The Theatre of Martin Crimp

Second Edition

Aleks Sierz

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781408184417
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781472517012
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Drama
• Index: Literature

First published in 2006, Alek's Sierz's The Theatre of Martin Crimp provided a groundbreaking study of one of British theatre's leading contemporary playwrights. Combining Sierz's lucid prose and sharp analysis together with interviews with Martin Crimp and a host of directors and actors who have produced the work, it offered a richly rewarding and engaging assessment of this acutely satirical playwright. The second edition additionally explores the work produced between 2006 and 2013, both the major new plays and the translations and other work.

The second edition considers The City, the 2008 companion play to The Country, Play House from 2012 and the new work for the Royal Court in late 2012. The two works that have brought Crimp considerable international acclaim in recent years, the updated rewrite of The Misanthrope which in 2009 played for several months in the West End starring Keira Knightley, and Crimp's translation of Botho Strauss's Big and Small (Barbican, 2012), together with Crimp's other work in translation are all covered. The Theatre of Martin Crimp remains the fullest, most readable account of Crimps's work for the stage.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
• INTRODUCTION: ‘AT TWO SHIFTS FROM REALITY?’
• 1 ‘A KNOCK AT THE DOOR’
• 2 ‘DENIAL, BRUTALITY AND SHEER HUMAN CONFUSION’
• 3 ‘PRIVILEGED DISTANCE FROM DEATH AND DISMEMBERMENT’
• 4 ‘FRENCH IS MY FILM OR TV’
• 5 ‘DIALOGUE IS INHERENTLY CRUEL’
• 6 ‘HEARING THEIR VOICES’
• 7 ‘VIEWED WITH HOSTILITY AND SUSPICION’
• 8 ‘MY PLAYS EMIT CRITICISM’
• CONCLUSION: ‘LOOKING FOR CONSTRAINTS’
• APPENDIX: ATTEMPTS ON HIS LIFE
• AFTERWORD
• TIMELINE
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX