Oedipus Rex

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Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

"Poor Bethany Palmer hasn't slept in thirteen years. When her husband, Warren, steals their son, Andrew, away in the middle of the night, her already fragile grip on reality starts to weaken-- even as she sets off after them on a nightmarish phantasmagoria through an urban dreamscape"--P. [4] of cover.

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Sophocles

"Oedipus, the former ruler of Thebes, has died. Now, when his young daughter Antigone defies her uncle, Kreon, the new ruler, because he has prohibited the burial of her dead brother, she and he enact a primal conflict between young and old, woman and man, individual and ruler, family and state, courageous and self-sacrificing reverence for the gods of the earth and perhaps self-serving allegiance to the gods of the sky." "Echoing through Western culture for more than two millennia, Sophocles' Antigone has been a touchstone of thinking about human conflict and human tragedy, the role of the divine in human life, and the degree to which men and women are the creators of their own destinies. This exciting new translation of the play is extremely faithful to the Greek, eminently playable, and poetically powerful." "For readers, actors, students, teachers, and theatrical directors, this new translation of one of the greatest plays in the history of the Western world provides the best combination of contemporary, powerful language, along with superb background and notes on meaning, interpretation, and ancient beliefs, attitudes, and contexts"--Book jacket.

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Peter Mudford

"The reality of a play is in its performance. "Making Theatre" focuses on the processes by which performance is realized, analyzing three major areas: "Words" and the interpretation of the text; "Vision", including scenery, costume and lighting; and "Music" which illustrates the importance of music in all stage action. The forms of theatre covered include straight drama, the musical and opera. Taking productions well-known on both sides of the Atlantic, Peter Mudford examines plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and David Mamet; musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim; and operas by Verdi, Wagner and Berg. This account of what makes theatre important and how it works will be valuable to teachers and students of drama and performance, as well as all those interested in theatre as an art."--Jacket.

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Graham Greene

The narrator, Maurice Bendrix, purports to hate Henry Miles and his wife Sarah at the time he happens to run into Miles. It is 1946. Bendrix and Miles had not seen each other since June 1944. Henry Miles is a civil servant. He was an Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Pensions. Later he was moved to the Ministry of Home Security. At his request Maurice follows Henry to his house. Henry is worried about Sarah. Sarah and Maurice Bendrix had been out of contact for eighteen months. The affair between the two had begun in 1939. When Sarah gets in touch with him after his meeting with Miles, Bendrix is elated. (He has just arranged with a private detective to have Sarah followed. Henry expressed to Maurice a sense of unease.) Well, that is the set up. The writing is sensitive, nuanced. Sarah had refused to leave Henry for Bendrix. Eventually, in 1946, Henry sees that Bendrix and Sarah had been lovers. In current parlance, Maurice accuses Henry of enabling the liaison. The book embodies Graham Greene's sincere embrace of Roman Catholicism in the 1940's. Much of the plot and the themes of the novel turn on the religious and spiritual understanding of the characters. Sarah Miles berates herself for having no trust in love. What vows, what promises must be kept to God and to man Sarah wonders. This is her dilemma, the dilemma of a fundamentally good person.