REVIEWS

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) As collections of essays, lectures, and interviews, these three volumes provide a valuable introduction to a decade of British political theatre, while also challenging the reigning critical accounts of the period. Ken Urban follows with a look at the convergence of 'cool' and 'cruel' Britannia as it developed from New Labour's own political strategies, providing crucial historical background to a period that may not be as familiar to non-British readers. In her engaging 'A Good Night Out, for the Girls', Elaine Aston uses Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues and other popular entertainments to suggest that audiences, as much as playwrights, provide the progressive measure of a play's politics.