The Play of Personality in the Restoration Theatre by Anthony Masters

The Play of Personality in the Restoration Theatre by Anthony Masters

This study of Restoration theatre is specially concerned to present a context for the performance of those plays which so delighted - and mirrored the preoccupations of -Restoration society. Anthony Masters' own response to the manic excesses of Restoration drama, and his perception of its deeper tensions, make him an ideal guide to the plays and players of this small and closely-knit circle. His book is at the same time a wide-ranging analysis of the plays themselves, and a lively who's who to the complex relationships of the restoration stage. He discusses the role of Charles II and his mistresses; the gentlemen playwrights; the professionals (Dryden, Otway, Shadwell, etc.) and the players and playhouses. Liberal quotation from the plays, and from the papers of contemporary theatregoers, including Pepys and Evelyn, is complemented by the sixty-one illustrations of patrons, players and theatres. ANTHONYMASTERS graduated from King's College, Cambridge, with a first in classics. He was deputy theatre critic for The Timesfor two years before his death in 1985.

Decidedly and infectiously the work of an enthusiast.. a valuable introduction to the field by someone who has read plays, memoirs and theatre history of the period exhaustively for pleasure and with a subtly developed feeling for the dynamics and the dynamism of the drama ... This is a book to whet the undergratuate appetite for deeper investigation: Masters makes Restoration drama live in the theatre of the imagination. YEARBOOK OF ENGLISH STUDIES `These brief lives of dramatists, patrons and players are elegantly written...with a fine unostentatious range of reading.' THE TIMES`It provides an elegant and lightly written Who's Who to the animated theatrical and social scene of the day. * ALBION *

Anthony Masters is the author of eleven works of adult fiction - notably, Conquering Heroes (1969), Red Ice (1986, with Nicholas Barker), The Men (1997), The Good and Faithful Servant (1999) and Lifers (2001) - and, prior to his death, was in the process of completing another, Dark Bridges, which he thought would be his best. Many of these works carry deep insights into social problems that he gained, over four decades, by helping the socially excluded, be it by running soup kitchens for drug addicts or by campaigning for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Masters is also known for his eclectic range of non-fiction titles. It ranged from the biographies of such diverse personalities as Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled, 1972), Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin: the Father of Anarchism, 1974), Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: A Life, 1981) and the British secret service chief immortalized by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the Life of Maxwell Knight, 1984), to a history of the notorious asylum Bedlam (Bedlam, 1977).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780851153261
ISBN 10	0851153267
Title	The Play of Personality in the Restoration Theatre
Author	Anthony Masters
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Year published	1992-11-26
Number of pages	112
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.