SOURCE: "The Artistic Trajectory of Peter Shaffer," in Peter Shaffer: A Casebook, edited by C. J. Gianakaris, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991, pp. 3-23.

In the essay below, Gianakaris traces Shaffer's artistic development throughout his plays, focusing on his "masterful merging of the literalism of realism with the provocative of the abstract pictorial."

British playwright Peter Shaffer remains a puzzle today, particularly for critics and academic scholars. A "moving target" with respect to dramatic styles and thematic interests, he is difficult to categorize within tidy literary designations. Is he primarily a realist probing the psychological and social issues facing the modern age? Is he a somber metaphysician seeking answers to universal enigmas? Or is he a teasing farceur who targets mundane human follies? Regular theatergoers will recognize elements of all these types in Shaffer. Within the variety of styles evidenced in his many plays, however, stand key technical and conceptual...