This introduction aims to share with readers the authors enjoyment of theturbulent 240year history of a theatre that tried often against the odds tobe modern. I... » 

This introduction aims to share with readers the authors enjoyment of theturbulent 240year history of a theatre that tried often against the odds tobe modern. In each of its five parts it deals successively with history andcultural context with the plays and the actors who caught the imagination oftheir era. Peter Thomsons text always approachable is enriched by quotationsand carefully selected illustrations that capture the spirit of the age underconsideration. Beginning with the reopening of the playhouses under licencefrom Charles II Thomson introduces the modern English theatre by breaking offat key dates 1700 1737 1789 and 1843 in order to explore both continuityand innovation. Familiar names and wellknown plays feature alongside theforgotten and neglected. This is a reading of dramatic history that keepsconstantly in mind the material circumstances that produced and sometimesoppressed a supremely popular theatre. «