Modern American Drama

Williams, Miller, Albee, and Shepard

The best of modem American drama is represented in the seventeen essays of this collection. They explore the works of four of the most celebrated playwrights of the twentieth century: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Sam Shepard. Among the rich variety of modem American playwrights these four stand above the rest. All four have created works that have received great critical acclaim and produced intense critical controversy. Very different in temperament and style, they bring strikingly different perspectives to their work; and yet all share a fascination with social and family structures, and all demonstrate extraordinary gifts with language. Each playwright is discussed in four or five essays, each essay in tum deals with one or two aspects of one play. Together these essays, originally published in the journal Modern Drama, provide a penetrating study of recent American theatre through the work of four of its very best dramatists.

DOROTHY PARKER is a professor of English at Victoria College, University of Toronto.

EDITED BY DOROTHY PARKER

ESSAYS ON Modern American Drama Williams, Miller, Albee, and Shepard

Published in association with Modern Drama and the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, University of Toronto, by UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 1987 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada Reprinted in 2018 ISBN 0-8020-3433-0 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-8020-3434-2 (paper)

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Essays on modem American drama

ISBN 0-8020-3433-0 (bound) ISBN 978-0-8020-3434-2 (paper)

1. American drama - 20th century - History and criticism. I. Parker, Dorothy, 1928- 11 . University of Toronto. Graduate Centre for Study of Drama. Ill. Title: Modem drama.

PS350.E88 1986 812'.54'09 c86-095099-9 For R.B.P.