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What's Mine & What's Yours (Modern Plays)
by Jessica ButcherWell here's the problem Edrina, the law in this country doesn't work with stories.It only works with facts. And to put it simply, your story - look it just isn't credible.Edrina was trafficked from her family home when she was fifteen. She was taken to Italy for three years before being trafficked to the UK, where she was held captive for another three years. She escaped 152 days ago. What's Mine & What's Yours tells a story of survival. Just when Edrina thought she might have a chance at life - she is catapulted backwards by a hostile immigration system that does not believe her story. She is acutely vulnerable and is re-trafficked within weeks. Could this have been prevented?The Helen Bamber Foundation provides all encompassing care to help Survivors access the therapeutic, medical, legal, housing and welfare support they need to recover from the traumas of trafficking. The foundation now seeks to address the systemic problem of re-trafficking in the UK.Find out about their new central London Trauma Centre and learn how you can help by visiting www.helenbamber.org
The Wheelchair on My Face (Modern Plays)
by Sonya Kelly'I got my first pair of glasses when I was seven.A nurse came to the school and tested everyone's eyes. And so it was discovered why I'd thrown bread to the floating crisp packets in our local pond and walked into lamp posts and said, 'excuse me'. Until that day the world was a swirl of moving coloured blobs. I thought it was the same for everyone.How wrong I was.'Part memoir, part theatre and part standup comedy this delightful story of a myopic seven year old is brought to you by actor, comedian and playwright Sonya Kelly. Sonya tells her story about growing up with poor vision that went undiagnosed until she was seven years old. Combining several forms of theatre, this delightful story shows us how we can better the world even if we cannot see the world.Winner: Scotsman Fringe First Award 2012Critic's Pick, New York Times
When a Gesture Was Expected: A Selection of Examples from Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
by Alan L. BoegeholdA boldly innovative study of nonverbal communication in the poetry and prose of Hellenic antiquityWhen a Gesture Was Expected encourages a deeper appreciation of ancient Greek poetry and prose by showing where a nod of the head or a wave of the hand can complete meaning in epic poetry and in tragedy, comedy, oratory, and in works of history and philosophy. All these works anticipated performing readers, and, as a result, they included prompts, places where a gesture could complete a sentence or amplify or comment on the written words. In this radical and highly accessible book, Alan Boegehold urges all readers to supplement the traditional avenues of classical philology with an awareness of the uses of nonverbal communication in Hellenic antiquity. This additional resource helps to explain some persistently confusing syntaxes and to make translations more accurate. It also imparts a living breath to these immortal texts.Where part of a work appears to be missing, or the syntax is irregular, or the words seem contradictory or perverse—without evidence of copyists' errors or physical damage—an ancient author may have been assuming that a performing reader would make the necessary clarifying gesture. Boegehold offers analyses of many such instances in selected passages ranging from Homer to Aeschylus to Plato. He also presents a review of sources of information about such gestures in antiquity as well as thirty illustrations, some documenting millennia-long continuities in nonverbal communication.
When a Gesture Was Expected: A Selection of Examples from Archaic and Classical Greek Literature
by Alan L. BoegeholdA boldly innovative study of nonverbal communication in the poetry and prose of Hellenic antiquityWhen a Gesture Was Expected encourages a deeper appreciation of ancient Greek poetry and prose by showing where a nod of the head or a wave of the hand can complete meaning in epic poetry and in tragedy, comedy, oratory, and in works of history and philosophy. All these works anticipated performing readers, and, as a result, they included prompts, places where a gesture could complete a sentence or amplify or comment on the written words. In this radical and highly accessible book, Alan Boegehold urges all readers to supplement the traditional avenues of classical philology with an awareness of the uses of nonverbal communication in Hellenic antiquity. This additional resource helps to explain some persistently confusing syntaxes and to make translations more accurate. It also imparts a living breath to these immortal texts.Where part of a work appears to be missing, or the syntax is irregular, or the words seem contradictory or perverse—without evidence of copyists' errors or physical damage—an ancient author may have been assuming that a performing reader would make the necessary clarifying gesture. Boegehold offers analyses of many such instances in selected passages ranging from Homer to Aeschylus to Plato. He also presents a review of sources of information about such gestures in antiquity as well as thirty illustrations, some documenting millennia-long continuities in nonverbal communication.
