Sweet Bird of Youth - Couverture souple

Williams, Tennessee

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1408114380 ISBN 13 : 9781408114384

Editeur : Methuen Drama, 2010

Synopsis

Sweet Bird of Youth is Tennessee William's atmospheric play of 1959 about Chance Wayne, the one-time heart-throb of his hometown who returns hoping to break into the movies and find the girl he loved in his youth. Accompanied by faded movie star, Alexandra Del Lago, grieving in a haze of drugs and alcohol for her lost youth, he discovers that time is shortly to catch-up with him and wreak a terrible retribution for his past actions. In its exploration of corruption, ageing and the effects of time, the play offers a magnificent study of the dark side of the American dreams of youth and fame. This Student Edition provides an extensive introduction and notes by Katherine Weiss. The introduction includes a chronology of Williams' life and times, a summary of the plot, commentary on the characters, themes, language and context, and a production history of the play. Together with questions for further study and notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the essential edition of the play for students of literature and drama.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams; 1911-83) was a US playwright, whose controversial plays dealt with themes of repressed sexuality and family conflict. Williams was the most popular playwright in America between 1945 and 1960, winning the Pulitzer Prize twice and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award four times. Amongst serious playwrights, only Eugene O'Neill equalled his achievements on the Broadway stage; several of Williams's plays were also made into successful films. The son of a shoe salesman, Williams grew up in some poverty in Mississippi and Missouri. Many of his early frustrations, which are reflected in his plays, arose from the prudery of his mother and the coarseness of his womanizing father, who, as his son's homosexuality became apparent, invariably referred to him as 'Miss Nancy'. The playwright revealed his homosexuality in his Memoirs (1975), having previously explored the subject in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. Williams tried his hand at fiction and poetry before turning to drama in the late 1930s, winning a Theatre Guild prize for the four one-act plays entitled American Blues in 1939. Recognition as a major playwright came with The Glass Menagerie, a tender work inspired by the tragic life of his sister, a schizophrenic. His next play, the brutal A Streetcar Named Desire, opened in 1947, winning the Pulitzer Prize and making a star of Marlon Brando. It was followed a year later by Summer and Smoke. In 1949, these three plays were running simultaneously in London. His later works included The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Orpheus Descending (1957), and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1959), which opened with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the leads. By the late 1950s, Williams was being accused of repeating himself, and after Period of Adjustment (1960) and The Night of the Iguana (1961), his plays were received unenthusiastically. During his later years, Williams became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol, suffering a nervous breakdown in 1969. He died in 1983.

Katherine Weiss is Associate Dean at California State University Los Angeles, USA. She was formerly Professor of English and Assistant Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Literature and Language, East Tennessee State University, USA. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin; Califronia State University and the University of Reading, UK (where she earned her PhD), she is chiefly interested in Modern and Contemporary Drama, and Irish Literature. She is the author of The Plays of Samuel Beckett (Methuen Drama, 2012) a stimulating analysis of Beckett's work, encompassing his stage, radio and television plays, and editor of the Student Edition of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Methuen Drama
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1408114380
• ISBN 13: 9781408114384
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 176
• Éditeur: Weiss Katherine
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible