Michael Billington

Harold Pinter has acted on stage, screen and radio, he has appeared on countless political platforms, and his work has been celebrated in festivals at Dublin's Gate Theatre and New York's Lincoln Center. In 2005, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and in 2006, the European Theatre Prize.

Harold Pinter

A biography of the playwright Harold Pinter and a study of his work as writer, actor and director. His political beliefs are viewed from the perspective of his life, which he began as an only child in Hackney, where he was one of a group of youths delighting in intellectual wordplay and badinage.

The Life and Work of Harold Pinter

State of the Nation: British Theatre since 1945 looks at post-war Britain from a theatrical perspective. It examines the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the Attlee years to the satire boom of the Sixties and the growth of political theatre under Tony Blair in the post-Iraq period. Featuring detailed evaluations of writers from J. B. Priestly and Terence Rattigan to Alan Bennett and David Hare, Billington is continuously insightful and incisive. As Britain's longest-serving theatre critic Michael Billington is uniquely placed to offer an authoritative overview of modern British theatre, and the book offers a passionate defence of the dramatist as the medium's key creative figure. Controversial, witty and informed, State of the Nation offers a fresh and challenging look at the vast upheavals that have taken place in British society, and the theatre which documents and challenges it, in the course of sixty turbulent years. '[Billington] views his subject as a "vehicle of moral enquiry" and brings to bear wide experience, astute opinion and diligent research to write what for many might become the definitive book on theatre in the period between the departures of Churchill and Blair . . . This book should be a must for Christmas stocking of anyone interested in theatre in this country. It will give readers hours of pleasure and in many cases, the odd splutter of indignation as a forthright opinion does not fit in with their own. That is the mark of a good critic and Michael Billington is one of the very best.' British Theatre Guide

British Theatre Since 1945

State of the Nation

A classic of theatre criticism re-issued to mark Michael Billington's thirtieth year as a drama critic.

A Critic's View of Modern British Theatre

One Night Stands

"The best theatrical read of the year." – British Theatre Guide A book of selected theatre reviews from 1992 to 2020 from one of the foremost authorities on British theatre. Starting each chapter is a brief commentary on the developments of that era and the social, political and cultural context within which this theatre was being produced. Also included are key obituaries and letters in response to reviews written, providing a rich collection of curated archival material. Following on from his first collection, One Night Stands, Michael Billington's chronicle offers a rich, authoritative insight into British theatre over the last 3 decades from his unique professional perspective. It begins with Tony Kushner's UK premiere of Angels in America at the National Theatre in 1992 and culminates with Inua Ellams's celebrated adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the same venue almost 30 years later. En route, we're exposed to the fallibility of theatre criticism through his much-regretted original criticism of Sarah Kane's Blasted and its role in identifying major talents at the first opportunity. Having recently retired from his 48-year position as the Guardian newspaper's drama critic during which time he wrote around 10,000 theatre reviews, Michael Billiington was Britain's longest-serving theatre critic. Through his work, he was present at an eye-watering number of premieres during this time and witnessed first-hand the exciting developments in British theatre over the past 30 years and the substantial pressures it faced - never more so than today.

British Theatre from 1992 to 2020

Affair of the Heart

A book of selected theatre reviews from 1992 to 2020 from one of the foremost authorities on British theatre. Starting each chapter is a brief commentary on the developments of that era and the social, political and cultural context within which this theatre was being produced. Also included are key obituaries and letters in response to reviews written, providing a rich collection of curated archival material. Following on from his first collection, One Night Stands, Michael Billington's chronicle offers a rich, authoritative insight into British theatre over the last 3 decades from his unique professional perspective. It begins with Tony Kushner's UK premiere of Angels in America at the National Theatre in 1992 and culminates with Inua Ellams's celebrated adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the same venue almost 30 years later. En route, we're exposed to the fallibility of theatre criticism through his much-regretted original criticism of Sarah Kane's Blasted and its role in identifying major talents at the first opportunity. Having recently retired from his 48-year position as the Guardian newspaper's drama critic during which time he wrote around 10,000 theatre reviews, Michael Billiington was Britain's longest-serving theatre critic. Through his work, he was present at an eye-watering number of premieres during this time and witnessed first-hand the exciting developments in British theatre over the past 30 years and the substantial pressures it faced - never more so than today.

