Mirrors of our playing

the long version

"For centuries, theater has maintained a central role in the development and preservation of artistic, social, and political themes in society. Yet in recent decades, theater has taken an increasingly marginal role. In this book, Thomas R. Whitaker examines the reasons for the marginalization of this important and influential art form, considering not only histories of various dramatic forms, but also the individual histories of various playwrights and their times."--BOOK JACKET. "The whole of Mirrors of Our Playing is founded on the understanding that a play is a manifold mirror of the "playing" that is our lives; therefore, the play is shaped by a complex interaction between the paradigms that make up our view of the world and the reflection of these paradigms in the "mirror" that is the play."--BOOK JACKET. "Focusing on both script and performance, this book takes a fresh look at modern English-speaking drama, from its Anglo-Irish beginnings to its contemporary cross-fertilizations and international dispersals. It shows how our most important theater has been shaped in accord with several major paradigms, and it examines four notable presences in that theater - Lord Byron, Samuel Beckett, Wole Soyinka, and Peter Brook."--BOOK JACKET.