Coward the Dramatist, 1st ed. 2024 Morals and Manners Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries Series

Discussions of Coward?s achievement in the theatre between 1920 and 1966 have tended to stay with the colourful biography. The more analytical literary approach adopted here places Coward?s success in its wider theatrical context, making the connections with the work of other dramatists. He developed his technique according to what worked with theatre audiences. Taking up the well-made play, he brought in a more colloquial dialogue, explored, for instance, the morality and psychology of marriage and free love, and frequently exploited the dramatic possibilities of characters grouped into two camps. The book considers both the ?pleasant? and ?unpleasant? plays (to use the Shavian terms), and the episodic patriotic plays. It Includes Coward?s ambivalent approach to the ?theatre of war? in the 20th century. (123)

1.         Introduction

2.         Love and Marriage

3.         Morals and Manners

4.         Comedies of Realism and Romance

5.         The Theatre of War

7.         Drama and Contemporary Society

8.         Post-War Drama and Fiction

9.         Last Plays

10        The Entertainer

Roger Kojecky has held teaching positions in Tokyo and London University (lecturing on drama). He has been Secretary of the Christian Literary Studies Group, Oxford, and edits The Glass, covering a range of academic literature with articles and reviews. 

Discusses dramatic technique in all of Coward’s major plays

Considers both the ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ plays, as well as the episodic patriotic plays

Explores Coward’s ambivalent approach to the ‘theatre of war’ in the 20th century