This book, covering the history of the British stage during the crowded half-century from 1900, shows, above all, what an exciting place the theatre has been. It does not deal with its subject in abstract terms. It is the work of a dramatic critic who is a playgoer by choice as well as by profession, and who here treats of every section of the drama from the poet's stage and the theatre of ideas to farce and musical comedy. All the important playwrights of this time - as well as actors - are considered here, from Shaw to Christopher Fry; the survey covers every form of theatrical art; and the provincial theatres are not forgotten.

Author Biography

J.C.Trewin was a British journalist, drama critic and theatrical historian. His parents were Cornish, but he was born in Plymouth in 1908 and brought up in Cornwall. Educated at Plymouth College, his first job was as a cub reporter on the city's Sunday newspaper, the Western Independent, in 1926. After six years he left for London and joined the Morning Post as a reporter and drama critic. On the paper's closure in 1937 he moved to The Observer, doubling as a drama critic and later as literary editor. From the early 1950s he concentrated on the theatre, working for a number of publications including Punch, the Listener, the Birmingham Post, the Illustrated London News and The Lady. He wrote some forty books of theatre history and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1981. He died in 1990. He is memorialised by the British Critics' Circle in an award that bears his name (and that of his wife, Wendy) for the best Shakespearean performance of the year.