二十世纪英国戏剧(21世纪英语专业系列教材)

        二十世纪英国文学之大事莫过于英戏的繁荣，先是爱尔兰戏剧的复兴和萧伯纳经典的诞生，之后便是约翰·奥斯本的《愤怒的回顾》谱写了戏剧史上的神话，也由此揭开了英国戏剧连绵半个世纪波澜壮阔的画卷——阿诺德·威斯克、爱德华·邦德、哈罗德·品特、霍华德·布伦顿、大卫·埃德伽、大卫·海尔和汤姆·斯托帕特、卡里尔·丘吉尔——由莎氏代表的文艺复兴仿佛看到了可与自己对峙的群峰。透过对四个阶段十二位剧作家及作品的介绍和评述，本书作者力图描摹那发生在昨天英戏丹青上的跌宕起伏，和读者一起坐观云卷云舒，共仰那高过云端的一片灿烂。

    Pre-War British Drama
Chapter 1  Pre-War British Drama
Chapter 2  George Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion
Chapter 3  John Millington Synge: The Tinker''s Wedding
                                  "New Drama" and the First Wave
Chapter 4  Post-1956 "New Drama" and the First Wave
Chapter 5  John Osborne: Look Back in Anger
Chapter 6  Arnold Wesker: Chicken Soup with Barley
Chapter 7  Edward Bond: Lear
Chapter 8  Harold Pinter: The Dumb Waiter
    The Second Wave
Chapter 9  The Second Wave of Post-war British Drama
Chapter 10 Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Chapter 11 Howard Brenten: The Romans in Britain
Chapter 12 David Hare: Skylight
    Women Dramatists
Chapter 13 Women Dramatists after 1970s and Alternative Theatres
Chapter 14 Caryl Churchill: Vinegar Tom
Chapter 15 Sarah Kane: Blasted
Selective Bibiliography

The play is built on the title character Christy Mahon, a hapless but likeable young man, who thinks he has killed his father in a fight and escapes to a remote part of north Mayo. The local publican, Micheal James, allows him to remain as a potboy to safeguard his daughter, Pegeen Mike, while he attends a wake. Pegeen Mike, an attractive, strong-willed, and quick-tempered young woman, falls in love with Christy, much to the indignation of her cousin and would-be suitor Shawn Keogh. Like Michael Dara in The Shadow of the Glen, Keogh's character, weak, cowardly and in thrall to the Catholic church in the form of the local priest, forms a sharp contrast to Christy as Synge's embodiment of the "rampant, double-chinned vulgarity" that he observed on his travels in the west of Ireland. Pegeen Mike draws from Christy the confession that he has killed his father with the blow of "a loy." This news spreads like wildfire among the tightly policed community of the peninsula. Christy's romantic tale of parricide makes him a hero among the local women, being pursued not only by Pegeen but also Widow Quin who remains loyal to him to the end. Christy's valor at the local sports in winning the horse race on the strand confirms his role as a hero and makes him truly "the playboy of western world." But then, Old Mahon, Christy's father, shows up with a bandaged head and exposes him. The villagers give up their embrace of Christy, and turn upon their hero despite his offer to "slay his da" a second time. Pegeen leads them in the effort to bring him to due process of the law. Appalled by seeing Pegeen turn on him, Christy escapes from their clutches and tames his bullying father. Then the father and son wander off together from the stage, leaving Pegeen disappointed and protesting in an agony of "Oh my grief, I 're lost him surely. I've lost the only Playboy of the Western World."
Even when the play was in rehearsal, Lady Gregory had written to Synge, "I feel we are beginning the fight for our lives." Lady Gregory's anxiety proved to be right. On the night of the play's premiere, at first the audience was receptive, but as the play ran on, they became increasingly uncertain how they should respond to this strange tale of a young man who wandered into a remote Mayo community claiming to have killed his father. And when Christy chased his father outside to kill him again, the darkened air in the theatre suddenly burst: there was bedlam of hisses and yells in the auditorium. Even though police were called, the roit continued until the house and stage lights were put out, silencing the protestors with darkness.