Elizabeth the Queen A Play in Three Acts

by Maxwell Anderson

Hardcover book

Genres: Plays

168 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1936

About the author

Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, poet, and journalist. He won a Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1933, for Both Your Houses, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for both Winterset and High Tor.

Several of his plays were adapted into successful movies, including Anne of the Thousand Days and Key Largo.

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my usual playreading group. Some moments of true brilliance. Some parts fell flat for me.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much a "new Shakespeare", this play puts Anderson into the same league as Christopher Fry and Jean Anoulih: i.e. modern playwrights whose pre-occupation with the humanizing of famous historical figures and events allows them to write lengthy, sprawling, gorgeously poetic epics of an oddly timeless fashion. It's hard to imagine any modern theater company putting on this show, but that doesn't diminish the excellence of its execution or the profundity of his character exploration of England's most famous queen.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I liked this. Yes, it's a little old fashioned and the verse writing is completely forgettable (but unobtrusive). Still, I was gripped by the dynamic psychological conflict it stages and Anderson manages to make the turns clear without making them seem either schematic or over-simplified.