Theatre and celebrity in Britain, 1660-2000

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Theatre has always been a site for selling outrage and sensation, a place where public reputations are made and destroyed in spectacular ways. This is the first book to investigate the construction and production of celebrity in the British theatre. These original and exciting essays explore aspects of fame in a wide range of performers and playwrights including David Garrick, Ellen Terry, Oscar Wilde, Edmund Kean, Laurence Olivier and Sarah Kane. Theatre and Celebrity in Britain, 1660-2000 is a pioneering volume which sets out to examine the ingenious ways in which stars have negotiated and defined their own fame. Organized around the themes of public intimacy, notoriety, markets and the nation, the essays in this innovative and wide-ranging collection reveal the critical position of celebrity in the history of British theatre.