Taking Our Amusements Seriously

Taking Our Amusements Seriously: The Realist One-Act Play in the English Theatre, 1900 to 1920. This study looks at the one-act play-form during what was arguably its greatest period, from the end of Queen Victoriäs reign to the years after the First World War. The author analyses the form very carefully in terms of aesthetic and social considerations. He argues that it played a central part in the "theatricalisation" of the music hall, the presentation of critical social commentary, the campaign for improved social rights and suffrage for women, and the discussion about the suffering by soldiers and civilians alike during the time of the Great War. The author addresses these issues by identifying the key foreign and native influences on the development of the short play, and by looking in minute detail at the plays themselves.