Distinguished theatre critic and presenter Michael Billington has made a personal selection taken from the Dictionary of National Biography of approximately 130 mini-biographies spanning a wide spectrum of people who have played some part in shaping the culture of the worlds of stage andscreen in Britain.This title, following on from the success of Brief Lives, which was first published in hardback in 1997 and subsequently in paperback, will be published alongside two other similar titles, Political Lives and Literary Lives.As Michael Billington details in his very entertaining introduction, the choice of entries has been based partly on the subject of the entry and partly on the individual biographer and their own insight into the life of the subject.The biographies include actors, critics, entertainers, directors, and pioneers in film and theatre.From Somerset Maugham to Eric Morecambe, Richard Burton to Noel Coward, and Tony Hancock to Alfred Hitchcock.Examples of entries:Moira Shearer on Frederick AshtonMichael Denison on Noel CowardElizabeth Pollitt on Gracie FieldsRachael Low on Cary GrantArthur Marshall on Tony HancockAlan Bennett on Russell HartyPaul Johnson on Philip Hope-WallaceRalph Richardson on Alexander KordaMargot Fonteyn on Lydia LopokovaEric Ambler on James MasonJohn Gielgud on Margaret RutherfordBarry Took on Kenneth WilliamsThe selected entries, such as those above, together create a highly readable and fascinating anthology, which gives some insight into the broader picture of the world of theatre, film, and TV in Britain as we know it today.

Stage and Screen Lives

Rachel Douglas

Helga Zepp-LaRouche

EIR RELEASES ROAD-MAP'' TO THE NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER: THE NEW SILK ROAD BECOMES THE WORLD LAND-BRIDGE'' Nov. 19 (EIRNS)--EIR's comprehensive study of the progress of the Eurasian Land-Bridge project which Lyndon and Helga LaRouche have championed for over 20 years, has finally been completed. The official release date is Dec. 1. The 374-page report, entitled The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, '' is nothing less than a conceptual, and often physical, road-map'' to a New World Economic Order. This path is currently being charted by the nations of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), who are leading a dynamic of global optimism toward real economic development, complete with new credit institutions and major high-technology projects for uplifting all mankind. After an introduction by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the report lays out the "Metrics of Progress," based on the economic scientific principles developed by renowned physical economist Lyndon LaRouche. It then proceeds region by region, beginning with China and Russia, to present the stunning progress, and plans, which have been made toward the Eurasian Land-Bridge design that the Chinese government laid out in 1996, and other nations have begun to rally behind in recent years. The report, complete with many full-color maps of its featured development corridors, is available in pdf, for $200, and in soft cover print edition for $250 and, now in hard cover print edition for $300.00.

The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge - Hard Cover

Having surveyed post-war British drama in State of the Nation, Michael Billington now looks at the global picture. In this provocative and challenging new book, he offers his highly personal selection of the 100 greatest plays ranging from the Greeks to the present-day. But his book is no mere list. Billington justifies his choices in extended essays- and even occasional dialogues- that put the plays in context, explain their significance and trace their performance history. In the end, it's a book that poses an infinite number of questions. What makes a great play? Does the definition change with time and circumstance? Or are certain common factors visible down the ages? It's safe to say that it's a book that, in revising the accepted canon, is bound to stimulate passionate argument and debate. Everyone will have strong views on Billington's chosen hundred and will be inspired to make their own selections. But, coming from Britain's longest-serving theatre critic, these essays are the product of a lifetime spent watching and reading plays and record the adventures of a soul amongst masterpieces.

Michael Billington

About

Books

Join the club