The Contemporary British History Play Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies

Contemporary British historical plays demonstrate different agendas for history itself. Marxist plays, for example, illustrate an historical dialectic leading to the emergence of Communism, while feminist historians expose the biases of a male dominated hegemony and confront the role of gender in history.

This book investigates how British history plays since 1956 reflect the methods and values of New History, in contrast to traditional biographical dramas that depict the lives of great men in the past. The volume discusses more than 50 British playwrights, including John Osborne, John Arden, Edward Bond, Robert Bolt, Pam Gems, Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill, Howard Barker, and Peter Shaffer.

Both playwrights and critics confront the implications of the idea that history is constructed and not simply found, and new approaches to history demand innovations in the staging and structuring of plays.