Play In England Research Articles

“Sardoodledom” on the English Stage: T. W. Robertson and the Assimilation of Well-Made Play into the English Theatre

The article discusses a vital figure in the development of modern English theatre, Thomas William Robertson, in the context of his borrowings, inspirations, translations and adaptations of the French dramatic formula pièce bien faite (well-made play). The paper gives the definition and enumerates features of the formula created with great success by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe. Presenting the figure of Thomas William Robertson, the father of theatre management and realism in Victorian theatre, the focus is placed on his adaptations of French plays and his incorporation of the formula of the well-made play and its conventional dramatic devices into his original, and most successful, plays, Society and Caste. The paper also examines the critical response to the well-made play in England and dramatists who use its formula, especially from the point of view of George Bernard Shaw, who famously called the French plays of Scribe and Victorien Sardou—“Sardoodledom.”

The Role of “Opportunity to Learn” in the Geometry Curriculum: A Multilevel Comparison of Six Countries

In international comparisons for mathematics in PISA and TIMSS, Asia outperforms England considerably at secondary level. For geometry this difference is even greater. With a new maths curriculum having come into play in England in 2014, and hence the need to explore the impact of the curriculum on student achievement, this article focuses on how differences in achievement might be attributed to differences in ‘opportunity to learn’ within a country’s curriculum. The aims of this paper are two-fold. Firstly we want to provide an integrated conceptual framework that combines elements from educational effectiveness, a curriculum model and ‘opportunity to learn’ for analysing curriculum effects, which we call the Dynamic Opportunities in the Curriculum (DOC) framework. Secondly, using multilevel models, we empirically investigate with TIMSS 2011 data whether the ‘opportunity to learn’ in the curriculum is associated with achievement in geometry education in six countries, thus validating that model. The results show that our conceptualisation of ‘opportunity to learn’ can be useful in analysing curriculum effects.

Self-reported and routinely collected electronic healthcare resource-use data for trial-based economic evaluations: the current state of play in England and considerations for the future

BackgroundRandomised controlled trials (RCTs) are generally regarded as the “gold standard” for providing quantifiable evidence around the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new healthcare technologies. In order to perform the economic evaluations associated with RCTs, there is a need for accessible and good quality resource-use data; for the purpose of discussion here, data that best reflect the care received.Traditionally, researchers have developed questionnaires for resource-use data collection. However, the evolution of routinely collected electronic data within care services provides new opportunities for collecting data without burdening patients or caregivers (e.g. clinicians). This paper describes the potential strengths and limitations of each data collection method and then discusses aspects for consideration before choosing which method to use.Main textWe describe electronic data sources (large observational datasets, commissioning data, and raw data extraction) that may be suitable data sources for informing clinical trials and the current status of self-reported instruments for measuring resource-use. We assess the methodological risks and benefits, and compare the two methodologies. We focus on healthcare resource-use; however, many of the considerations have relevance to clinical questions.Patient self-report forms a pragmatic and cheap method that is largely under the control of the researcher. However, there are known issues with the validity of the data collected, loss to follow-up may be high, and questionnaires suffer from missing data. Routinely collected electronic data may be more accurate and more practical if large numbers of patients are involved. However, datasets often incur a cost and researchers are bound by the time for data approval and extraction by the data holders.ConclusionsOwing to the issues associated with electronic datasets, self-reported methods may currently be the preferred option. However, electronic hospital data are relatively more accessible, informative, standardised, and reliable. Therefore in trials where secondary care constitutes a major driver of patient care, detailed electronic data may be considered superior to self-reported methods; with the caveat of requiring data sharing agreements with third party providers and potentially time-consuming extraction periods. Self-reported methods will still be required when a ‘societal’ perspective (e.g. quantifying informal care) is desirable for the intended analysis.

