Radical Stages: Alternative History in Modern British Drama

This volume examines the evolution of British historical drama from John Osborne’s 1956 landmark Look Back in Anger to the 1980s. Peacock illustrates how the ruling group within a society establishes a cultural hegemony by which it perpetuates its values and demonstrates how the historical drama of the period was employed as a weapon in an assault upon this cultural hegemony. Among dramatists examined are Howard Brenton, Trevor Griffiths, Edward Bond and David Edgar. The study analyzes how the revolutionary and social movements of the period, including the women’s movement, are reflected in its historical drama and speculates on the future of British historical drama in the changing political climate of the 1990s.