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Palgrave Macmillan

Shakespeare and the Modern Dramatist

  • Book
  • © 1989

Overview

Authors:
  1. Michael Scott

    1. School of Arts, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Interpretations of Shakespeare (CIS)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
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  2. Introduction: Re-Interpreting Shakespeare

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 1-12

  3. Parasitic Comedy: Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 13-27

  4. A Divergent View of Human Nature: Edward Bond, Bingo and Lear

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 28-43

  5. Demythologising Shylock: Arnold Wesker, The Merchant; Charles Marowitz, Variations on The Merchant of Venice

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 44-59

  6. Frustrating Dramatic Structure: Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot and Endgame

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 60-71

  7. Modern Morality Plays: Eugene Ionesco, Exit the King and Macbett

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 72-88

  8. The Jacobean Pinter: The Homecoming

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 89-102

  9. Theatrical Discontinuity: Charles Marowitz, The Shrew, An Othello, Collage Hamlet

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 103-120

  10. Postscript: The modernised Bard

    • Michael Scott
    Pages 121-136

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 137-164
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Keywords

About this book

Theatre has never been afraid to adapt, rewrite and contemporize Shakespeare's drama since theatre by definition is a living medium involving a corporate creativity. Shakespeare himself rewrote or adapted old plays and stories and since writing his dramas have experienced many transformations. Recent dramatists following this age-old tradition have rewritten some of Shakespeare's plays for the contemporary stage or modelled their drama on formulations used by him. Michael Scott examines a selection of such plays written in the last forty years. Some, such as Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot or Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead have become famed. Others such as Ionesco's Macbett are less well known but are no less signficant. Edward Bond's Lear, Arnold Wesker's The Merchant and Charles Marowitz's Collages represent an attempt by some modern dramatists to challenge a particular ideology which appears to have appropriated Shakespeare to itself. The book concludes with an examination of some recent trends in Shakespearean production, particularly by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Arts, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Michael Scott

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