Benjamin Britten and Montagu Slater's Peter Grimes (1st)

Peter Grimes (1945), Benjamin Britten's first opera and one of the most widely recognised cultural milestones of the 20th century, is the post-war British theatre's greatest 'lost play'.

That is the central premise of this provocative volume.

Not content to only consider Peter Grimes on the largely musicological terms critical traditions have dictated, Sam Kinchin-Smith uses the 'Fourth Wall' series' bracing focus on 'modern theatre' to question whether this cornerstone of the operatic repertoire might also be thought of as a theatre text, and a highly significant one at that.