When The Long Trick’s Over (Modern Plays)
by Morgan Lloyd MalcolmI'm doing this for her because this was my sister's dream. This isn't my natural habitat. I wouldn't normally choose this. But she would have.Two sisters. One dream. The hardest open-water swim in the world. This triumphant play from Olivier Award-winning writer Morgan Lloyd Malcolm moves forwards and backwards in time across the 21 miles between Dover and Calais as a young swimmer harnesses her mind and body to make the crossing.Tackling what it means to grieve, both physically and mentally, When The Long Trick's Over encapsulates the fact that love persists whatever the distance and however perilous the journey is to the other side. And that, sometimes, it means swimming against the tide and against the things that hold you back: the old memories and oil tankers, jelly fish and Jelly Babies.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere production by HighTide and the New Wolsey Theatre, February 2022.
Where We Belong (Modern Plays)
by Madeline SayetI've been trying to remember a story.Can you help me?A long time ago our ancestors told it to us.I think it has to do with where we belong.In 2015, Mohegan Theater Maker Madeline Sayet travelled to England to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare, but her voyage across the ocean became an unexpected journey of transformation. Riding the spirit wind of her Mohegan ancestors who crossed the Atlantic in the 1700s on diplomatic missions to protect her people, Where We Belong is a search for belonging in a globalized world. It is at once a rich investigation into the impulses that divide and connect us as people, but it is also about a wolf that learns how to become a bird and fly.
Wilf (Modern Plays)
by James LeyMy story is about love… No, it's about loss… No, it's about love and loss and pain and loneliness… But it's funny!Calvin is going to completely revolutionise his life. Escape his abusive boyfriend, detonate his inner sex bomb, see (and shag) the world. Yes, he's going to change things, and everything will be wonderful, and he's going to be so happy. Definitely. Finally. Right?Together with Wilf, a rusty Volkswagen Polo which, like Calvin, has seen better days, they hit the road on a wild ride of dodgy Airbnbs, greasy takeaways, anonymous graveyard sex and banging 80s power ballads - ending up somewhere they never imagined they'd go. But is Calvin breaking free, breaking down, or just breakdancing in hot pants?This riotous and heartfelt new play from James Ley (Love Song to Lavender Menace) takes audiences on a hilarious and unapologetic ride through Scotland as Calvin and Wilf attempt to escape loneliness, cope with mental illness and learn to love themselves, with the help of one another. This edition was published alongside the production at Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2022.
Włodzimierz Staniewski and the Phenomenon of “Gardzienice” (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by S. E. Gontarski Tomasz Wiśniewski Katarzyna KręglewskaThis book offers a broad overview of the contemporary state of the Gardzienice theatrical company and its evolution. Their most recent production, The Wedding, is taken as a focal point for a retrospective discussion on the company’s development. Premiered at the festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of the company, The Wedding echoes most of the major achievements of Staniewski’s stage language and his capacity of exploring and developing the performative potential of liveness. This study consists of essays by prominent practitioners and theoreticians of theatre, director’s notes, conversations with Staniewski and other company members, selected archival materials and substantial visual coverage. It promises to be of great interest to students and scholars across the fields of theatre and performance studies.
Włodzimierz Staniewski and the Phenomenon of “Gardzienice” (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by S. E. Gontarski Tomasz Wi 347 Niewski Katarzyna Kr 281 GlewskaThis book offers a broad overview of the contemporary state of the Gardzienice theatrical company and its evolution. Their most recent production, The Wedding, is taken as a focal point for a retrospective discussion on the company’s development. Premiered at the festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of the company, The Wedding echoes most of the major achievements of Staniewski’s stage language and his capacity of exploring and developing the performative potential of liveness. This study consists of essays by prominent practitioners and theoreticians of theatre, director’s notes, conversations with Staniewski and other company members, selected archival materials and substantial visual coverage. It promises to be of great interest to students and scholars across the fields of theatre and performance studies.
