Blood on the Stage, 1600 to 1800: Milestone Plays of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem

2017 | Essays

Audiences throughout the centuries have always been drawn to theatrical productions that feature criminal activity. Playwrights from Sophocles to Anthony Shaffer have been more than willing to satisfy those cravings with productions that feature an assortment of dastardly deeds. Never was this more apparent than in the 17th and 18th centuries, where crime lurked from stage left to stage right and every bloody spot in between. In Blood on the Stage, 1600 to 1800: Milestone Plays of Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, Amnon Kabatchnik profiles near fifty works of theft, treachery, court intrigue, incest, and murder produced over these two centuries. Among the plays discussed in this book are The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, Horace Walpole's The Mysterious Mother, Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, and George Lillo's The London Merchant, which was based on an actual case of murder. This volume also includes American plays such as The Prince of Parthia by Thomas Godfrey and William Dunlop's The Fatal Deception. William Shakespeare is also represented with the classics Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear.

Entries are presented chronologically, and each includes a plot synopsis, production data, opinions by critics and scholars, and biographical sketches of playwrights and key actors. Blood on the Stage, 1600 to 1800 will appeal to theater scholars, researchers, and any who immerse themselves in the genre of suspense, both in print and on stage.

Amnon Kabatchnik (Author)