Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:    New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars    Biographies of the authors    Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events    Footnotes and endnotes    Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work    Comments by other famous authors    Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations    Bibliographies for further reading    Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Oscar Wilde’s legendary wit dazzles in The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the greatest and most popular works of drama to emerge from Victorian England. A light-hearted satire of the absurdity of all forms and conventions, this comic masterpiece features an unforgettable cast of characters who, as critic Max Beerbohm observed, “speak a kind of beautiful nonsense—the language of high comedy, twisted into fantasy.” This collection also includes Oscar Wilde’s most famous comedies, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, and An Ideal Husband, as well as his poetic tragedy Salomé—all written between 1891 and 1895, Wilde’s most creative period. George Bernard Shaw said of Oscar Wilde that he is “our most thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theater.”

    His tricks and turns have a purpose. They are bridges over a deep pit of sympathy and sorrow, illuminated by a tragic vision of stunted and frustrated lives.' Fintan O'Toole, Irish TimesMartin McDonagh's searingly brilliant new play premi�res at the National Theatre, London in November 2003.

    Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

    Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson’s career will find in Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times“Wilson’s juiciest material. The play holds the stage and its characters hammer home, strongly, the notion of newfound freedom.”—Michael Phillips, Chicago TribuneGem of the Ocean is the play that begins it all. Set in 1904 Pittsburgh, it is chronologically the first work in August Wilson’s decade-by-decade cycle dramatizing the African American experience during the 20th century—an unprecedented series that includes the Pulitzer Prize–winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Aunt Esther, the drama’s 287-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life. Gem of the Ocean recently played across the country and on Broadway, with Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Esther.Earlier in 2005, on the completion of the final work of his ten play cycle-surely the most ambitious American dramatic project undertaken in our history-August Wilson disclosed his bout with cancer, an illness of unusual ferocity that would eventually claim his life on October 2. Fittingly the Broadway theatre where his last play will be produced in 2006 has been renamed the August Wilson Theater in his honor. His legacy will animate the theatre and stir the human heart for decades to come.

    A masterful poet of the downtrodden, his plays portray life on New York's hardscrabble streets in a manner both tender and unflinching, while continually exploring the often startling gulf between who we are and how we perceive ourselves. Gathered in this volume is his current off-Broadway hit, Our Lady of 121st Street, a comic portrait of the graduates of a Harlem Catholic school reunited at the funeral of a beloved teacher, along with his two previous plays: the philosophical jailhouse drama Jesus Hopped the A Train and In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings, an Iceman Cometh for the Giuliani era that looks at the effect of Times Square's gentrification on its less desirable inhabitants.

    There is Kerry Max Cook, a Texan who was convicted of murdering a young woman even though she was found with another man's hair grasped in her fist--a man whom "Texas killed a thousand times, and just keeps on doing it" in his nightmares. And there is Delbert Tibbs, a black Chicago poet who speaks of his years on death row with anger and bitterness, yet also, as he says, "still sings." All their stories have been compiled and edited by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen into The Exonerated, a play that is both a riveting work of theater and an exploration of the dark side of the American criminal justice system.

    

    Langley is a concert pianist by profession but prefers his studies of the world's minutiae, all of which he considers collectible. His older brother, Homer, a former admiralty lawyer and aspiring intrigant, maintains the household and dreams of wilder times. These seem about to begin when the beautiful socialite Milly inserts herself into the Collyer m

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    Winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly-Akimbo focuses, with uncanny depth and quirky wit, on a sixteen-year-old girl suffering from a disease that causes her body to age nearly five times faster than it should.

    Prince Tartaglia's life is filled with misery until an evil witch and her equally evil henchmen curse him to search for three giant oranges. But this quest proves more fruitful than anyone could have imagined as a once-lonely prince discovers love, friendship, and laughter when he encounters wizards, monarchs, and a wild narrator who isn't sure how far removed from the story he really is.

