A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama: Volume 3, Beyond Broadway - Tapa dura

'Bigsby's style is lean but dense, pursuing ideas with imagination and fine scholarship. The book is plentiful in detail, rich in insight, and reliable in judgement.' Library Journal

'One of the greatest attractions of Bigsby's train of thought is his constant comparison between a sense of absurdity, early and late modernism, O'Neill and Albee. This is why Volume One of his Introduction is such exciting reading.' Journal of American Studies

In this, the third and final volume of his critical account of American drama in the twentieth century, Christopher Bigsby turns from the text-oriented drama of Williams, Miller and Albee (volume 2) in order to trace other, parallel theatrical developments of the post-war period, including contemporary groups and playwrights. Beyond Broadway denotes the geographical and spiritual challenges to prevailing standards which so fragmented the theatre of the 1960s in particular. Following his analysis of the Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway playwrights and theatres, Dr Bigsby separates the period into four main areas: performance theatre (including the Living Theatre and the Performance Group); the conjunction of dance, music and painting with drama in the 'theatre of images'; two successful contemporary playwrights, Sam Shepard and David Mamet; and finally the committed theatre exemplified in the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Chicano, black and women's theatre.