Publisher's Synopsis
Trilby and Other Plays is a new selection of English plays that had wide success on both sides of the Atlantic. Each achieved its greatest fame through the talents of a particular star performer. In Buckstone's Jack Sheppard , a spectacular and popular adaptation of Ainsworth's much dramatized novel, the rascal hero was played by the comedienne Mary Keeley. Dion Boucicault's The Corsican Brothers starred Charles Kean as telepathic twins and featured the famous stage-effect of the Corsican-trap. Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin became a star vehicle by default when E. A. Sothern improvised the role of Lord Dundreary to such effect that his performance became the rage on both the British and American stage. That President Lincoln was assassinated watching the play adds an extra macabre dimension to its interest. Finally, Paul Potter's dramatization of the novel Trilby achieved cult status after Herbert Beerbohm Tree built up the sinister Svengali into a mythical force of artistic creativity and evil genius.;This book is intended for students from undergraduate level up studying drama, Victorian literature, theatre studies, cultural studies. Also actors and directors.
