The collection makes a compelling case for the centrality of the theatre to the past and present of British television drama.
Screen plays is a ground-breaking collection that chronicles the rich and surprising history of stage plays produced for the small screen between 1930 and the present. The volume opens with a substantial historical outline of how plays originally written for the theatre have been presented by the BBC and ITV, as well as independent producers and cultural organisations. Subsequent chapters utilise a variety of critical methodologies to analyse a wide range of outside broadcasts from theatres, screen adaptations of existing stage productions, along with original television productions of classic and contemporary drama. Making a compelling case for the centrality of the theatre to British television's past and present, Screen plays opens up new areas of research for all those engaged in theatre, media and adaptation studies.
The collection makes a compelling case for the centrality of the theatre to the past and present of British television drama.
Screen plays is a ground-breaking collection that chronicles the rich and surprising history of stage plays produced for the small screen between 1930 and the present. The volume opens with a substantial historical outline of how plays originally written for the theatre have been presented by the BBC and ITV, as well as independent producers and cultural organisations. Subsequent chapters utilise a variety of critical methodologies to analyse a wide range of outside broadcasts from theatres, screen adaptations of existing stage productions, along with original television productions of classic and contemporary drama. Making a compelling case for the centrality of the theatre to British television's past and present, Screen plays opens up new areas of research for all those engaged in theatre, media and adaptation studies.
Introduction – Amanda Wrigley and John Wyver
1 Stages and the small screen: theatre plays as television drama
since 1930 – John Wyver
2 A duchess, a shoemaker and a knight: early modern drama, early
British television – Lisa Ward
3 ‘This genuine theatre condition’: Basil Dean and the 1938 BBC
outside broadcast of J. B. Priestley’s When We Are Married –
Victoria Lowe
4 ‘Our other Shakespeare’: Middleton’s tragedies on television,
1965–2009 – Susanne Greenhalgh
5 A revival, a reworking and an original: the Harold Pinter season
on Theatre 625 (BBC2, 1967) – Amanda Wrigley and Billy Smart
6 Regional drama from stage to screen: television adaptations by
Peter Cheeseman’s Victoria Theatre company – Lez Cooke
7 Granada Television’s experiment with The Stables Theatre Company,
1969–70 – John Wyver
8 From radical Black theatre production to television adaptation:
Black Feet in the Show (BBC, 1974) – Sally Shaw
9 Cedric Messina: producing theatrical classics with a decorative
aesthetic – Billy Smart
10 Abigail’s Party: ‘It’s not a question of ignorance, Laurence,
it’s a question of taste’ – Ruth Adams
11 Screen and stage space in Beckett’s theatre plays on television
– Jonathan Bignell
12 Television’s natural disposition? An analysis of Naturalism and
performance in relation to BBC productions of Ibsen’s plays –
Stephen Lacey
13 Remediating the real: verbatim plays on television in the new
millennium – Cyrielle Garson
14 The impact of television on scholarly editions of Shakespeare’s
plays – Neil Taylor
Index
Amanda Wrigley has held research posts on several AHRC-funded
projects, including 'Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British
Television' (University of Westminster) and 'Harold Pinter:
Histories and Legacies' (University of Reading).
John Wyver is Professor of the Arts on Screen at the University of
Westminster. He is also Director, Screen Productions at the Royal
Shakespeare Company and a writer and producer with the independent
media company Illuminations.
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