Examines nascent movements, genre shifts, developing authors/playwrights and controversial themes as they emerged in both drama and theatre. It focuses on the creative nexus of London from the end of the nineteenth century up to the beginning of the Great War (1914), discussing, among others Wilde, Shaw, Pinero, Strindberg, Harley Granville Barker, Ford Madox Ford, D.H. Lawrence, Galsworthy, Sims, women playwrights, and popular theatre.