John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor (Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama) Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor (Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama) Book

Toward the end of his life, master actor John Barrymore became an embarrassment: he was a classic drunken has-been who could neither pull it together nor pack it in. But this unusual biography spends most of its pages on Barrymore's golden age in the 1920s and 1930s, describing in amazing pre-videotape detail his performances at the height of his powers, playing what may be the 20th century's definitive Hamlet, along with Macbeth and other classical roles. Michael Morrison draws on books, memories, reviews, and other material to present painstaking line-by-line recreations of Barrymore's most shining performances.Read More

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  • Book Description

    John Barrymore's Richard III and Hamlet, first seen in New York during the 1919-20 and 1922-23 seasons, stand as high-water marks of twentieth-century Shakespearean interpretation. Michael Morrison reconstructs these historic performances through analysis of the production preparation, audience response, reviews, and memoirs. Tracing the Victorian and Edwardian antecedents of Shakespearean performance, this book situates Barrymore's distinctive contribution in light of past and ensuing tradition. As well, it provides a biographical sketch of one of the most revered and tragic actors of the 20th century. "This young artist, profiting by the lessons of tradition...casts it boldly aside and emerges into the rarefied atmosphere of a new art, greater because it is new, stronger because it is built upon an old foundation." Brooklyn Times, March 9, 1920

  • Product Description

    When the 1920's generation was casting off Victorian inhibitions, John Barrymore emerged as the first actor to bring the vocal and physical manner of a post-World War I gentleman to Shakespeare's RICHARD III and HAMLET, and yet reinterpret time-honored roles in light of modern psychological theory. Here Michael Morrison reconstructs these historic performances and traces their Victorian and Edwardian antecedents. 40 photos.

  • 0521620287
  • 9780521620284
  • Michael A. Morrison
  • 28 September 1997
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 416
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