Since Shakespeare, no period has produced more brilliant and varied British theater than the last 100 years. In modern London, plays matter. They are part of the cultural dialogue of the nation. They have been exported with great success to America and the rest of the English-speaking world.

The plays of Wilde, Shaw, Coward, Beckett, Osborne, Pinter, and Stoppard hold up a mirror to the age, matter greatly to Britain’s idea of itself, and feed reflection on the dilemmas and difficulties of modern life.

This course traces the evolution of the stylistic conventions of the British play, from the genteel drawing-room comedies of the late 19th century to the radical political theater of the last decade.