Playwork practitioners’ perceptions of the impact on play of austerity in the UK: comparing experiences in Scotland and SW England

This paper compares playworkers’ perception of the extent to which Austerity has changed playworkers’ working environment, children's opportunities to play and the context within which play takes place in Scotland and SW England, regions which are understood to have divergent experiences in recent years. 351 playworkers completed a bespoke survey, comprising 33 questions, for which a variety of distributions modes were used and the result of which was a survey population that was broadly representative of respondents to the last major national survey of playworkers in Great Britain. Two themes emerge. First, in many ways, the experience of play in 2013 differed between playwork practitioners in Scotland and SW England. Statistically significant differences were found for most of the organisational issues, half of the regional issues, and both of the indicators of overall satisfaction. In each instance where a difference was observed, conditions in 2013 had worsened more in SW England than in Scotland. Thus, it is problematic to portray a ‘global’ experience of play in the UK and the existing ancedotal and case study evidence contrasting the fortunes of play in England and Scotland in 2013 are acknowledged by, and find expression through, playwork practitioners’ reflections on their work. Second, and on the other hand, in SW England, the more strongly negative experience of government (both national and local) in relation to play in 2013 and the negative perception of wider play and playwork trends in the SW region contrast sharply with positive experiences of play and playwork in the workplace. It is also argued that the divergent understandings of play in SW England are suggestive of the merit of research that pursue holistic appraisals of playwork.

Gonococcal NAATs: what is the current state of play in England and Wales?

The aim of this study was to determine how widespread the use is of dual nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for the diagnosis of both Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) in England and Wales. A structured telephone questionnaire was used to collect information on the method of dual testing used by laboratories, the patient groups tested, the types of specimens obtained and the use of GC culture. Of the 108 laboratories participating, 29% performed dual CT and GC NAAT assays. The platforms used included: (i) BD Probetec (19/31), (ii) Aptima Combo 2 (9/31) and (iii) COBAS AMPLICOR (2/31). GC-positive specimens were either repeated using the same test (21) or an alternative target (9). Most laboratories confirmed positive GC NAATs by performing culture (26/31). Laboratories performed dual NAAT testing on specimens sourced from both community and genitourinary medicine clinic settings, and on a wide variety of different specimen types. This survey highlights a lack of consistency in the current use of dual NAAT platforms in the UK and the need for national guidelines.

Regulation, rent‐seeking, and the Glorious Revolution in the English Atlantic economy

The rapid rise of England's colonial commerce in the late seventeenth century expanded the nation's resource base, stimulated efficiency improvements across the economy, and was important for long‐term growth. However, close examination of the interests at play in England's Atlantic world does not support the Whiggish view that the Glorious Revolution played a benign role in this story. In the decades after the Restoration, the cases of the Royal African Company and the Spanish slave trade in Jamaica are used to show that the competition between Crown and Parliament for control of regulation constrained interest groups on either side in their efforts to capture the profits of empire. Stuart ‘tyranny’ was not able to damage growth and relatively competitive (and peaceful) conditions underpinned very rapid increases in colonial output and trade. The resolution of the rules of the Atlantic game in 1689 allowed a consolidated state better to manipulate and manage the imperial economy in its own interests. More secure rent‐seeking enterprises and expensive wars damaged growth and European rivals began a process of catch‐up. The Glorious Revolution was not sufficient to permanently halt economic development but it was sufficient to slow progress towards industrial revolution.

The Value of Play: Constructions of Play in Government Policy in England*

This article reports one aspect of the findings from an assessment of the impact of national policies on children’s opportunities for play in England, which was commissioned and funded by the Children’s Play Council, London. Systematic analysis of policy documents and interviews with participants from local authorities and the voluntary sector revealed that the (Labour) Government does not promote a consistent conceptualisation of play in England. While some policy documents emphasise play’s instrumental value and potential contributions to the priorities of government departments, others refer to its intrinsic value. In both cases, however, such constructions of play form a discourse that controls where and how children may play. This inconsistency has led to gaps in the mechanisms for delivery of extensive, sustainable and equitable play opportunities across the country.

Testing the feasibility of performance indicators for play facilities in England

Play England, the leading national voluntary organization for play in England, commissioned research into the feasibility of four performance indicators being utilized as national indicators for play provision in local authority areas. The four indicators represent participation in outdoor play, satisfaction with local play spaces, quality of local play spaces, and accessibility to local play spaces. Six pilot authorities agreed to participate in the feasibility study, including five from metropolitan (mainly urban) councils and one from a district (more rural) council. The methods employed to generate the performance data comprised household surveys, surveys of children and young people via schools, professional assessment of play space quality using a standard assessment tool, audits and mapping of local play spaces, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The results suggest that three of the indicators are suitable for national comparisons, but the quality indicator is only suitable for local management purposes. The participation indicator should be constructed using a household survey and the satisfaction indicator from an online survey of children and young people via schools. The audit and mapping data assembled for the access indicator proved more useful for local performance management than the access indicator itself. Considerable challenges are evident in some authorities, particularly achieving the necessary cooperation of (and IT capacity in) schools to conduct the survey of children and young people, and generating the necessary GIS resource to map the access data.

