Book Launch: Ruby Cohn’s Glancing at Dramatists’ Dialogue: From Shakespeare to Suzan-Lori Parks

A fascinating new publication from Methuen which will be of interest to all Beckettians is to be launched later this month. The final book from late and hugely respected scholar Ruby Cohn, this volume is co-edited by current renowned Beckett scholars Daniela Caselli and Hannah Simpson. Titled Glancing at Dramatists’ Dialogue: From Shakespeare to Suzan-Lori Parks, the book examines dramatic dialogue in English-language theatre, tracing verbal invention across four centuries from Shakespeare and Restoration comedy right up to contemporary English and American theatre.

In eight chapters, Cohn offers close readings of monologue and dialogue in plays by William Shakespeare, William Wycherley, George Etherege, William Congreve, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Tom Stoppard, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Caryl Churchill, Sam Shepard, Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks. It is written, we are told, ‘with Cohn’s characteristic wit, warmth and lucidity, and offers both an authoritative introduction to theatre dialogue and a remarkable addition to Cohn’s scholarly legacy’.

An online launch will take place on Monday, October 20 at 4pm GMT which will feature contributions from Daniela Caselli and Hannah Simpson, Janelle Reinelt, Enoch Brater, and Mark Taylor-Batty. Registration is essential and can be made here.