Methuen's modern plays

Dissipated, boozing university professor and terminal cynic, Ben Butley is facing both the breakup of his marriage and the dissolution of a longtime affair with Joey, once his student now a fellow faculty member. When he runs aground of the petty University heirachy, Butley's ultimate fate is sealed.

"The Good Woman of Setzuan, written during Brecht's exile and set in pre-Communist China, is a parable of a young woman torn between obligation and reality, between love and practicality, and between her own needs and those of her friends and neighbors." "Eric Bentley provides here a reliable English version of one of Brecht's most popular plays. This performance-friendly translation is often used in the theater.". "Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is one of Germany's best-known playwrights. His social critiques, including The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children, and The Threepenny Opera, resonate with modern audiences and continue to be frequently performed."--BOOK JACKET.

'Bingo' uses the last days of a brooding and unheroic William Shakespeare to accuse art and capitalism of vile inhumanity. Historical evidence suggests that not long before his death Shakespeare agreed to the enclosure of common land near Stratford, which was beneficial to landowners such as Shakespeare, but disastrous for small tenants and the parish's poor. For Bond this incident is laced with damning echoes of King Lear's injustices, and motivates his portrayal of the writer as a bourgeois and apolitical capitalist, more occupied with his profits and rents than with the distress of those who depended on the land. 'Bingo' is a thorny cry against exploitation and passivity. It was first performed in 1973 at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter.

Secluded in his remand cell, a small-time criminal surrenders himself to sadistic fantasies of hatred and revenge. Selby's second novel is a claustrophobic descent into the tormented soul of a man trapped in a loveless society.

Diese drei Stücke ohne Handlung, ohne Szenenbilder und ohne Requisiten sind Sprechstücke, die, nach den Klangelementen der Beatmusik gebaut, die Sprache selbst zum Inhalt machen, es sind Versuche, auf dem Theater Wirklichkeit durch Sprache zurückzugewinnen. Sie bedienen sich der natürlichen Äußerungsform der Beschimpfung, der Selbstbezichtigung, der Beichte, der Aussage, der Frage, der Rechtfertigung, der Ausrede, der Weissagung, der Hilferufe. Dabei zerstört der Autor den Illusionscharakter auch des modernen Theaterstücks: die Spieler sind die Beobachter, das Publikum ist das Thema. Indem Handke das Theater aufhebt, macht er neues Theater.