The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays

This anthology gathers modern one-act and short plays chosen for their literary and dramatic value, with a special eye to classroom use, little theatres, and the growing appetite for contemporary drama. Its foreword and introduction champion live performance, simple staging, and experimental theatre as essential to a richer dramatic culture, while showing students and readers how conflict drives comedy, farce, and tragedy alike. Through examples and practical guidance, it invites imaginative reading, discussion, and dramatization as the best way to understand theatrical action. The plays themselves move from intimate domestic comedy to grave military crisis. In The Philosopher of Butterbiggens, old David Pirnie turns a kitchen quarrel over a bedtime story into a warm, sly meditation on age, authority, and the stubborn human need to have one's own way. In the siege drama at Cashala Bridge, exhausted soldiers face thirst, fear, and the temptation to surrender before Hugh Talbot's return forces them to confront duty, sacrifice, and the terrible cost of protecting civilians from Cromwell's advance. Together, these pieces reveal how ordinary speech and extreme pressure can expose the deepest conflicts of family life and public honor. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.