State of the nation : British theatre since 1945 / Michael Billington.

vii, 435 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), ports. some col.) ; 20 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 412-414) and index.

The age of austerity : 1945-50 -- Safety first : 1950-55 -- Twelve o'clock rock : 1955-59 -- The ground shifts : 1960-63 -- Theatre of opposition : 1964-70 -- Blasted Heath : 1970-74 -- Winters of discontent : 1975-79 -- Scenes from an execution : 1979-90 -- Picking up the pieces : 1990-97 -- X. New labour, new theatre? : 1997-2006.

Michael Billington looks at post-war Britain from a theatrical perspective. He examines the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the Attlee years to the satire boom of the 1960s and the growth of political theatre under Tony Blair in the post-Iraq period.

9780571210497

792.094109045 B598s 2007