Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology of Events and Productions
- Introduction
- Part I Mobilising for War
- Chapter 1 Foreshadowing the War
- Chapter 2 Mobilising the Nation
- Part II Theatre during the War
- Part III The Memory of War
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 1 - Foreshadowing the War
Future War and Invasion Plays, 1900–1914
from Part I - Mobilising for War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology of Events and Productions
- Introduction
- Part I Mobilising for War
- Chapter 1 Foreshadowing the War
- Chapter 2 Mobilising the Nation
- Part II Theatre during the War
- Part III The Memory of War
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines the ways in which pre-war drama explored growing fears over major international conflict. Works considered include Du Maurier’s An Englishman’s Home (1909), Zangwill’s The War God (1911) and a number of less well-known plays and comic skits. The chapter contextualises these works in relation to the fraught geopolitical landscape in which they were produced and the wider cultural phenomenon of ‘invasion fiction’. Both critical and public reactions to these productions are also examined. The chapter concludes by exploring how the pre-war plays established the play-book for propagandistic war-time drama as theatre mobilised for the war effort.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023