    FIVE KINDS OF SILENCE is a terrifying portrayal of a family for whom rules, duties and punishments are the driving force. In AN EXPERIMENT WITH AN AIR PUMP in a world of scientific chaos, cloning and genetic engineering, the cellar of a house yields up the secrets of the scientific discoveries of 1799. In ANCIENT LIGHTS, Hollywood stars come home to the hills of Northumberland.The Memory of Water: "combines a flair for witty dialogue with a relish for the dynamics of theatre?a mistress of comic anguish" GuardianFive Kinds of Silence: "this quietly eloquent play" IndependentAn Experiment With An Air Pump: "teeming with interest, humour, eloquence and, above all, ideas?it's not often we see a new play with this much energy, variety and intelligence" IndependentAncient Lights: "a cracking, grown-up play?with a light touch that cuts surprisingly deep" Daily Telegraph

    Scheherazade's cliffhanger stories prevent her husband, the cruel ruler Shahryar, from murdering her, and after 1,001 nights, Shahryar is cured of his madness, and Scheherazade returns to her family. This adaptation offers a wonderful blend of the lesser-known tales from Arabian Nights with the recurring theme of how the magic of storytelling holds the power to change people. The final scene brings the audience back to a modern day Baghdad with the wail of air raid sirens threatening the rich culture and history that are embodied by these tales.

    His subsequent travels lead him to encounter the chaos of human desire from the perspective of a servile donkey.

    Five Comedies from the Italian Renaissance brings together the best of these works in lively new translations by Laura Giannetti and Guido Ruggiero, who also place the comedies in their cultural and social context. Presenting a fresh perspective on the Italian Renaissance, these deft translations allow modern readers to experience the original artistry and carnivalesque humor of these delightfully profane and irreverent literary classics.Contents: The Comedy of Calandro by Bernardo Dovizi de Bibbiena; The Mandrake Root by Niccolò Machiavelli; The Master of the Horse by Pietro Aretino; The Deceived by the Academy of the Intronati of Siena; and A Venetian Comedy (anonymous)

    It captures the vast landscapes of Schulz's extraordinary imagination and the startling absurdity and sensuality of his work."—Independent on SundayThe Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol: "An unsentimental evocation of peasant life, a hymn to the tenacity of love, and a Brechtian fable about the world's unfairness."—GuardianMnemonic: "Dwelling on memory and origins, it manages to be brilliantly original and unforgettable."—IndependentComplicite was founded in London in 1983 and has created many award-winning productions from adaptations of short stories and reinterpretations of classic texts as well as their own devised pieces.

    This collection brings together for the first time, four translations into English of Helene Cixous' plays. It is a unique and extraordinary resource for scholars, students, and theatre makers. The collection includes: The Perjured City, translated by Bernadette Fort; Black Sail, White Sail, translated by Donald Watson; Portrait of Dora, translated by Ann Liddle; Drums on the Dam, translated by Judith G. Miller and Brian J. Mallet; This exciting new anthology will disseminate her work to a wide and receptive English speaking audience.

    Hope and Charles are a pair of lonely twenty-somethings about to end a supremely uninteresting first date. But just as they say good night, the myriad possibilities of their futures and a life shared together come rushing to meet them. From their first kiss to their first child, from a horrible tragedy to a second chance, each moment moves with breath-taking speed. A love story told with theatrical flair, AN INFINITE ACHE is as dazzling as it is insightful.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Bob is a sociopathic slob, facing jail for throwing a man out of a car; Jack seems successful and self-disciplined but nurses his own considerable demons. Together they piece together a dark shared history, which includes the disappearance of their father when they were young.John Kolvenbach's debut is a darkly humorous tale with echoes of Sam Shepard and David Mamet, about the nature of redemption, and the extraordinary things that can happen during the course of an average day.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Book by Craig Pospisil

    Published for the first time and reprinted from the only surviving copy of the script, which was discovered in the CBS-TV vaults, Applause is proud to present The Shape of the River, an ambitious television drama by Horton Foote. Mark Twain once remarked that inside every person, "there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy." However, tragedy was a dimension of Twain's life that was largely concealed from the public until The Shape of the River, starring Shirley Knight, appeared on the acclaimed series Playhouse 90 in 1960. Foote's play explored the misfortune and loss that characterized Twain's last 15 years. From his heroic (and successful) attempt to repay almost $100,000 in debt by lecturing around the world (which he hated), to the deaths of his wife and two daughters, this last phase of his life was marked by an incredible amount of sadness and pain. Not seen since its initial broadcast, The Shape of the River has long held legendary status for fans of both Twain and classic television. The play is accompanied by commentary by Twain scholar Mark Dawidziak, who examines the writing and production of the teleplay, and considers its meaning for students of Twain and television. Also included are rare photos from the original Playhouse 90 taping.

    Prospero, exiled Duke of Milan, living on an enchanted island, has the opportunity to punish and forgive his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore—as well as to forestall a rebellion, to arrange the meeting of his daughter, Miranda, with an eminently suitable young prince, and, more important, to relinquish his magic powers in recognition of his advancing age. Richly filled with music and magic, romance and comedy, the play's theme of love and reconciliation offers a splendid feast for the senses and the heart.