Women and Indian Shakespeares (Shakespeare and Adaptation)
by Mark Thornton BurnettWomen and Indian Shakespeares explores the multiple ways in which women, and those identifying as women, are, and have been, engaged with Shakespeare in India. Women's engagements encompass the full range of media, from translation to cinematic adaptation and from early colonial performance to contemporary theatrical experiment. Simultaneously, Women and Indian Shakespeares makes visible the ways in which women are figured in various representational registers as resistant agents, martial seductresses, redemptive daughters, victims of caste discrimination, conflicted spaces and global citizens. In so doing, the collection reorients existing lines of investigation, extends the disciplinary field, brings into visibility still occluded subjects and opens up radical readings. More broadly, the collection identifies how, in Indian Shakespeares on page, stage and screen, women increasingly possess the ability to shape alternative futures across patriarchal and societal barriers of race, caste, religion and class. In repeated iterations, the collection turns our attention to localized modes of adaptation that enable opportunities for women while celebrating Shakespeare's gendered interactions in India's rapidly changing, and increasingly globalized, cultural, economic and political environment. In the contributions, we see a transformed Shakespeare, a playwright who appears differently when seen through the gendered eyes of a new Indian, diasporic and global generation of critics, historians, archivists, practitioners and directors. Radically imagining Indian Shakespeares with women at the centre, Women and Indian Shakespeares interweaves history, regional geography/regionality, language and the present day to establish a record of women as creators and adapters of Shakespeare in Indian contexts.
Women Talk Back to Shakespeare: Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations (New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Modern Culture)
by Jo Eldridge CarneyThis study explores more recent adaptations published in the last decade whereby women—either authors or their characters—talk back to Shakespeare in a variety of new ways. "Talking back to Shakespeare", a term common in intertextual discourse, is not a new phenomenon, particularly in literature. For centuries, women writers—novelists, playwrights, and poets—have responded to Shakespeare with inventive and often transgressive retellings of his work. Thus far, feminist scholarship has examined creative responses to Shakespeare by women writers through the late twentieth century. This book brings together the "then" of Shakespeare with the "now" of contemporary literature by examining how many of his plays have cultural currency in the present day. Adoption and surrogate childrearing; gender fluidity; global pandemics; imprisonment and criminal justice; the intersection of misogyny and racism—these are all pressing social and political concerns, but they are also issues that are central to Shakespeare’s plays and the early modern period. By approaching material with a fresh interdisciplinary perspective, Women Talk Back to Shakespeare is an excellent tool for both scholars and students concerned with adaptation, women and gender, and intertextuality of Shakespeare’s plays.
Women Talk Back to Shakespeare: Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations (New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Modern Culture)
by Jo Eldridge CarneyThis study explores more recent adaptations published in the last decade whereby women—either authors or their characters—talk back to Shakespeare in a variety of new ways. "Talking back to Shakespeare", a term common in intertextual discourse, is not a new phenomenon, particularly in literature. For centuries, women writers—novelists, playwrights, and poets—have responded to Shakespeare with inventive and often transgressive retellings of his work. Thus far, feminist scholarship has examined creative responses to Shakespeare by women writers through the late twentieth century. This book brings together the "then" of Shakespeare with the "now" of contemporary literature by examining how many of his plays have cultural currency in the present day. Adoption and surrogate childrearing; gender fluidity; global pandemics; imprisonment and criminal justice; the intersection of misogyny and racism—these are all pressing social and political concerns, but they are also issues that are central to Shakespeare’s plays and the early modern period. By approaching material with a fresh interdisciplinary perspective, Women Talk Back to Shakespeare is an excellent tool for both scholars and students concerned with adaptation, women and gender, and intertextuality of Shakespeare’s plays.
