Modern and 20th-Century Drama

What this unit covers

The resources follow the plays students meet at GCSE and A-level. You will find Ibsen's A Doll's House, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie, Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, Willy Russell's Educating Rita, Alan Bennett's The History Boys and Dennis Kelly's DNA. There is also Samuel Beckett and the absurdist tradition.

Where to start

Begin with a mind map for your set play. The All My Sons Character Analysis map starts with Joe Keller, a self-made businessman, and picks out clues such as the garden furniture. The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof map groups themes such as gender, truth and lies, greed and death, and links Brick's crutch to his emasculation. Both show how a good map ties a quotation to an idea.

Moving from maps to quotes

Once you know the characters and themes, move to flashcards and notes. There are quote decks for A Taste of Honey, A Doll's House and The History Boys, plus character cards for Nora, Helmer and Krogstad. Context matters too, so look at the cards on Ibsen and the role of women in Norwegian society, and the notes on Marxist and Feminist readings of A Doll's House.

Testing yourself

Quizzes are the quickest way to find gaps. The A Taste of Honey quiz asks where the play is set and which branch of the armed forces Jimmie and Peter served in. There are also quizzes on Educating Rita, The Glass Menagerie and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Take one, note what you missed, then go back to the matching map or card deck. Repeat until the details come easily.

Where it fits

This unit sits in the Drama strand of Literature. It suits students working towards GCSE English Literature, A-level English Literature, GCSE Drama or A-level Drama and Theatre. Teachers can pick out maps, slides or flowcharts, such as Billy Elliot - Visual Text, to share with a class.

Choose one play, open its map and see how far you get before the quiz.