Joseph Donohue

Volume Two begins in 1660 with the restoration of King Charles II to the throne and the reestablishment of the professional theater. It follows the far-reaching development of the form over more than two centuries to 1895.

The Cambridge History of British Theatre

Professor Emeritus of English Joseph Donohue

The Empire Theatre of Varieties and the Licensing Controversy of 1894

Fantasies of Empire

This two-volume addition to the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde contains full critical editions of two plays, Lady Lancing and The Importance of Being Earnest. These authoritative editions are based on all surviving manuscript material and other relevant documents. Composed rapidly between August and October of 1894 as a generically unorthodox four-act 'Serious Comedy for Trivial People', Lady Lancing was never produced or published in Wilde's lifetime. Unexpectedly, it was taken over by the actor-manager George Alexander, transformed over the author's objections into a three-act farcical comedy, and produced as The Importance of Being Earnest at Alexander's St James's Theatre, London, in February 1895. Published only in 1899, in an edition extensively revised by the author, it has never subsequently been out of print. Lady Lancing, meanwhile, has come to latter-day critical and scholarly attention as the first fruits of Wilde's brilliant concept of a new kind of farcical dramatization. Also included in this publication is a reconstructed edition of a dramatic fragment by Wilde, A Wife's Tragedy, based on a single, undated surviving manuscript. In addition to annotated critical editions of the two plays themselves, accompanied by extensive commentaries, these two volumes contain several historical and critical accounts of the long, complex early history of these two separate but closely related compositions. These accounts trace the gestation of Lady Lancing and its transformation into The Importance of Being Earnest and describe the abrupt closing of the first production of The Importance as a consequence of Wilde's ill-fated lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel in April 1895 and the two subsequent trials of Wilde himself for 'gross indecency', ending in his conviction and incarceration. These accounts are augmented by descriptions of the fascinating textual history of the two plays and are supplemented by appendices that provide additional information about Lady Lancing and The Importance of Being Earnest, including a survey of first production reviews, an acting script of In the Season (the curtain-raiser included in first-production performances), a tabular comparison of the texts of Lady Lancing and The Importance of Being Earnest, and a summary of the process by which the play became a perennial, international theatrical classic.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Lady Lancing

It was 1937 when Joseph Donohue first met Frank Milisits in grammar school. As they grew up together on the Upper East Side of New York City, the two boys kept scrapbooks on World War II, became junior aid-raid wardens, and attended block parties for returning veterans. But little did Joseph and Frank know that their fascination with war would eventually lead them one day to fight in a hostile climate thousands of miles away. In his Korean War memoir, Joseph Donohue chronicles the captivating story of how two naive twenty-year-old kids made a full-circle journey from draftees to basic training recruits to airborne troopers who somehow summoned the courage to jump out of the first planet they ever set foot in. As the young men arrived in Korea during a time of uncertainty and chaos, Donohue details how the two men quickly moved from days of complete boredom to hair-raising moments as the crawled in the rat-infested trenches, dodged booby traps and minefields, and risked their lives to keep hordes of enemy soldiers at bay. One year later, they returned home as combat veterans who has somehow survived terrifying battles and a one-in-nine chance of becoming a war casualty. Frank and Me at Mundung-ni provided an eye-opening glimpse into the realities of “The Forgotten War” and the compelling personal memories of two childhood pals who shared an impassioned journey to a war neither would ever forget.

A Korean War Memoir

Frank and Me at Mundung-ni

Oscar Wilde

Ruth Berggren

This unique volume reconstructs the original 1895 production of Wilde's timeless classic. Based upon a new, reconstructive method for the study of theatrical performance that aims to set the play securely in its historical and cultural moment, the edition offers a wealth of detail about the staging and acting and numerous first production and early revival photographs. The reconstructed text itself, differing in important ways from the 1899 first edition, recaptures the essential comic vitality of the play.

Joseph Donohue

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