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The Methuen Drama Book of Plays from the Sixties

Roots; Serjeant Musgrave's Dance; Loot; Early Morning; The Ruling Class

Joe Orton author Arnold Wesker author Peter Barnes author Edward Bond author John Arden author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:31st Jan '08

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Methuen Drama Book of Plays from the Sixties cover

An outstanding collection of five great plays from the sixties, introduced by Graham Whybrow. Roots: 'The passion of Mr Wesker's theme is matched by the living fire in his writing...its quality is undiminished by the passing years' Bernard Levin Serjeant Musgrave's Dance: "A spell-binding, mind-challenging drama that touches greatness" Michael Billington, Guardian Loot: "Orton is the Oscar Wilde of the Welfare State gentility" Observer The Ruling Class: "A scorching and savage tragedy, yet its jokes are innumerable" Sunday Times

This collection contains major works by some of the most important playwrights to emerge during the late fifties and early sixties, many of them collectively labelled "Angry Young Men", most of them associated with the Royal Court Theatre.Five outstanding plays from the British theatre of the 1960s. This volume contains major works by five of the most important playwrights ot emerge during the late fifties and early sixties. Bold, challenging and iconoclastic, these plays are landmarks of post-war British theatre. Roots by Arnold Wesker focuses on the homecoming of young Beatie Bryant who returns to her family of Norfolk farm workers with stories of her boyfriend Ronnie. Serjeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden is set in a mining town in the 19th century, with a group of soldiers returned from a colonial war. But when Musgrave is asked to keep the peace with the colliery workers, he decides to do so in a rather unusual way. Loot by Joe Orton is a brilliant parody of the skeleton-in-the-cupboard crime genre, exploding the very notions of English decency, good citizenry and traditional 'positions'. Edward Bond's Early Morning re-imagines the time of Victoria and Albert caught up in a military coup plotted by Disraeli. Peter Barnes' Ruling Class describes the fall out in an aristocratic family after the 14th Earl commits suicide and leaves his estate to a schizophrenic Franciscan friar who is under the illusion that he is Jesus.

Roots - 'it has an urgent topicality. Wesker is writing about the freedom of the mind: the lifetime challenge of thinking for yourself and shaking off the prejudices of your class' Sunday Times

ISBN: 9781408105887

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 33mm

Weight: 440g

544 pages