This book is the first critical survey of modern Egyptian drama during the period of its maturity from the 1930s to the present day. A discussion of the work of Tawfiq al-Hakim is followed by an examination of the less experimental plays of his successors, Mahmud Taymur, Bakathir and Fathi Radwan. A major section is devoted to the work of the new wave of dramatists who contributed to the revival of the Egyptian theatre in the wake of the army revolution of 1952. In the final chapter verse drama is examined, both in the traditional plays of Shawqi and Aziz Abaza and in the more experimental work of Sharqawi and Abd al-Sabur. No knowledge of Arabic is presupposed, but for Arabists full references to the original sources are provided.