In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: From R.U.R. to Westworld:Personal Revolt, Digital Technology, and the Making of a New Robot Ur-text Bella Poynton (bio) The 100th anniversary of Karel Čapek's formative play R.U.R. (1920), or Rossum's Universal Robots, fell during 2020, a challenging year for live theatre due to the COVID-19 pandemic.1 The original production of R.U.R

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Thomas, Lord Cromwell Recontextualized:An Economic Fable in Response to The Merchant of Venice Igor Djordjevic (bio) The True Chronicle Historie of the Whole Life and Death of Thomas Lord Cromwell by "W.S.," printed in 1602, was first performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men around 1599, and it remained part of the company's repertory.1

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Communal Justice in Shakespeare's England: Drama, Law, Emotion by Penelope Geng Jessica Winston (bio) Penelope Geng, Communal Justice in Shakespeare's England: Drama, Law, Emotion. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, Pp. xiv + 257 + 9 b/w illus. $75.00. Studies in early modern law and literature have emphasized professional

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Shadows of the Enlightenment: Tragic Drama during Europe's Age of Reason ed. by Blair Hoxby Daniel Gustafson (bio) Blair Hoxby(ed). Shadows of the Enlightenment: Tragic Drama during Europe's Age of Reason. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2022. Pp. vii + 320. $99.95. The fate of eighteenth-century tragedy in the long

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Living with Shakespeare: Saint Helen's Parish, London, 1593-1598 by Geoffrey Marsh Christopher Highley (bio) Geoffrey Marsh. Living with Shakespeare: Saint Helen's Parish, London, 1593-1598. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Pp. 512 + 170 color illus. $29.95. This is the latest of several recent books about the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin by Olivia Landry Sophie Nield (bio) Olivia Landry. Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. Pp 256 + 8 b/w illus. $79. This book opens with a book burning. In May 2016, as

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Making a Play for God: The Sacre Rappresentzioni of Renaissance Florence by Nerida Newbigin Pamela M. King (bio) Nerida Newbigin. Making a Play for God: The Sacre Rappresentzioni of Renaissance Florence. 2 Vols. Toronto: Victoria University Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2021. Pp. 1039 + 194 illus. $60. Making

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Theatre of Anthony Neilson by Trish Reid Marc Shaw (bio) Trish Reid. The Theatre of Anthony Neilson. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017. Pp viii + 215. $60. Trish Reid's book The Theatre of Anthony Neilson is the first full-length study of the Scottish playwright's work, making it an important moment in Anthony Neilson

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Le Théâtre du Soleil: The First Fifty-Five Years by Béatrice Picon-Vallin Nancy Jones (bio) Picon-Vallin, Béatrice. Le Théâtre du Soleil: The First Fifty-Five Years. Translated by Judith G. Miller. Routledge, 2021. v + 466 pages. Cloth $160.00, Paper $44.95, eBook $33.71. Originally published in French in 2014, Béatrice Picon-Vallin's

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Igor Djordjevic is an Associate Professor of Early Modern English literature at York University and the Chair of the English Department at Glendon College. He is the author of Holinshed's Nation: Ideals, Memory, and Practical Policy in the Chronicles (Ashgate, 2010) and King John (Mis)Remembered: The Dunmow Chronicle, the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: “It’s only a play”: Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), Adamson’s Wife (2019), and the Relevance of Historical Theatre Catherine Quirk (bio) Between late 2017 and the closure of the theatres in March 2020, in London alone there were at least a dozen productions of Henrik Ibsen’s plays. To mention only a few of these, at the Almeida, Robert

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: “Home Away from Home”: Diasporic Consciousness and Everyday Third Places in Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles (2017) Moonyoung Hong (bio) For much of its history, the geography of modern drama has been that of “home.”1 But the ideas of home and belonging have increasingly stirred

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Staging the Market Mechanisms of Medieval Mating in Den utro hustru Mads Larsen (bio) Scandinavia’s only extant Shrovetide farce, Den utro hustru (The Unfaithful Wife), embodies a unique ethos in regard to mating and gender relations.1 The school play, presumably written by a university-educated teacher around 1500, dramatizes humanistic

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: From Wilder’s Our Town (1938) to Churchill’s Escaped Alone (2016): Mediatization and the Collapse of the Large Into the Local Scott Proudfit (bio) Though separated by almost a century, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938) and Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone (2016) investigate the same central question: what is the relationship between the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual ed. by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers Samar Zahrawi (bio) Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers (eds). The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual. Cambridge: Cambridge

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Shakespeare and Latinidad ed. by Trevor Boffone and Carla Della Gatta Matthieu Chapman (bio) Trevor Boffone and Carla Della Gatta (eds.). Shakespeare and Latinidad. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Pp. xvii + 256. $105.00 hardcover, $24.95 paper, $24.95 ebook. “There is little need,” Ruben Espinosa has observed

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Hercules and the King of Portugal: Icons of Masculinity and Nation in Calderón’s Spain by Dian Fox Victoria M. Muñoz (bio) Dian Fox. Hercules and the King of Portugal: Icons of Masculinity and Nation in Calderón’s Spain. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 336 + 5 illus. $55.00 Hardback and ebook. Hercules and