    The clash of two cultures – two worlds – is described with psychological accuracy and depth. Alisa, a young Muslim refugee scarred by the Balkan war finds shelter with Magda, a representative of the common so-called civilised but self-destructive and self-loving western world. Magda, through the sadism arising from her despair and loss of purpose, her psychological confusion, causes the suicide of Alisa. Their relationship permeated as much with love as with hatred, is decanted through the dictatorship of language into a miraculous, irrational and mysterious atmosphere. In places, the style of the play is reminiscent of Pinter’s comedy of menace. The realistically based dramatic events are firmly grounded in a recognisable and actual contemporaneity. Poetic ambiguity facilitates universal interpretation, and here and there extends to the magical and surreal.

    Each volume explores the ways in which different directors, designeers and actors have interpreted and adapted an individual play in terms of narrative focus, themes and characters, scenery and costume. The focus is on productions at Stratford-upon-Avon from 1945 onwards, since the record of Shakespear performances at Stratford's theaters offers a wider, fuller and more various range of interpretation than is offered by any other theatre company. The volumes also set this record in a wider geographical and chronological context by means of a historical overview of earlier productions and of productions beyond Stratford.Published in conjunction with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, each volume features a wealth of photographs (many of them not previously seen in print) drawn from the archive of RSC performance materials held in the Trust's library at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford. Each volume also features cast-lists, prodcution credits, and performance dates for all of the productions covered. as well as an extensive list of the reviews cited for those productions.Shakespeare at Stratford will surprise, inform and delight both students and scholars of Shakespeare and performance history and the general reader with an interest in theatre.The Tempest is a strange and elusive play; which critics have interpreted in very different ways: as a drama of forgiveness and reconciliation, as an exploration of the limits of theatrical art, or as a play complicit with colonial exploitation. Prospero's island is a fearful yet enchanting place; a place suffused with music, and its storm, disappearing banquet and elaborate betrothal masque demand imaginative stagecraft. Stratford productions have steered their way through the play's complex, even contradictory potential, in fascinatingly varied fashion, and Daivd Lindley explores that variety both as evidence of the evolution of theatrical styles, and as a response to the changing critical fortunes of the play.(back cover)

    Through a bizarre chain of events and helped by family, friends, strangers, and even enemies, Szpilman meets the Marxist underground press, is sheltered by the proprietor of the café where he once performed, and, after the liberation, narrowly escapes death at the hands of his fellow survivors. Taking Sides, which stars Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves), depicts the post-war investigation of famed German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who was suspected of having been a Nazi sympathizer. Was Furtwängler a criminal or a victim? Did he heroically uphold the principle that art is above politics or did he cravenly use his status as a shield to hide behind? At what point does neutrality become complicity and naïveté and cowardice no excuse for not opposing evil? Set in the American Zone of occupied Berlin in 1946, Taking Sides raises many questions, but ultimately the answers depend on which side you take.With these two screenplays, Ronald Harwood reveals the shocking depths and the heartbreaking heights to which the human character can adhere in extreme conditions.

    Journey with the incomparable TJ Dawe as he mans a giant truck, becomes the unhelpful voice on the other end of the phone line, and compiles euphemisms while he stocks the shelves in a drugstore. In between are ruminations and wise observations on long-distance relationships, the history of Santa Claus, recreational Gravol, and why you should never mail meat, no matter what the clerk at the 7-11 tells you.

    Included in the collection are: "Pasolini/Pelosi or The God in Unknown Flesh: A Theatrical Enquiry into the Murder of Filmmaker Pier Paulo Pasolini, In Which Pier Paulo Pasolini Sees His Own Death in the Face of a Boy: A Defacement in the Form of a Play; My Night With Tennessee; Hester: An Introduction; Theatrelife"; and "More Divine: A Performance for Roland Barthes."

    As they face the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy, this one couple's decision to search beyond their trivial self-definition, to face every thought, every option becomes a path to healing, courage and growth.

    As characters unwittingly echo each other, we come to see them as aspects of one controlling consciousness, the playwright's. For ultimately, metaphysically, Pirandello's deep subject is the creative process, his characters' as well as his own.An outer, physical world of objective events thus surrounds an inner, subjective one of feelings and perceptions to form an incipient play-within-play - another of Pirandello's legacies to twentieth century theater. {Guernica Editions}