Зарубежная драматургия
Различные книги в жанре Зарубежная драматургияThe Trojan Women
"In his clear preface, Gilbert Murray says with truth that The Trojan Women, valued by the usage of the stage, is not a perfect play. «It is only the crying of one of the great wrongs of the world wrought into music.» Yet it is one of the greater dramas of the elder world. In one situation, with little movement, with few figures, it flashes out a great dramatic lesson, the infinite pathos of a successful wrong. It has in it the very soul of the tragic. It even goes beyond the limited tragic, and hints that beyond the defeat may come a greater glory than will be the fortune of the victors. And thus through its pity and terror it purifies our souls to thoughts of peace." So begins the introduction to «The Trojan Women» by Euripides as translated by Gilbert Murray.
Berenice
The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. In this volume of Racine's plays we find «Berenice», the sixth of twelve plays by the author. One of Racine's more popular plays in the modern era it was not performed often until the 20th century. In this work Racine draws upon the histories of Roman historian Suetonius, who recounts the story of the Roman emperor Titus and Berenice of Cilicia. Titus, whose father Vespasian has died, is presumed to be free to marry his beloved Berenice, queen of Palestine. However public opinion against the marrying of a foreign queen may put a wrinkle in Titus' plans.
The Hour-Glass (prose)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. His father's love of reading aloud exposed him early on to William Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and the pre-Raphaelites, and developed an interest in Irish myths and folklore. Yeats was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and scorn for modern science. He was intrigued by the idea of mysticism, yet had little regard for Christianity. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and received honorary degrees from Queen's University (Belfast), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His Morality play, «The Hour Glass», appeared on stage as early as 1902, and underwent many revisions by its final version in 1922. This edition contains the prose version of that play. The story presents a Fool, a Wise Man and an Angel who sort through questions of faith, doubt and the Wise Man's unrelenting rationalism. In this edition we have Yeats' prose version of the play.
The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays (The Complete Plays of J. M. Synge)
Edmund John Millington Synge (1871-1909), an Irish poet, playwright and prose writer, was also one of the cofounders of the storied Abbey Theatre. Synge was known as a strange and enigmatic man, quiet and reserved, not even understood by his own family members. After graduating from school, Synge decided to pursue music, but his shy nature prevented him from performing, causing him to turn to literature as a creative outlet. When it opened at the Abbey Theatre in 1907, his most acclaimed play, «The Playboy of the Western World», met rioting and chaos, as it garnered a very hostile reaction from the Irish public. Arthur Griffith, an Irish nationalist, described the play as «a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to from a public platform.» Synge suffered from Hodgkin's disease, and died shortly before his 38th birthday. This collection includes: «The Playboy of the Western World», «Riders To The Sea», «In The Shadow Of The Glen», «The Tinker's Wedding», «Deirdre Of The Sorrows», and «The Well of the Saints».
John Bull's Other Island
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injustices, seeing poverty and general unfairness afoot, and would go on to address this in many of his works. In 1876, Shaw joined his mother in London where he would finally attain literary success. Though written in his typical comedic fashion, John Bull's Other Island was the only play Shaw wrote that took place in Ireland, his birthplace. The play illustrates interest in both Irish and English cultures, and was received very well by critics. It is the story of two civil engineers: Larry Doyle, an Irishman who has turned his back on his heritage to fit in with English society and his business partner, Englishman Tom Broadbent.
Mrs. Warren's Profession
"Mrs. Warren's Profession" is George Bernard Shaw's classic play that centers on the relationship between Mrs. Warren, a prostitute, and her prudish Cambridge-educated daughter Vivie, who is horrified to discover that her mother's wealth was acquired through the operation of whore-houses. Shaw offers up this play «to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together.»
Cathleen Ni Houlihan
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and received honorary degrees from Queen's University (Belfast), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It can be difficult to characterize Yeats. He was a complicated man whose work reflected the internal struggle he felt between art and life. In 1899 Yeats helped found the Irish National Theatre Society, which later became the famous Abbey Theatre of Dublin. Written in collaboration with Lady Gregory, «Cathleen Ni Houlihan» appeared on the bill of plays produced in 1902 by the theatre, and although a short work, it was frequently revived until World War II. The story is based on the battle at Killala, one of many conflicts in Ireland's long fight for independence. Yeats depicts the love of family, poverty, anguish and hardship of the Irish peasantry through the symbolic portrayal of Ireland as a female spirit.
The New Inn, or, The Light Heart
Benjamin Jonson's career began in 1597 when he held a fixed engagement in «The Admiral's Men», and although he was unsuccessful as an actor, his literary talent was apparent and he began writing original plays for the troupe. Jonson had a literary knack for absurdity and hypocrisy, a trait that made him immensely popular in the 17th century Renaissance period. However, his reputation diminished somewhat in the Romantic era, when he began to be unfairly compared to Shakespeare. Although nearly all of his most famous works were produced between 1605 and 1620, he continued to write until his death in 1637. «The New Inn, or The Light Heart» was performed in 1629, only a year after Jonson suffered a stroke. The story takes place in an inn-house, where Lady Frances Frampul meets the melancholy Lord Lovel, and a complex series of far-fetched events ensues.
Tartuffe and Other Plays
This work includes seven of the plays that accredited Molière as the greatest and best-loved French playwright of all times: «The Pretentious Young Ladies,» «The School for Husbands,» «The School for Wives,» a comedy of infidelity and his first great success, «The Critique of the School for Wives,» «The Impromptu of Versailles,» «Tartuffe,» a highly controversial play in its time, and «Don Juan.» Although «Tartuffe» was immediately censured and banned for several years after its appearance on the stage because of its strong focus on religious hypocrisy, it is considered today to be one of Molière's masterworks. These plays are highly revered for their humor, imagination, and their keen observations of humanity. The actor and playwright realized early on that in order for comedy to be successful, it must have a basis in truth; in this way his plays emanate a sense of reality and universality that withstand the tests of time.
The Vikings at Helgeland
Henrik Ibsen wrote the following of his 1857 drama, 'The Vikings at Helgeland': «It was in the Icelandic family sagas that I found, in full measure, what I needed of human covering for the moods, ideas and thoughts of which I was full at that time, or of which I had at any rate a more or less clear idea. Up till then I had been ignorant, indeed hardly heard of, these ancient Nordic literary contributions to the history of the people of our saga times. By chance I got hold of N. M. Petersen's excellent translation – excellent at least as regards the tone of the language. In these family chronicles with their various relationships and episodes between man and woman, woman and woman, altogether between human being and human being, I was met by lives of personal, rich, living content; and it was in living together with all these single, individual, personal women and men that the first raw, vague draft of 'The Vikings at Helgeland' arose.»