Table Of ContentCONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA 1950-1976
Also by E. H. Mikhail
The Social and Cultural Setting of the 1890s
John Galsworthy the Dramatist
Comedy and Tragedy
Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography of Criticism
A Bibliography of Modern Irish Drama 1899-1970
Dissertations on Anglo-Irish Drama: A Bibliography of Studies
1870-1970
The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with Sean O'Casey (co-editor
with]o hn 0 'Riordan)
J. M. Synge: A Bibliography of Criticism
J. M. Synge: Interviews and Recollections (editor)
W. B. Yeats: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor)
British Drama 1900-19 50
CONTEMPORARY
BRITISH DRAMA
1950-1976
An Annotated Critical Bibliography
E. H. MIKHAIL
With a foreword by
William A. Armstrong
© E. H. Mikhail1976
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1976
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1976 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York
Dublin Melbourne johannesburg and Madras
ISBN 978-1-349-03087-3 ISBN 978-1-349-03085-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03085-9
This book is sold subject
to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
Contents
Foreword by William A. Armstrong Vll
Bibliographies 1
Reference Works 21
Books 31
Periodical Articles 61
Foreword
Professor Edward H. Mikhail needs no introduction to
students and general readers of twentieth-century drama; he
is already well known for his book on John Galsworthy and
his bibliographical guides to modern Irish drama ( 197 2), Sean
O'Casey (1972), dissertations on Anglo-Irish drama (1973)
and J. M. Synge ( 197 5). The bibliography offered in the
present volume has the salient virtues that we have come to
associate with him: aptness of arrangement, thoroughness of
coverage, accuracy of detail, and a truly admirable capacity
for pithy and discerning comments on the content and
argument of the books that he has listed.
The last merit is a particularly valuable feature of the
present work, for it covers an exceptionally wide range of
topics, and here perhaps, a few words of introduction will
not come amiss. The development of British Drama during
the past twenty-five years has been a fascinating but complex
phenomenon. The idealistic verse drama of the postwar
decade was elbowed aside by the caustic and iconoclastic
young playwrights headed by John Osborne in the later
1950s, and their trenchant activities have been followed by
the so-called New Movement, which is still in progress and
has experimented with various themes and techniques for
which critics have tried to find more or less accurate
lables-Theatre of the Absurd, Theatre of Protest, Theatre of
Menace, Theatre of Cruelty, Compressionist Drama, Black
Comedy, Documentary Drama, Theatre of Nudity, Theatre
of Hope. This variety of experiment has been possible largely
because of unprecedented public subsidies for theatres in
London and the provinces provided by the Arts Council and
vii
Foreword
Local Authorities. The institution of a National Theatre and
the abolition of the censorship of plays also occurred during
this period. So did the establishment of a number of
Departments in Drama in British universities. Experimental
productions in little 'fringe' theatres and lunch-time per
formances in small theatres and public houses have become a
regular practice. Since 19 50, drama has been argued about
and written about more than any other art in Britain.
All these developments are welcome signs of life and
growth. But serious tensions, excesses and problems have also
emerged during the past quarter of a century. Iconoclasm and
innovation have sometimes become ends in themselves;
producers of Shakespeare's plays have frequently ignored his
intentions and mangled his texts to make them fit topical
moulds. The importance of the dramatist's text and the
spoken word in drama have been challenged, often with
dubious results, by devotees of improvisation and mimetic
action. In provincial repertory theatres there have been
vitiating conflicts between avant garde producers and their
boards of management and local audiences. Television drama
has become a serious counter-attraction to the live theatre,
offering larger rewards and commanding a far bigger
audience. Steeply rising costs of production in the live
theatre have led to an increase in the price of seats and urgent
demands for additional subsidies at a time when inflation is
rampant. The completion of the National Theatre has been
seriously delayed.
The outstanding merit of Professor Mikhail's bibliography
is that it provides clear guidance to every aspect of this
diversity of developments. It includes books and articles by
British, American and Western European writers, and also
Russian, Hungarian, Romanian and Japanese publications. It
makes it easy for the reader to study the pros and cons of the
new theories and practices of the younger playwrights, of the
claims of the best television drama to be a new and
independent art, of the belief that the Theatres Act of 1968
has made the dramatist 'the most carefully protected of all
public performers' by abolishing censorship. It shows that
German critics have been keenly interested in assessing the
viii
Foreword
nature of Brecht's influence on British dramatists, and that
Americans have been continuously shrewd, perceptive and
sympathetic observers of theatrical activities in Britain.
Protessor Mikhail's excellent annotations reveal that one of
them, writing in 1958, has argued that 'a common theme of
postwar British writers is the death of the past and the need
to create a new and living identity which will be seen to be
related to the past,' and that another, writing in 1972, has
decided that 'no other nation in the world can equal the
industry and inventiveness of Britain's living dramatists.'
Whether or not this high praise is deserved can be assessed by
pondering other entries in Professor Mikhail's bibliography.
Whatever we may conclude, there is no doubting our debt to
him for this timely, scholarly and comprehensive guide. It
makes the appetite grow by what it feeds on.
WILLIAM A. ARMSTRONG
Birkbeck College
University of London
ix
Bibliographies
Abstracts of English Studies, 1958 to the present (Boulder,
Colorado: National Council of Teachers of English). Gives
summaries of articles in periodicals.
Adelman, Irving and Rita Dworkin. Modern Drama; A
Checklist of Critical Literature on 20th Century Plays
(Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1967). An index
to selective commentaries in books and periodicals on
modern playwrights and their plays.
Allen, Charles and Felix Pollak, eds. Comprehensive Index to
English-Language Little Magazines, 1890-1970 (Millwood,
New York: Kraus-Thomson, 1975). A bibliography for
secondary authors, arranged alphabetically according to
contributor.
American Doctoral Dissertations, 1963 to the present.
Compiled for the Association of Research Libraries (Ann
Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms). Continuation of
Doctoral Dissertations.
Annotated Bibliography of New Publications in the
Performing Arts, 197 3 to the present. A quarterly that
catalogues books 'as soon as they become generally
available in the United States and England.'
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature,
1920 to the present (London: Modern Humanities
Research Association). Lists books and articles.
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