About the Book This is the first major book-length study for four decades to examine the plays written by D. H. Lawrence, and the first ever book to give an in-depth analysis of Lawrence's interaction with the theatre industry during the early twentieth century. It connects and examines his performance texts, and explores his reaction to a wide-range of theatre (from the sensation dramas of working-class Eastwood to the ritual performances of the Pueblo people) in order to explain Lawrence's contribution to modern drama. F. R. Leavis influentially labelled the writer 'D. H. Lawrence: Novelist'. But this book foregrounds Lawrence's career as a playwright, exploring unfamiliar contexts and manuscripts, and drawing particular attention to his three most successful works: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd , The Daughter-in-Law , and A Collier's Friday Night . It examines how Lawrence's novels are suffused with theatrical thinking, revealing how Lawrence's fictions - from his first published work to the last story that he wrote before his death - continually take inspiration from the playhouse. The book also argues that, although Lawrence has sometimes been dismissed as a restrictively naturalistic stage writer, his overall oeuvre shows a consistent concern with theatrical experiment, and manifests affinities with the dramatic thinking of modernist figures including Brecht, Artaud, and Joyce. In a final section, the book includes contributions from influential theatre-makers who have taken their own cue from Lawrence's work, and who have created original work that consciously follows Lawrence in making working-class life central to the public forum of the theatre stage.
Lonergan, Patrick: - Patrick Lonergan is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at National University of Ireland in Galway.
Moran, James: - James Moran is Head of Drama in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. His research is primarily concerned with modern anglophone literature, with a particular interest in the theatre of twentieth-century Ireland. One of the main strands of his research explores how revolutionary politics and dramatic literature interact. He is the author of Staging the Easter Rising (2005), The Theatre of Sean O'Casey (Methuen Drama, 2013), The Theatre of D.H. Lawrence (Methuen Drama, 2015) and Modernists and the Theatre (Methuen Drama, 2022). He has also edited a volume of plays by political radicals such as Thomas MacDonagh and James Connolly (Four Irish Rebel Plays, 2007).
Wetmore Jr, Kevin J.: - Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. is professor of theatre arts at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA, the author and editor of ten books including The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films, and a contributor to numerous volumes on sci-fi, pop culture and religion, including essays on Godzilla, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica. His areas of expertise include Japanese theatre, African theatre, Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, stage combat and comedy. He is co-editor with Patrick Lonergan of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama's Critical Companions series.
