The English Stage: A History of Drama and Performance tells the story of the drama through its many changes in style and convention from medieval times to the present day. With a wide sweep of coverage, John Styan analyses the key features of staging, including early street theatre and public performance, the evolution of the playhouse and the private space and the pairing of theory and stagecraft in the works of modern dramatists.

He focuses on the conventions by which a playwright, his actors and their audience create the phenomenon of theatre and the way such conventions have changed over time.

Styan is among a small number of influential scholars who have developed performance criticism and theatre history from their origins in literary studies into an independent and respected field. From the vantage point of a lifetime's study he examines and illustrates the multitude of factors which have brought and continue to bring plays to life.