-
The History of Theatre
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.58
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Great first listens
![The Housemaid Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+UxIo+YNL._SL240_.jpg)
![Listen for the Lie Audiobook By Amy Tintera cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zllGBPiuL._SL240_.jpg)
![Project Hail Mary Audiobook By Andy Weir cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51b6fvQr1-L._SL240_.jpg)
![Kingdom of Ash Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r5TOoIdRL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Housemaid's Secret Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WR3i5EfIL._SL240_.jpg)
![Tower of Dawn Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JhJaNpMWL._SL240_.jpg)
![A Court of Thorns and Roses (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nLJLtLiJL._SL240_.jpg)
![Bluebeard Audiobook By Jim Clemente, Peter McDonnell cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51VL5-GGrsL._SL240_.jpg)
![Verity Audiobook By Colleen Hoover cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511i1nvprYL._SL240_.jpg)
![A Court of Thorns and Roses (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tP2HmQeOL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Nightingale Audiobook By Kristin Hannah cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lJVAGTuNL._SL240_.jpg)
![Words of Radiance Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yEEt2q0vL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Way of Kings Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hAwcG3oNL._SL240_.jpg)
![A Court of Silver Flames (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QE+Y0jJbL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Duke and I Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XnZ3udYnL._SL240_.jpg)
![Fourth Wing (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Rebecca Yarros cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61i95pK0DoL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Inmate Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ORE1dbOaL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Final Empire Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61rYqiz8yJL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Serpent and the Wings of Night Audiobook By Carissa Broadbent cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61VDeWSV8iL._SL240_.jpg)
![A Court of Silver Flames (2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510m5gwwsIL._SL240_.jpg)
![James Audiobook By Percival Everett cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31FeDPikCWL._SL240_.jpg)
![Break Me Audiobook By K. A. Tucker cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512TJtt1MlL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Well of Ascension Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jTUT0xfCL._SL240_.jpg)
![An Offer from a Gentleman Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qhFc8LJqL._SL240_.jpg)
![We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Audiobook By Dennis E. Taylor cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rt2pFIW7L._SL240_.jpg)
![Oathbringer Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fKpuTPMdL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Hero of Ages Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/611IBQxExyL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Great Alone Audiobook By Kristin Hannah cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NeDaxcJwL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Viscount Who Loved Me Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515SoOHheML._SL240_.jpg)
![The Idea of You Audiobook By Robinne Lee cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-CB3k8DrL._SL240_.jpg)
Editorial reviews
As with the successful "The History of Opera," Naxos produces the history of drama and the stage from ancient Greece through the twentieth century in an accessible program. With master Derek Jacobi and actors who excerpt from dozens of plays as guides, the listener is treated to a fascinating chronicle for students, aficionados - and even anyone with a passing interest in history or theater. Jacobi illuminates the cultural heritage surrounding each period in a style both grand and approachable. David Timson's text is rich and involving.
Publisher's summary
Interwoven within the story are the playwrights, the actors, the designers, and theorists who have kept this performing art flourishing for 2,500 years. All this is illustrated by more than 50 excerpts from plays and contemporary accounts, ranging from the controversial and innovative to sheer entertainment. So sit back, relax, you have front row seats, and listen to a rich a variety experience that is the Theatre.
Critic reviews
- Winner, Audio Publishers Association 2001 Audie Award, Original Work
"A fascinating chronicle for students, aficionados - and even anyone with a passing interest in history or theatre." (AudioFile)
Related to this topic
-
Apollo's Angels
- A History of Ballet
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 23 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. A ballerina dancing The Sleeping Beauty today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to 16th-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps and gestures are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed.
-
-
a great book poorly read
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-11
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
Measure for Measure
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Royal Shakespeare Company
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A performance of the tragi-comedy by the Royal Shakespeare Company. When a young woman is offered the choice of saving a man's life at the price of her own chastity, what should she do? The political and moral corruption of Vienna has driven Duke Vincentio into hiding while his deputy governor, Angelo, is left to revive the old discipline of civic authority. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio, a young nobleman who has gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Todd on 10-16-08
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
Keats
- A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph
- By: Lucasta Miller
- Narrated by: Sally Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miller, through Keats’s poetry, brilliantly resurrects and brings vividly to life, the man, the poet in all his complexity and spirit, living dangerously, disdaining respectability and cultural norms, and embracing subversive politics. Keats was a lower-middle-class outsider from a tragic and fractured family, whose extraordinary energy and love of language allowed him to pummel his way into the heart of English literature; a freethinker and a liberal at a time of repression, who delighted in the sensation of the moment.
-
-
A Romantic Life
- By David on 05-03-22
By: Lucasta Miller
-
The Roman Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different from that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days, and far livelier.
-
-
Not so bad
- By steve on 04-25-11
By: Edith Hamilton
-
Apollo's Angels
- A History of Ballet
- By: Jennifer Homans
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 23 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. A ballerina dancing The Sleeping Beauty today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to 16th-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps and gestures are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed.