The Wonderful World of Dissocia: Edward Gant's Amazing Feats Of Loneliness!; The Lying Kind; The Wonderful World Of Dissocia; Realism (Modern Plays)
by Anthony NeilsonLife's full of clatter, but none of it matters, only who'll hold your paw when you die.What would you do if you lost an hour from your day? How far would you go to rescue what you've lost?In search of a lost hour that that has tipped the balance of her life, Lisa Jones is on a quest through a surreal world, filled with insecurity guards, flying cars, singing polar bears and wild-goose chases. The inhabitants of Dissocia are a curious blend of the funny, the friendly and the downright brutal.Anthony Neilson's cult play is a poignant and comical delve into the nature of mental illness. This edition was published to coincide with the major London revival at Theatre Royal Stratford East in September 2022.
work.txt (Modern Plays)
by Nathan EllisHate your job? Come work for us.This is a show about work.But the worker isn't here, so it's down to you.You'll clock in at the beginning.You'll get short breaks at regular intervals.You'll work in a team, and under your own initiative.You will be your own boss.You will be free.work.txt is a show performed entirely by the audience about the gig economy, financial instability and bullshit jobs.This edition was published to coincide with the run at the Soho Theatre in London in February 2022.
Would It Surprise You To Know…?
by Janet Gleeson Ronnie Archer-Morgan'A fascinating, rollercoaster read, very well told.' - Times'Ronnie has overcome a heart-breaking start in life to achieve great success and no one deserves it more. What a dude, what a life!' - Fiona BruceFor decades, Ronnie Archer-Morgan has brought to life the fascinating, often surprising backstories behind our most cherished heirlooms and household objects on the Antiques Roadshow. Now, he tells his own unlikely story. Born in the fifties to a Sierra Leonean mother battling mental health problems, Ronnie spent his childhood in and out of care. After difficult beginnings, marked by abuse, racism and brushes with both criminals and the police, he got into music, managing to get DJ gigs and, later, worked as a celebrity hairdresser for Vidal Sassoon and Smile in the height of seventies London. A flair for spotting antiques led him to start his own Knightsbridge gallery, ultimately becoming one of the most respected figures in the industry, culminating in a regular spot as an expert on the nation's Sunday favourite, Antiques Roadshow. Told with rich warmth, this is an extraordinary journey from deprivation and abuse to adventure and success against the odds - with stories of the incredible objects which shaped the way.'A surprising story, like many of the objects he appraises on the Antiques Roadshow' - Kate Adie, broadcaster and bestselling author
Wreckage (Modern Plays)
by Tom RatcliffeI love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.Sam and his fiancé Noel have been together for years. They have a house, a cat and their whole lives ahead of them. But when a sudden and permanent distance crashes into their relationship, it falls upon Sam to discover where their story goes from here. Tom Ratcliffe's Wreckage is a touching story about continuing bonds and love that only evolves, and never dies. This edition was published to coincide with the run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 and subsequent UK tour.
Wuthering Heights (Modern Plays)
by Emily BrontëI am Heathcliff! Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.The Yorkshire moors tell an epic story of love, revenge and redemption.Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights.He finds a kindred spirit in Catherine Earnshaw and a fierce love ignites. When forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed.Shot through with music, dance, passion and hope, Emma Rice transforms Emily Brontë's masterpiece into a powerful and uniquely theatrical experience.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Bristol Old Vic in October 2021.
X’ntigone: after Sophocles (Modern Plays)
by Darren MurphySometimes a person needs to create an act that destroys the world because the world is broken.The virus has ravaged Thebes. Millions are dead and the economy has tanked. Vaccinations have been administered and the Festival of Liberty is imminent. Things are finally about to change. The countdown is on but leader Creon and his quarantined niece, the self-identifying X'ntigone, have unfinished business before the celebrations can commence. What happens when old-world order meets a radical new world vision? In this thrilling meditation on Sophocles' timeless Greek tragedy, political expediency meets the voice of a generation who want to tear down the power structures that have ill-served a crumbling state.Darren Murphy's X'ntigone is a fresh and vital discourse for our times, when even truth has been sacrificed at the altar of political gain and avarice.
