A life in the theatre

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Aristophanes

The women of Athens concoct a daring scheme: to infiltrate the male-dominated Assembly disguised as men and to vote themselves into power, after which they will overturn the old laws and inaugurate a new society where all are equal and where property - sex, too! - is shared. This new translation by Robert Mayhew of one of playwright Aristophanes' last surviving plays recaptures the spirit, the bawdiness, and the brilliance of this rollicking farce which is at the same time a profound critique of contemporary Greek customs and manners. A full introduction and explanatory notes provide important background material on communistic ideas current in fifth- and fourth-century B.C.E. Greek thought as well as on historical and other details relevant to the text.

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Barbara L. Parker

"This study argues the influence of Plato's political thought on Shakespeare's Roman works : The Rape of Lucrece, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Titus Andronicus. It contends that Plato's theory of constitutional decline provides the philosophical core of these works; that Lucrece, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra form a "Platonic" tetralogy collectively spanning the stages of timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny; that this decline is prefigured and encapsulated in Titus Andronicus; and that all five works are oblique commentaries on England's political milieu. Shakespeare equates the ruin of Rome with what he foresees as the corresponding decline of England deriving from England's kindred political ills, in particular the burgeoning democratic impulses fostered by the policies of both Elizabeth and James - impulses potentially leading to popular rule and the ruin of the state." "Each work, Parker suggests, was occasioned by a political crisis that similarly threatened England's integrity, Lucrece, Titus, and Caesar concern the unsettled succession, Coriolanus mirrors the parliamentary (and thus national) schism arising from James's contempt for the Commons' grievances, and Antony and Cleopatra reflects the dangers posed by James's absolutism and excess. Each work is thus a plea for provident rule and a sound monarchy, sole bulwarks against England's destruction."--BOOK JACKET.

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Cecilia Beach

Cecilia Beach examines the political and feminist plays of French playwrights who have been largely overlooked until now. Beach highlights the importance of theatrical endeavors which women perceived as a powerful way to promote political opinions. The author analyzes the work of Louise Michel, Nelly Roussel, Marie Leneru, Vera Starkoff, and Madeline Pelletier and discusses anarchist theater and forms of social protest theater at the turn of the century.

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Howard Brenton

"Harold Macmillan, the Eton-educated idealist who rushed, with Homer's Iliad under his arm, to do his duty in the Grenadier Guards, is tormented by the harsh experiences of war and an unhappy marriage. His career in the 1930s is blocked by his loyalty to Winston Churchill, and he nearly loses his life in the Second World War. When at last he becomes Prime Minister he is brought down by the Profumo scandal." --Back cover.