Macbeth (review)

Reviewed by: Macbeth Michael J. Collins Macbeth Presented by the Chichester Festival at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, England. May 25-September 1, 2007. Directed by Rupert Goold. Designed by Anthony Ward. Lighting by Howard Harrison. Music and Sound by Adam Cork. Video and Projection by Lorna Heavey. Movement by Georgina Lamb. Fights by Terry King. With Paul Shelley (Duncan), Scott Handy (Malcolm), Ben Carpenter (Donalbain, Young Seyward), Patrick Stewart (Macbeth), Martin Turner (Banquo), Michael Feast (Macduff), Mark Rawlings (Lennox), Tim Treloar (Ross), Bill Nash (Angus), Tom Bulpett or Mike Jeffery (Fleance), Christopher Knott (Old Seyward), Christopher Patrick Nolan (Seyton), Hywel John (Bloody Sergeant, Murderer), Kate Fleetwood (Lady Macbeth), Suzanne Burden (Lady Macduff ), Lara Rees (Witch), Polly Frame (Witch, Gentlewoman), Niamh McGrady (Witch), and others. After working on the stage in London and Stratford-upon-Avon for over twenty years, Patrick Stewart left for Hollywood in 1987 where he found fame (and fortune) first as Captain Picard in the television and film versions of Star Trek and then as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men trilogy. He did not act again in a Shakespeare play in England until 2006 [End Page 187] when he returned to play Antony (with Harriet Walter as Cleopatra) and then Prospero for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival in Stratford and London. Although he had "for decades . . . almost never been south of the Thames" (The Independent, 3 August 2007), he next signed on to do Macbeth and Malvolio at the Chichester Festival in summer 2007. When Dominic Cavendish asked him, in the midst of a miserable, flooded summer in England, if he missed the sunshine of Los Angeles, he said, "not for an instant. . . .I feel as if Shakespeare is coursing through me at the moment. It's exhilarating. Why would I want to abandon that which is most alive inside me?" (The Daily Telegraph, 16 July 2007). After spectacular reviews in Chichester, Macbeth transferred in December to the Gielgud Theatre in London at about the same time Ian McKellen's King Lear returned to London from its world tour, and Othello, with Ewan McGregor and Chiwetel Ejiofor, opened at the Donmar Warehouse. The three productions sold out at once, and, as tickets for each reached several hundred pounds, Michael Billington suggested in The Guardian that "if you add Shakespeare and sci-fi movie fame [Ian McKellen played Magneto, Professor Xavier's mutant adversary, in the X-Men trilogy, and Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films], you could probably fill Wembley stadium" (The Guardian, 6 December 2007). Macbeth opened in February 2008 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the RSC, perhaps recognizing the wisdom of Michael Billington's words, cast Patrick Stewart as Claudius in a production of Hamlet that opens in Stratford in July, 2008, with David Tennant (television's Dr. Who) in the title role. Except for the long interlude in Hollywood (during which he did The Tempest in Central Park and on Broadway and a racially reversed Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington), Patrick Stewart had consistently played Shakespeare throughout his career, and he was widely recognized as an accomplished Shakespearean actor. Lured "south of the Thames" then both by his celebrity and his earlier work on the stage, I arrived around noon in Chichester for a Wednesday matinee. Since the box office had not yet opened, however, I went for lunch at the Festival's Chic Café. And there, sitting alone at a table in the back of the Café, was Patrick Stewart: no paparazzi, no Trekkies, no entourage, only a pot of tea and a cell phone. Although I had once, many years ago, organized a performance of his Shylock and Other Strangers for him at Georgetown University, I resisted the desire to re-introduce myself (he would never in any case have remembered me), pretended not to see him, and thus [End Page 188] allowed him to pretend he had become what he had suggested (in the interview with Dominic Cavendish) he wanted to become that summer-a more or less equal member of an acting company at a summer festival. Halfway through lunch, Patrick Stewart left the Café, although...

