Dramatis Personae

(Hardback)

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Description

This book examines "Passion Plays", "Mysteries and Moralities" as well as the folk farces that flourished during the Middle Ages. Philip Freund goes on to discuss developments during the Renaissance in Italy such as the commedia dell'arte, as well as exalted musical innovations culminating in operas and ballets. The book discusses the drama of Europe - including Spain, France, Germany, Holland and of course Britain - where theatre reached an extraordinary climax in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in the work of Shakespeare and others. Freund gives a summary of Shakespeare's plays and how they have been interpreted through the centuries and also examines in detail his contemporaries - Marlowe, Kyd, Ford, Beaumont, Fletcher and others - before considering the work of Jonson and Webster, two great dramatists who outlived the Bard.

Reviews

"'Stage by Stage may well turn out to be the most important study of all facets of theatre to be published in this century.' - The Stage 'Theatre buffs will welcome historian Freund's comprehensive survey... the richness is in the details, and nothing is omitted.' - Publishers Weekly"

Author Bio

PHILIP FREUND is a novelist, poet, documentary film writer and playwright as well as an essayist, literary critic and anthropologist. He is Professor Emeritus of Fordham University, New York, and has taught and lectured on drama and related subjects at other universities.