Description:

In four volumes of Blood on the Stage, more than four hundred crime-themed plays produced in the 20th century were examined. But as any theater lover knows, depicting acts of wrong-doing is not a recent phenomenon. The stark, violent plays of Seneca in Ancient Rome were followed by liturgical dramas of the Dark Ages that drew on both the Old and New Testaments. The Golden Age of Elizabethan drama boasted masterful plays drenched with treachery, bloodshed, and horror. In Blood on the Stage, 480 B.C.-1600 A.D.: Milestone Plays of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, Amnon Kabatchnik analyzes more than 50 blood-splattered plays that passed the test of time. Beginning with masterpieces like Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, and Medea by Euripides, this volume spans centuries of equally compelling dramas, such as The Haunted House (200 B.C.), Phaedra (c. 60 A.D.), and The Killing of Abel (mid-15th century). Later works discussed in this volume include Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, as well as several plays by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, notably The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and Hamlet.A prequel to the four volumes of Blood on the Stage, the plays in this volume represent Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and Elizabethan England. The entries are arranged in chronological order and include plot synopses, biographical sketches of playwrights and actors, and details about productions and critical reception, if available. From the killing of Abel by his brother Cain to Hamlet's revenge of his father's murder, Blood on the Stage, 480 B.C.-1600 A.D. provides a critical overview of some of the most significant representations of criminal behavior on stage.