The Oxford Dictionary of Plays
The Oxford Dictionary of Plays
By Michael Patterson
Published by Oxford University Press, 2005
This is a 6" by 9", black clothbound book running to 523 pages including an index of characters and an index of playwrights, plus a classified list of included plays, a preface and a brief bibliography.
The preface begins, "This volume sets out to provide useful information and brief commentaries on the 1,000 most significant plays of world theatre." Plays from around the world are included, but it's the English speaking audience that's considered in determining what plays to include; the date of first translation into English is always included for plays in translation and plays from anglophone countries are given extra weight.
1,000 plays to represent world theatre from its beginning to the present is not many. The editor had to be a little brutal in deciding what to exclude. The result is a handy, compact volume that many will find incomplete.
For each included play, where relevant, entries provide a title; alternative titles when existent (mainly for different translations); date and place of first performance; date of first publication; date of translation into English; genre (with terms explained in the preface); setting and time of action; composition of cast; and a couple of paragraphs giving a synopsis and some commentary. Most entries are around a half a page long. They are arranged in alphabetical order by title and not divided into sections by time period or geography.
The synopses and commentary are light and fun to read for an OUP reference book, making me more interested in the plays they talk about.
This is a useful and entertaining reference book, good for readers and theatre lovers both.
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