Theatre Censorship: From Walpole to Wilson Hardcover – 1 Mar 2008

Review

a highly commendable piece of scholarship (The Journal of Theatre Survey)

...one cannot but recommend this volume too highly...The book should appeal to a wide readership: theatre historians and scholars, and all students and general readers inquisitive about the political context of theatre censorship. (John F. Deeney NTQ)

[a] lively and detailed account (Lisa A. Freedman, Times Literary Supplement)

this well-written and thoughtful book shows that theatre, as with other areas of popular culture, is subject to controls on a number of fronts. The book's novel, cross-disciplinary approach and engaging style warrants a wide audience. (Guy Osborn, THES)

The authors cover an impressive four hundred years of history in this volume... their thorough analysis is effective (Lauren Arrington, Notes and Queries)

a ground-breaking work on censorship and theatre (Chris Arnot, The Guardian)

About the Author

David Thomas was appointed to a Lectureship in Drama at the University of Bristol in 1966. While at Bristol he directed plays, workshops and operas from a wide variety of periods. His research at Bristol was primarily concerned with Scandinavian theatre from the 18th to the 20th century. He published essays in Ibsenårbok, and chapters in various jointly authored volumes, as well as a monograph on Ibsen. In 1986 he was appointed Professor and Chairman of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick. While at Warwick he published a Documentary History of Restoration and Georgian Theatre, collections of plays, a monograph on Congreve, contributions to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, and a video on Restoration playhouses. He has contributed to various radio and television programmes. He is now a Professor Emeritus of the University of Warwick. David Carlton served for seventeen years as a Lecturer and a Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Warwick. He previously held similar positions at what is now the London Metropolitan University and at the Open University. He is author of five monographs on a range of topics involving British politics in the twentieth century and the West's response to terrorism; he is also co-editor of a further twenty-one volumes. His best-known book is Anthony Eden: A Biography. He has published widely in various academic journals and his journalistic work has been published in The Times; The Telegraph; The Spectator and The Listener. He has also appeared on various radio and television programmes including the BBC's Newsnight and Radio Free Europe. Anne Etienne taught courses in English literature and drama at Orléans from 1994 to 2000. Her research has since been focused on 20th-century censorship. In 2001 she was appointed to a Leverhulme-funded Research Fellowship at the University of Warwick to undertake archival and empirical research for the current volume. She has published articles on theatre clubs and censorship in several French journals. She has lectured in Drama at University College Cork since 2003. Her current research is concerned with British theatre since the 1960s and in particular with the work of Arnold Wesker.