Theatre and Crisis 1632-1642 (Cambridge Paperback Library).by Butler New<|

Theatre and Crisis 16321642Author(s): Martin Butler\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521310499, 978-0521310499\nSynopsis\nThis is a thorough re-evaluation of the drama written and performed in the decade leading up to the Civil War, the most seriously neglected period of English theatre. Martin Butler overturns long-held assumptions about the nature of Caroline theatre, its playwrights, plays and audiences. The theatrical tradition that was cut short in September 1642 was neither exhausted nor in retreat. Far from being subservient to or dependent on the court, the theatres were expressing sharply critical points of view. Dr Butler makes a strong argument for the value and vitality of Caroline theatre by tracing a drama of political unorthodoxy at court, in the non-courtly indoor theatres, and especially in the open-air theatres which voiced grievances that anticipated the political radicalism.