Theatre and Relationships in Shakespeare’s Later Plays

Shakespeare's plays present the dynamics of personal relationships in a way that is direct and unambiguous, and with unparalleled forcefulness. This book concentrates on three of Shakespeare's last plays, King Lear, Pericles and The Tempest, allowing them to demonstrate the underlying dynamic of theatre as it is embodied within the work of a master craftsman. The three plays are widely dissimilar from one another at the surface level, yet they all concentrate on a particular relationship - that between fathers and daughters - working outwards from the centre of human experience and using the fundamental relational paradigm as it is enshrined in theatre, especially Shakespeare's. As a professional actor as well as an academic, the author combines an actor's understanding with psychodynamics and literary criticism.

The Author: Roger Grainger has a Ph.D. for his research into therapeutic drama at Leeds Metropolitan University, and has written several books on the subject. After leaving RADA, he was a member of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, and later on, the Old Vic Company. He is Professor Extraordinary at Northwest University, South Africa, and Research Fellow in Psychology and Therapeutic Studies at Roehampton University. Having worked in the mental health field for more that thirty years, he combines his academic and theatrical work with his psychotherapeutic practice as a Senior Practitioner of the British Psychological Society. He is an Associate Fellow of the BPS, and Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.