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Comedy and Crisis: Pieter Langendijk, the Dutch, and the Speculative Bubbles of 1720 by Joyce Goggin and Frans De Bruyn Fran Teague (bio) Joyce Goggin and Frans De Bruyn. Comedy and Crisis: Pieter Langendijk, the Dutch, and the Speculative Bubbles of 1720. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 280 + 12 b/w

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Theatres of Feeling: Affect, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage by Jean I. Marsden Fiona Ritchie (bio) Jean I. Marsden. Theatres of Feeling: Affect, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xii + 223. $105 hardcover, $28.99 paper, $23.00 ebook. In 1763, James

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception by George Oppitz-Trotman June Schlueter (bio) George Oppitz-Trotman. Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xv + 336 + 21 illus. $90.00 hardcover. It is clear from the preface to Stages of Loss that George

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: “It’s only a play”: Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), Adamson’s Wife (2019), and the Relevance of Historical Theatre Catherine Quirk (bio) Between late 2017 and the closure of the theatres in March 2020, in London alone there were at least a dozen productions of Henrik Ibsen’s plays. To mention only a few of these, at the Almeida, Robert

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: “Home Away from Home”: Diasporic Consciousness and Everyday Third Places in Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles (2017) Moonyoung Hong (bio) For much of its history, the geography of modern drama has been that of “home.”1 But the ideas of home and belonging have increasingly stirred

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Staging the Market Mechanisms of Medieval Mating in Den utro hustru Mads Larsen (bio) Scandinavia’s only extant Shrovetide farce, Den utro hustru (The Unfaithful Wife), embodies a unique ethos in regard to mating and gender relations.1 The school play, presumably written by a university-educated teacher around 1500, dramatizes humanistic

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: From Wilder’s Our Town (1938) to Churchill’s Escaped Alone (2016): Mediatization and the Collapse of the Large Into the Local Scott Proudfit (bio) Though separated by almost a century, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938) and Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone (2016) investigate the same central question: what is the relationship between the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual ed. by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers Samar Zahrawi (bio) Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Robert Myers (eds). The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual. Cambridge: Cambridge

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Shakespeare and Latinidad ed. by Trevor Boffone and Carla Della Gatta Matthieu Chapman (bio) Trevor Boffone and Carla Della Gatta (eds.). Shakespeare and Latinidad. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. Pp. xvii + 256. $105.00 hardcover, $24.95 paper, $24.95 ebook. “There is little need,” Ruben Espinosa has observed

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Hercules and the King of Portugal: Icons of Masculinity and Nation in Calderón’s Spain by Dian Fox Victoria M. Muñoz (bio) Dian Fox. Hercules and the King of Portugal: Icons of Masculinity and Nation in Calderón’s Spain. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 336 + 5 illus. $55.00 Hardback and ebook. Hercules and

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Comedy and Crisis: Pieter Langendijk, the Dutch, and the Speculative Bubbles of 1720 by Joyce Goggin and Frans De Bruyn Fran Teague (bio) Joyce Goggin and Frans De Bruyn. Comedy and Crisis: Pieter Langendijk, the Dutch, and the Speculative Bubbles of 1720. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 280 + 12 b/w

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Theatres of Feeling: Affect, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage by Jean I. Marsden Fiona Ritchie (bio) Jean I. Marsden. Theatres of Feeling: Affect, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xii + 223. $105 hardcover, $28.99 paper, $23.00 ebook. In 1763, James

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception by George Oppitz-Trotman June Schlueter (bio) George Oppitz-Trotman. Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xv + 336 + 21 illus. $90.00 hardcover. It is clear from the preface to Stages of Loss that George

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: IntroductionThere's No Place Like London: Theatrical Landscapes of a City in Recovery Harry Derbyshire (bio), Nicholas Holden (bio), and Mark O'Thomas (bio) At approximately 5:30pm (GMT) on Monday March 16, 2020, the West End and theatres across London as well as the rest of England were brought to an abrupt halt. The public was instructed

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The Resistible Rise of Isli-Crouch Upon-Thames:New Metropolitanism in New British Drama Graham Saunders (bio) In 2003, I attended a performance of Euan Rose and Laurie Hornsby's musical Wallop Mrs Cox at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Here I experienced something extraordinary. Set in the city's central market and shopping area known as

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: 'Be Yourself, Inasmuch as it Suits the Job':"Authenticity" in Practice at Berlin's Maxim Gorki and London's Royal Court Emily Goodling (bio) and Lianna Mark (bio) "Authenticity" is something of a buzzword in recent, politically engaged theatre.1 Central to the appeal of London's Royal Court Theatre for many years, the concept has gained

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Flexibility, Abstraction, Orthodoxy:The Lehman Trilogy and (the) British Capital Alex Ferrone (bio) On March 12, 2020, crisis struck Broadway. In response to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, then–New York governor Andrew Cuomo banned all public gatherings of more than five hundred people, effectively shuttering all Broadway theatres (only

