This is the first comprehensive guide to British theatre's engagement with the First World War over the last century, from 1900 to the Armistice Day centenary in 2018. Considering theatre as both an industry and literary-cultural artform, it provides a contextual grounding in the prelude to the conflict and coverage of post-war plays as well as wartime performances. Lively chapters from leading scholars explore diverse genres and practices, from Shakespeare to melodrama, while focusing on topics including regionality, national identity, propaganda, commemoration, gender, censorship and international influences. Presenting original scholarship in an accessible and engaging manner, this Companion establishes theatre as a vital means of understanding wartime experiences, and a central feature in commemoration and remembrance.

‘This kaleidoscopic volume offers a welcome re-evaluation of the ways in which the First World War changed theatre-making and play-going in Britain. There will be much here for students to explore and more seasoned researchers to discover, from how the theatre supported, resisted, and dealt with the many challenges of the conflict to how theatre has continued to respond to the war in the century that has followed.'

Brad Kent - Université Laval

‘Helen Brooks' and Michael Hammond's Companion to Theatre of the First World War is a significant milestone in critical scholarship on British theatre and the First World War. The Companion brings together fifteen expert scholars who range widely over the topic, and collectively remind us of the importance of remembering ‘ordinary' people's lives during wartime. The essays in the Companion offer original and thoughtful approaches to a period of European history all too often subject to kneejerk patriotism and pompous memorialisation. The Companion to Theatre of the First World War is about more than the Great War: it is a guide to the foundations of twentieth-century popular modernity.'

Kate Newey - University of Exeter