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962) Edward Albee