Payment by results in mental health: the current state of play in England

The Department of Health is introducing a ‘payment by results’ system for mental health services in the UK. The system is already being used in the acute healthcare sector, but is still under development for application in mental healthcare. This article outlines the concept of payment by results, briefly reports on its use in other countries and describes the pilot study underway in England to define currencies to be used in a payment by results system planned for NHS mental healthcare throughout England and Wales.

Constructing a Cultural Icon: Nomos and Shaw's Saint Joan in Paris

George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan quickly became a play without a passport. Shaw began writing the play in England in late April 1923 and completed it in Ireland in August of that same year. After its production in New York in December 1923 and in London in March 1924, the play appeared on the Continent. In Paris, it ran at the Theatre des Arts from 28 April to 30 June 1925. The director in Paris, Georges Pitoëff, staged the play with his wife, Ludmilla, in the heroine's role. While Shaw's Joan is usually seen as the "foremother of Protestantism and of French nationalism", the play can be read in many other ways, as Saint Joan lends itself easily to several approaches and parallels. With an eye to Ireland, the play can be read as a gloss on the Charles Parnell story referred to in Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, where the Irish are seen as having betrayed their own MP. Joan's words to Dunois, "If the goddams and the Burgundians do not make an end of me, the French will", would be one place to begin such an analysis. The play could also be seen as a parable for Irish nationalism on the troublesome Protestant question in a society run by Catholics. Additionally, it could be viewed as a running political diatribe on British imperialistic tendencies overseas. However, as its reception in 1925 Paris suggests, Saint Joan may also be read as an allegory for a France undergoing a painful period of reconstruction after being shattered by World War I. While most critics are aware that Shaw's play was very popular in Paris (the Pitoeffs kept it in their repertory for several years), the reasons behind its popularity have yet to be adequately explained. Betrayal, sacrifice, dogmatic strife, and nationalist power plays fully overlap in the play to historicize the well-known story in terms contemporary audiences, particularly in Paris: found highly compelling. As I argue in this essay, the popularity of Shaw's Saint Joan in 1925 Paris involves three factors seldom discussed: the cultural semiotics of constructing an icon like Joan of Arc, the historical and political context of 1925 France as it relates to the play's reception, and the brash display of nomos (i.e., governance) in the trial scene.

The Staging of the First Murder in the Mystery Plays in England

In the Towneley Mactacio Abel and in N-town, the text specifies a jawbone as the murder weapon, and there is some evidence that this weapon was also used in other cycles in England. In Towneley (11. 323-24), With cheke-bon, or that I blyn,/ Shall I the and thi life twyn; in N-town (1. 149) With J)is chavyl bon I xal sie ]эе.2 In the York cycle, the crucial two pages covering the murder of Abel are missing from the manuscript, yet there is strong likelihood that the jawbone had been featured here also. The Cursor Mundi, which had been written not long before the presumed date of composition of the earliest York plays (1340-50), is recognized as a source for material in the plays with similarities in style, meter, and language; and the editor of the Middle English metrical paraphrase of the Old Testament (c.1400) writes that this poem was in turn influenced by some of the York plays. In both of these long poetic narratives, Cain uses a jawbone, further identified as the jawbone of an ass:

On the Study of Noh Plays in England and America

On the Study of Noh Plays in England and America

Controlling Obscene Stage Plays in England

Throughout most of the theatre's history, control of obscene stage plays and indeed stage plays generally has been vested in the Lord Chamberlain, the official with overall responsibility for the running of the King's household. One of the Lord Chamberlain's functions would be to ensure that actors and players appeared to entertain the royal household and it was presumably for this reason that he acquired control over the performance of plays. This power of control, which he possessed initially under the authority of the King, was later clarified and put in statutory form in the Theatres Acts 1737–1843.

