Playing Out the Empire
Ben-Hur and Other Toga Plays and Films, 1883-1908. A Critical Anthology
Seiten
1994
Clarendon Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-811990-6 (ISBN)
Clarendon Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-811990-6 (ISBN)
A collection of the most important playscripts and film scenarios of the "toga play", a genre of theatrical melodrama which flourished in the late-19th century and which re-emerged in silent cinema, and later in Hollywood "epics". The book casts new light on Victorian social and cultural history.
Mayer doesn't want his book to be catagorized in the United States section of any history catalogues. This is the first collection of the most important playscripts and film scenarios of the `toga play' a genre of theatrical melodrama which flourished in the late nineteenth century and which re-emerged in silent cinema and later `epics'.
Set in the post-Republican Roman Empire, toga plays and films presented Roman and Jewish heroes, Christian virgins, seductive `adventuresses', insane Emperors, savage lions, and racing chariots. But, as David Mayer shows, the plays also ventured clandestinely into issues of class, gender, religion, immigration, and imperialism and hence shed new light on British and American social and cultural history. Among the restored scripts and scenarios included here - all of which are previously unpublished and generously illustrated - are those of Claudian (1883), the most popular of all Victorian melodramas The Sign of The Cross (1895), and the stage spectacular Ben Hur (1899) and its earliest cinematic version (1907). D.W. Griffith's first toga film The Barbarian Ingomar (1908) is represented by a lengthy selection of film stills.
At a time of growing interest in the relationship between Victorian popular theatre and early cinema, this ground-breaking publication brings to light a highly significant - but critically neglected - theatrical and cinematic genre.
Mayer doesn't want his book to be catagorized in the United States section of any history catalogues. This is the first collection of the most important playscripts and film scenarios of the `toga play' a genre of theatrical melodrama which flourished in the late nineteenth century and which re-emerged in silent cinema and later `epics'.
Set in the post-Republican Roman Empire, toga plays and films presented Roman and Jewish heroes, Christian virgins, seductive `adventuresses', insane Emperors, savage lions, and racing chariots. But, as David Mayer shows, the plays also ventured clandestinely into issues of class, gender, religion, immigration, and imperialism and hence shed new light on British and American social and cultural history. Among the restored scripts and scenarios included here - all of which are previously unpublished and generously illustrated - are those of Claudian (1883), the most popular of all Victorian melodramas The Sign of The Cross (1895), and the stage spectacular Ben Hur (1899) and its earliest cinematic version (1907). D.W. Griffith's first toga film The Barbarian Ingomar (1908) is represented by a lengthy selection of film stills.
At a time of growing interest in the relationship between Victorian popular theatre and early cinema, this ground-breaking publication brings to light a highly significant - but critically neglected - theatrical and cinematic genre.
The music of toga drama, Katherine Preston; "Claudian", Henry Herman and W.G. Wills; "The last days of Pompeii", James Pain; "The sign of the Cross", Wilson Barrett; "Ben-Hur" (play), William Young; "The charioteers", Marshall Moore; "Ben-Hur" (film), the Kalem Company; "The barbarian Ingomar", D.W. Griffith.
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 17.2.1994 |
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Zusatzinfo | halftones |
Verlagsort | Oxford |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 144 x 223 mm |
Gewicht | 1 g |
Themenwelt | Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater |
Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV | |
ISBN-10 | 0-19-811990-9 / 0198119909 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-811990-6 / 9780198119906 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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