Barker: Plays Six: (Uncle) Vanya; A House of Correction; Let Me; Judith; Lot and His God

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Includes the plays Judith, (Uncle) Vanya, A House of Correction, Let Me and Lot and His God Barkers radical rewriting of Chekhovs classic Uncle Vanya brought him more controversy than most of his other works put together. Interrogating not so much Chekhovs text as the use to which society has put it, Barker turns Vanyas defeat into victory and converts a play of sadness into a tragedy of desire. A House of Correction is a meditation on cause and effect. Set on the eve of a war which may destroy a society, the seemingly arbitrary arrival of a messenger with a vital communication sets off an agonizing train of events in the lives of three desperate women. Few works of drama can have plumbed the depths of solitude and rage that characterize Let Me, a nightmare set on the frontiers of the Roman Empire during the barbarian invasions. Biblical narratives serve as the origin of two shorter works, of which Judith is a contemporary classic of cultural conflict, a reinterpretation of the status of the heroine in Israels war of survival against the Assyrians. In Lot and His God, the imminent destruction of Sodom simultaneously licenses the moral decay of an angel and the erotic epiphany of an adored wife.

Reviews

"If you buy this collection, do it for "(Uncle) Vanya," a dazzlingly intellectual rewrite of Chekhov's 1897 work of the less parenthetic name. At once critical and in awe of the Russian dramatist, Barker interrogates the balance between culture and instinct. Barker's characters are confused by the literary symbolism which surrounds them, hearing the crash of the waves yet unable to place the sea. Tantalisingly erudite, these poetic pieces are certainly worth a read."--"Buzz Magazine"

Author Bio

Howard Barker is an internationally renowned dramatist. There has been a recent resurgence of presentations of his plays in Britain, with particularly acclaimed productions at the Arcola and the Hackney Empire. He has a sizable following on the European mainland. Barker is also a poet and theorist of theatre, whose Theatre of Catastrophe, has defined a new form of tragedy for our times and has had a significant impact in the fields of literary and theatre studies.