Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The History Play: From Early Modern Drama to the Present

The History Play: From Early Modern Drama to the Present

Shepherd, Simon
Grene, Nicholas

Hardcover

Series: Forms of Drama

Literary CriticismTheater History

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 15, 2026

ISBN10: 1350510270
ISBN13: 9781350510272
Publisher: Methuen Drama
Published: Oct 15 2026
Pages: 192
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.00 Width: 5.08 Depth: 7.79
Language: English

Traversing 400 years of drama, this book examines the history play as a distinctive form that has its origins in the Early Modern period and which evolves in each subsequent period according to the segment of history being dramatized and the changing conceptions of the state.

Much has been written on Shakespeare's history plays but very little on the overall form and whether it is distinguished by the historical accuracy of the drama, the relationship with the audience or the underlying political ideology. Defining the history play as one where the dramatic focus is on historical practice embodied in action rather than merely on the individual characters involved, a clear form emerges. Threaded through is a consideration of the changing understanding of history itself through the centuries and the ways in which playwrights have engaged with both the history of their own time, and the history of other times and cultures as it reflects their own.

Beginning with Shakespeare, his contemporaries Marlowe and Jonson, and the neocclassical Racine, the book moves to the long 19th century, considering plays by Goethe and Schiller, so influenced by Shakespeare, taking in Buchner, Ibsen and Schiller. The final part explores the 20th and 21st centuries, including the radical innovations of Shaw and Brecht, Miller's The Crucible, Churchill's early play Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and works by Tony Kushner and Tom Stoppard.

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