The Ornament of Action: Text and Performance in Restoration Comedy

Holland, Peter

ISBN 10: 0521220483 / ISBN 13: 9780521220484

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979

About this Item

Clean, unmarked, firm hinges, sharp corners, clean boards and pages. DJ has very little wear to corners and spine with light fading thereto. TM/Drama/LitCrit.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1618976938020

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Ornament of Action: Text and Performance in Restoration Comedy
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521220483
• ISBN 13: 9780521220484
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Drama
  • Lit-Crit

About this title

Synopsis

How was Restoration comedies performed on the Restoration stage? How did Wycherley or Congreve expect their plays to be acted? How much were they influenced by theatrical conditions and conventions? What happened in performance, when the plays were graced with 'the ornament of action'? In this book, which was originally published in 1979, Peter Holland brings together the disciplines of theatre history and literary criticism in a close study of the manner and significance of the staging of plays in the Restoration. The dramatists, working with the strengths and weaknesses of their own theatre companies very much in mind, are shown using a whole range of staging techniques in order to help their audience understand their plays. The reader can visualise the plays as they must have looked at the time of the original performance. Throughout he challenges the conventional distinction between text and performance, and seeks to turn us from readers into spectators.

Book Description

In this book, which was originally published in 1979, Peter Holland brings together the disciplines of theatre history and literary criticism in a close study of the manner and significance of the staging of plays in the Restoration.