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: To Remind You Of My Love:London's Love Affair With The American Musical Laura MacDonald (bio) When American actor Jake Gyllenhaal commented to a journalist that British musicals no longer had a significant presence on Broadway, then-Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington responded with a roundup of the moment's British musical theatre

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: High Rise eState of Mind:Love and Honesty in the Midst of London's Neoliberal Housing Crisis Katie Beswick (bio) It is a miserable day in November 2020. One of an interminable string of miserable days since the announcement of the latest "lockdown" measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 in the UK during the pandemic. I'm in my bedroom

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Forty Years On:The Funding Conundrum at The Finborough Sue Healy (bio) London's Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat fringe venue with a noted history of attracting emerging playwrights such as James Graham, Mark Ravenhill, and Laura Wade, who have progressed to become voices of national and international standing. By identifying, fostering

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: 'Creating Change Where it Matters the Most':Artistic Directorship and Representation in the London Theatre Harry Derbyshire (bio) Britain has changed drastically in the period since the Second World War, both in terms of the demographic make-up of its population and in terms of prevalent social attitudes, but British theatre has sometimes

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Afterword Nicholas Holden (bio) As the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the virus's most transmissible strain to date, took hold across the United Kingdom in December 2021, with London at its epicentre, the impact of illness and enforced isolation on productions brought fresh challenges to the city's cultural landscape coming into the new

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Katie Beswick is Program Director of Acting and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London. She is the author of Social Housing in Performance: The English Council Estate On and Off Stage (Methuen 2019) and of Making Hip Hop Theatre: Beatbox and Elements (with Conrad Murray—Methuen 2022) as well

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: 1619:The Dramatic Performance Traditions of North America's First Enslaved Africans Jeroen Dewulf (bio) The 400th anniversary of the 1619 arrival in Virginia of a "Dutch man of war" carrying "20. and odd Negroes" sparked renewed interest in the identity of the earliest enslaved Africans known to arrive in the English colonies in North

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: "I am underneath and oxygen is running out":Suicide as Genetically Inherited or as the Melancholy Identification with the Suicidal Mother in Alice Birch's Anatomy of a Suicide Alireza Fakhrkonandeh (bio) and Yiğit Sümbül (bio) "Like its real-life counterpart, stage-suicide can express a wish for posthumous control over the lives and feelings

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Coronada y el toro by Francisco Nieva Casey Kasten (bio) Francisco Nieva, Coronada y el toro, ed. Komla Aggor. Cambridge: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2020. Pp. 99 + 4 b/w illus. $17.99. Despite his undeniably important role in Spanish theatre, Francisco Nieva remains understudied both in Spain and abroad. An accomplished

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Performing Commedia dell'Arte, 1570-1630 by Natalie Crohn Schmitt Robert Henke (bio) Natalie Crohn Schmitt. Performing Commedia dell'Arte, 1570-1630. London and New York: Routledge, 2020. Pp. 120. $59.95. Natalie Crohn Schmitt, who has already written a solid analysis of Flaminio Scala's published scenario collection entitled

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage by Melinda Powers Karelisa Hartigan (bio) Melinda Powers. Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage. (Classical Presences) New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. x + 230. $81.79. Greek drama on the American stage: a good thing. The ancient classics

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Theatre and Knowledge by David Kornhaber Paul A. Kottman (bio) David Kornhaber. Theatre and Knowledge. London: Red Globe Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 82. $9.99 paper, $7.99 e-book. David Kornhaber's Theatre and Knowledge is about as long, in terms of word count, as a typical academic essay, though it is published in the series 'Small

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Practical Cues and Social Spectacle in the Chester Plays by Matthew Sergi Pamela M. King (bio) Matthew Sergi. Practical Cues and Social Spectacle in the Chester Plays. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2020. Pp. Xi + 318. $88.30 cloth, $36.00 paper, $28.50 e-book. In this distinctive study of the Chester

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Laughter and Civility: the Theater of Emma Gad by Lynn R. Wilkinson Ulla Kallenbach (bio) Lynn R. Wilkinson. Laughter and Civility: the Theater of Emma Gad. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2020. Pp. 328 + 8 b/w illus. $79.95 cloth. This book is unusual in that it concerns a Danish female playwright, Emma Gad (1852-1921)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Tennessee Williams, T-shirt Modernism and the Refashionings of Theater by S. E. Gontarski John S. Bak (bio) S. E. Gontarski. Tennessee Williams, T-shirt Modernism and the Refashionings of Theater. London/New York: Anthem, 2021. Pp. xii + 118 + 19 b/w illus. $24.99 paper, $23.80 eBook. Tennessee Williams, T-shirt Modernism

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theatre by Susan Blakely Klein Elizabeth Oyler (bio) Susan Blakely Klein. Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theatre. Cambridge, MA: Harvard East Asian Monographs 435. Pp. xvi + 401. $70.00. Dancing the Dharma: Religious

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Gaming the Stage: Playable Media and the Rise of the English Commercial Theater by Gina Bloom Rebecca Bushnell (bio) Gina Bloom. Gaming the Stage: Playable Media and the Rise of the English Commercial Theater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018. Pp. xii + 276 + 25 color illus.. $55.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. Also available