Description: Now in paperback, from a leading historian and writer, a delightful exploration of the great English tradition of treading the boards.
The English Actor charts the uniquely English approach to stagecraft, from the medieval period to the present day. In thirty chapters, Peter Ackroyd describes, with superb narrative skill, the genesis of acting--deriving from the Church tradition of Mystery Plays--through the flourishing of the craft in the Renaissance, to modern methods following the advent of film and television. Across centuries and media, The English Actor also explores the biographies of the most notable and celebrated British actors. From the first woman actor on the English stage, Margaret Hughes, who played Desdemona in 1660; to luminaries like Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren; to contemporary multihyphenates like Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh, Sophie Okonedo, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ackroyd gives all fans of the theater an original and superbly entertaining appraisal of how actors have acted, how audiences have responded, and what we mean by the magic of the stage.Brief description: Peter Ackroyd is one of Britain's most respected historians and novelists. His many books include London: The Biography, Hawksmoor, and the History of England series.
Review Quotes: "Ackroyd's study of the English actor from medieval times to the modern day . . . [showcases] an astonishingly expansive cast of leading actors and actresses through the centuries, giving an inkling of what it might have been like to be in their company and watch them at their best. . . . His handsomely published and authoritative book stands as an invaluable account of an art form at which the English have so long excelled."-- "BBC History Magazine"