ENG 445 - British Drama

Semester Hours: 4

This seminar course will immerse students in the essential, ground-breaking theater plays of the British and Irish stage of the last 150 years, stretching from the era of Victorian melodrama to the radical, sexy, and provocative drama of today. We shall introduce ourselves to the landmark playwrights who have notably influenced the way we dramatize stories on stage, in film, and on television. They include James M. Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Cecily Hamilton, Noel Coward, John Osborne, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Joe Orton, Enda Walsh, Tom Stoppard, and Martin McDonagh. We shall endeavor to understand these works as reflections of their times in Britain’s sociopolitical history. Class meetings will include video selections of productions and suggested film versions to sample.