Shakespeare's Serial History Plays [Paperback]

A re-reading of the two sequences of Shakespeare's English history plays.Shakespeare's Serial History Plays provides a re-reading of the two sequences of English history plays, Henry VI-Richard III and Richard II-Henry V. Reconsidering the chronicle sources and the staging practices of Shakespeare's time, Grene argues that the history plays were originally designed for serial performance. The book looks both at their original creation in the 1590s and at modern serial productions or adaptations, from famous stagings such as the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1960s Wars of the Roses through to the present day.Shakespeare's Serial History Plays provides a re-reading of the two sequences of English history plays, Henry VI-Richard III and Richard II-Henry V. Reconsidering the chronicle sources and the staging practices of Shakespeare's time, Grene argues that the history plays were originally designed for serial performance. The book looks both at their original creation in the 1590s and at modern serial productions or adaptations, from famous stagings such as the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1960s Wars of the Roses through to the present day.This study provides a re-reading of the two sequences of English history plays, Henry VI-Richard III and Richard II-Henry V. Reconsidering the chronicle sources and the staging practices of Shakespeare's time, Grene argues that the history plays were originally designed for serial performance. The book looks at their original creation in the 1590s and at modern serial productions or adaptations, such as the famous Royal Shakespeare Company's 1960s Wars of the Roses and others.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Chronology of major serial productions/adaptations; Note on the texts; Introduction: Part I. The Story of the Histories: 1. Serialising the chronicles; 2. Staging the national epic; Part II. Henry VI-Richard III: 3. War imagined; 4. The emergence of character; 5. Curses and prophecies; Part III. Richard II-Henry V: 6. Lookil$