Introduction

Abstract

A member of an elite group of dramatists including Harold Pinter, Alan Ayckbourn, and Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed writer who occupies a privileged position in contemporary British theatre. His work has been consistently performed for over 30 years in subsidized and commercial, metropolitan and provincial, professional and amateur arenas; his plays have scooped the top theatrical and film awards and the world’s finest actors scramble for roles in his dramas which are guaranteed to play to packed houses wherever they are performed. The extraordinary popularity of Peter Shaffer’s work in front of worldwide audiences is, in short, nothing less than a cultural phenomenon.