In this creative study of history and popular culture, W. D. King ingeniously illustrates how a long-forgotten instance in theatre history can reveal the very process of historical change itself. Late in the nineteenth century, Henry Irving, the leading actor-manager of the English stage, was scathingly attacked by George Bernard Shaw for his popular performance in Conan Doyle's play, A Story of Waterloo. Shaw's review was one of the first onslaughts in a war against the old guard of the English stage, against Victorianism, against England and Empire itself. King's depiction of this event and its aftermath illuminates the period's crucial values and cultural issues, and is presented in a manner that is both convincing and highly entertaining.
From the Inside Flap
"This is an extraordinary, provocative, and informative book which covers a wide range of aspects of the theatre of the time and touches upon a large number of individual artists and personalities. The book locates a theatrical phenomenon in the larger culture, drawing upon documents around and beyond the theatre itself. It will shake up complacent scholars, generate a new methodological freedom, and open up a whole period to sophisticated and creative cultural analysis."--Cary M. Mazer, author of Shakespeare Refashioned
"W. D. King has developed an original close-reading of a particular (and only apparently marginal) episode of theatrical history and has placed that episode within a network of crucial cultural issues and values. The book is original in methodology, elegant in its argument, and persuasive in its conclusions."--Joseph R. Roach, author of The Player's Passion
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