[Gutenberg 15788] • Waste: A Tragedy, In Four Acts

Harley Granville Barker, one of the most versatile figures in twentieth-century theatre, was the leader of the campaign to reform the English stage in the Edwardian period. His work as an actor, director, playwright, and manager set new standards of production and gave Shaw his first successful showings; his later career as a critic, after he abandoned the stage, opened new interpretations of Shakespeare and led the way to the establishment of a national theatre. This volume presents three of Granville Barker's best plays: The Marrying of Ann Leete (about a young woman rebelling against convention), The Voysey Inheritance (digging at middle-class hypocrisy), and Waste (banned by the Lord Chamberlain, the tragedy of a politician caught in a sexual trap). Written between 1899 and 1907, and collected here for the first time in a scholarly edition, they reveal Barker as an exciting, subtle and innovative dramatist.