German Toy Theatre Plays in England

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Domestic Drama: A Survey of the Origins, Antecedents and Nature of the Domestic Play in England 1500-1640

Domestic Drama: A Survey of the Origins, Antecedents and Nature of the Domestic Play in England 1500-1640

Citizen Comedy in the Age of Shakespeare by Alexander Leggatt

from the Renaissance to the Victorian Age presented to Professor A.S.P. Woodhouse. Another species of collective volume is the departmental show­ case publication bearing some such name as Studies by Members of the Utopia English Department. With such books motives of advertising, if not collective vanity, begin to edge in upon the field of scholarship. We need not lament that such books have never had a vogue in Canada. Other collective volumes preserve the papers read at conferences. Canada is rather strong on these. But what rationale lies behind Some Facets of "King Lear"? Is it all a matter of fashion? Team research is in vogue not only in the sciences, where it is often necessary and inescapable, but in the humanities, which so often to their own disadvantage try to follow the patterns of the sciences. But, though the preface to this book speaks of "the values of collective and co­ operative scholarship" we find nothing of the "team" approach in Facets. "Prismatic criticism" is a not very suitable metaphor for each contributor losing no time in riding off in his own direction and doing his own thing. Humanists, thank Heaven, are incurable individualists. We happen to have benefited from the publication of this book since it contains so much that is good. But we need a foreword to explain the cryptic comment in the "Afterword" that this was Rosalie Colie's "most characteristic project." 242 English Studies in Canada g .p .v . a k r ig g / University of British Columbia Alexander Leggatt, Citizen Comedy in the Age of Shakespeare (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1974)- x, 167. $10.00 Citizen Comedy in the Age of Shakespeare was written before Alexander Leggatt's excellent Shakespeare's Comedy of Love (1974) and is in effect a pilot study. It locates what might, ambitiously, be claimed as a genre: it is certainly a helpful term. "For this writer it means comedy set in a predominantly middleclass social milieu" (p 3). Here a necessary reflex is called into play, and Leggatt adds: "That definition, however, raises the considerable problem of defining the middle class." Quite: that was, and is, the name of the game. Hence one falls back upon the available categories of occupation and status: "I have selected plays which do not deal predominantly with the court or the aristocracy, but with the fluid, often ill-defined, area that lies between this and the lowest class of workmen, servants, rogues, and vagabonds." This seems an entirely reason­ able way of framing the term. Much less convincing is the decision to deal only with plays set in England. Leggatt justifies this on grounds of convenience - it restricts the discussion to reasonable limits - and because I am most interested in comedies depicting contemporary social situations 243 Reviews situations the audience themselves might be expected to face - and I feel, as Ben Jonson came to feel, that this can be done most effectively by using a native setting, to which the audience can clearly relate. (Pp 4-5) This is an honestly acknowledged preference. But it is not clear why Leggatt sides with the author of The Alchemist against the author of Volpone, one no less committed to the view that comedy presents “ an image of the times." And if Jonson came to believe in an explicit confrontation between audience and situation, Shakespeare did not. It is important to the argument to consider why. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that Shakespeare never, unless compelled by circumstances, sets a play in England. The histories, of course, define their own location. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a camp follower of Henry IV. King Lear and Cymbeline, set in the mists of pre-history, scarcely count as “ English." The great bulk of the canon exploits a foreign mise-en-scene. Why? The foreign-ness, sometimes a species of the exotic, strengthens the romantic element in the comedies. It distances and thus protects the political plays, indemnifying the author against the charge of direct commentary on affairs of state. Always it enables the playwright to construct a complete society, one adapted to his immediate dramatic ends - the cold and mercantile Venice, the...

Two Early Absurd Plays in England

PINERO IS USUALLY REMEMBERED as the writer of a few Victorian farces and so-called "problem plays." Moreover, it is often thought that he wrote little, if anything, after 1910 or so, the notable exception being The Enchanted Cottage (1922) which was later filmed. And it is certainly true that Pinero's major work and contribution to English drama was made by 1910, but the remaining twenty-four years of his life were by no means inactive. He wrote a further sixteen plays, a large proportion showing varying degrees of experimentation by the aging playwright. Two of these works are remarkable for the traits they exhibit of what is now widely called the Theatre of the Absurd. They are Playgoers and A Seat in the Park, one-act plays written in 1913 and 1922 respectively.

Two Early Absurd Plays in England

Two Early Absurd Plays in England

A Note on the Relation of the Corpus Christi Procession to the Corpus Christi Play in England

A Note on the Relation of the Corpus Christi Procession to the Corpus Christi Play in England