-
-
a great book poorly read
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-11
By: Jennifer Homans
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
Measure for Measure
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Royal Shakespeare Company
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A performance of the tragi-comedy by the Royal Shakespeare Company. When a young woman is offered the choice of saving a man's life at the price of her own chastity, what should she do? The political and moral corruption of Vienna has driven Duke Vincentio into hiding while his deputy governor, Angelo, is left to revive the old discipline of civic authority. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio, a young nobleman who has gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Todd on 10-16-08
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
Keats
- A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph
- By: Lucasta Miller
- Narrated by: Sally Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miller, through Keats’s poetry, brilliantly resurrects and brings vividly to life, the man, the poet in all his complexity and spirit, living dangerously, disdaining respectability and cultural norms, and embracing subversive politics. Keats was a lower-middle-class outsider from a tragic and fractured family, whose extraordinary energy and love of language allowed him to pummel his way into the heart of English literature; a freethinker and a liberal at a time of repression, who delighted in the sensation of the moment.
-
-
A Romantic Life
- By David on 05-03-22
By: Lucasta Miller
-
The Roman Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different from that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days, and far livelier.
-
-
Not so bad
- By steve on 04-25-11
By: Edith Hamilton
-
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
- 1599
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: James Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
-
-
Note!--Abridged version
- By Scott on 01-05-16
By: James Shapiro
-
The Creation of Anne Boleyn
- A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen
- By: Susan Bordo
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: Neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life.
-
-
Most Enjoyable Biography--Win!
- By Roswatheist on 03-29-14
By: Susan Bordo
-
Uncle Vanya
- By: Anton Chekhov, David Mamet, Vlada Chernornirdik
- Narrated by: Josh Radnor, Stacy Keach, Martin Jarvis, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adapted by David Mamet from a translation by Vlada Chernornirdik. In this classic of Chekhov’s canon, an overbearing professor pays a visit to his country estate, where Sonya and Vanya, his daughter and former brother-in-law, have slaved to maintain his wealth. But Vanya is enchanted by the professor’s new wife, while Sonya has fallen for the town’s melancholy doctor. Includes a conversation with Rosamund Bartlett, author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life.
-
-
Poor American soap
- By tyrone on 10-22-17
By: Anton Chekhov, and others
-
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
-
-
Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
-
The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
-
-
Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
-
I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
-
-
Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
-
The Tempest
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Sir Ian McKellen, Emilia Fox, Scott Handy, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir Ian McKellen, fresh from his performance as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, is Prospero, and heads a strong cast in Shakespeare’s last great play. The wronged duke raises a tempest to shipwreck his old opponents on his island so that he can ensure justice is done. With Emilia Fox as Miranda, Scott Handy in the pivotal role of the sprite Ariel, and Ben Owukwe as Caliban.
-
-
Gandalf is great
- By Justin on 11-10-15
-
The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
-
-
Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
-
-
...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
-
Heroes
- From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this enlightening and entertaining work, Johnson presents heroism through examples in history. From Alexander to Joan of Arc and George Washington to Marilyn Monroe, here are men and women from every age and corner of the world who have inspired and transformed their cultures and the world itself.
-
-
Interesting, but deeply flawed
- By Kennet on 12-27-07
By: Paul Johnson
-
Jewish Comedy
- A Serious History
- By: Jeremy Dauber
- Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
-
-
Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
What listeners say about The History of Theatre
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris Woods
- 03-12-16
Great survey
A great survey and education in the range of the art from the beginnings in Greece.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Tim
- 01-30-09
Nice job! Very good basic overview of theater!
I really enjoyed this audiobook. It is a broad history of theater, interspersed with short vignettes of famous plays.
The nice thing is that the length of the dramatic selections performed is just about perfect. Just enough for you to get the idea being conveyed, but not enough that you begin to lose interest.
The author covers a lot of ground in a short time, but does a good job of bringing out what you need to know about each time period. The stories about the individual playwrights are interesting. I was also glad that the author spent a reasonable amount of time discussing the development of technical theater (lighting, scenery, costumes, etc..).
If you are a casual theater-goer, you'll probably get quite a bit out of this book. It may not be deep enough for those who have studied theater in college, but for the vast majority this will be a very good introduction.
I had this on my wish list for over 2 years and was always a little skeptical about buying it. Was very glad that I did.
Nice job!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Timoteo
- 03-07-18
Not enough excerpts
There are 50 excerpts from plays and other dramatic performances. Derek Jacoby's narration is good but in my opinion it needs more theatrical excerpts for a work this long. This can be seen by comparing this to Naxos Audio Books' similar work History of Classical Music, which I also reviewed. It has many, many more excerpts to interrupt the narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen
- 09-07-16
Theatre geek must read!
Fantastic expanse of knowledge in an entertaining fashion! Great for anyone curious about the Theatre.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!