The Young Pretender
by Michael Arditti"An engrossing, enthralling and utterly captivating read, The Young Pretender tells a simply remarkable story with bounce, energy, wit, and lively authenticity . . . Michael Arditti's brilliant imaginative achievement offers high comedy, dark tragedy and everything between" STEPHEN FRY"The Young Pretender is an absolute joy - charming and funny, with the lightest hint of melancholy, and a wonderfully imaginative recreation of the Georgian theatre scene" KATE SAUNDERS"I loved how Arditti conjures...the smell of the theatre and the ghosts of these bygone players that haunt the stage...and the wonderful period details. Arditti wears his research so lightly" LARUSHKA IVAN-ZADEH, reviewing on Radio 4's FRONT ROW *****Mobbed by the masses, lionised by the aristocracy, courted by royalty and lusted after by patrons of both sexes, the child actor William Henry West Betty was one of the most famous people in Georgian Britain.At the age of thirteen, he played leading roles, including Romeo, Macbeth and Richard III, in theatres across the country. Prime Minister William Pitt adjourned the House of Commons so that its members could attend his debut as Hamlet at Covent Garden. Then, as rivals turned on him and scandal engulfed him, he suffered a fall as merciless as his rise had been meteoric."Arditti's voice as Betty is impeccable. He is touchy, sometimes myopic, sincere in his ambitions. His attempts to reclaim lost glory are run through with an affecting melancholy" The TimesThe Young Pretender takes place during Betty's attempted comeback at the age of twenty-one. As he seeks to relaunch his career, he is forced to confront the painful truths behind his boyhood triumphs. Michael Arditti's revelatory new novel puts this long forgotten figure back in the limelight. In addition to its rich and poignant portrait of Betty himself, it offers an engrossing insight into both the theatre and society of the age. The nature of celebrity, the power of publicity and the cult of youth are laid bare in a story that is more pertinent now than ever."Entrancing and disturbing" ALLAN MASSIE, The Scotsman"Michael Arditti tells a story of a Regency child star with great panache and compassion, bringing a forgotten celebrity back to life for the modern age. A compelling read I was sad to finish." LINDA GRANT"Michael Arditti is a writer who takes risks. His material is always compelling and provocative, his techniques sophisticated and oblique" PATRICIA DUNCKER, Independent on Sunday "Arditti is a master storyteller" PETER STANFORD, Observer
Albatross (Modern Plays)
by Isley Lynn“It's not just the choiceIt's never just the choiceChoice is a fairytale.”Tattoos are forever. Almost. And at Noodle Soup Tattoo there are strict rules: No names unless they're dead. Nothing on the face. Nothing you might get sued for later.When Jodie, a rough sleeper, asks for a free tattoo from apprentice Kit, her request is well within the guidelines. But Kit is still unsure, because they know only too well that getting inked isn't the only decision that stays with you for the rest of your life.Albatross is a small but sweeping story about the past refusing to stay in the past. It was originally commissioned by Plaines Plough in collaboration with Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and is published here to coincide with its production at the Playground Theatre, London in October 2021.
The Fir Tree (Plays for Young People)
by Hannah KhalilI want to know what the other trees knowGo where the other trees goWhere do they go?Writer Hannah Khalil collaborates with Shakespeare's Globe in London in this magical re-imagining and re-wilding of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale The Fir Tree.Written for just four actors this inventive and dynamic adaptation harnesses all of the joy of the Christmas season and reminds us that we can all make a difference in taking care of our planet. Music, song and storytelling combine in this accessible and enchanting adaptation that is suitable for families and young people to perform and read together in a story of hope.This edition was published to coincide with the premiere at the Globe Theatre, London, in December 2021.
The Changeling: The State of Play (Arden Shakespeare The State of Play)
by Ann Thompson Lena Cowen OrlinThis collection of original essays on Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's unsettling revenge tragedy The Changeling represents key new directions in criticism and research. The 13 chapters fall into six groups focusing on questions of space, theology, collaboration, disability both mental and physical, and performance both early modern and contemporary.The Changeling's critical and theatrical history, and a selected bibliography for the volume helps readers easily find the most frequently cited materials in the volume as a whole, while individual essays detail the full expanse of critical sources to pursue for further analysis. With contributors ranging from highly regarded critics to emerging scholars drawn from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Switzerland, the collection equips readers to engage with a variety of critical approaches to the play, moving a long way beyond the last century's tendency to treat Middleton as 'the early modern Ibsen', to ignore Rowley, and to focus almost wholly on a single aspect of the play's plot. Key themes and topics include: · Performance · Space and affect· Authorial collaboration· Gender and representation· Violence· Disability
City Limits: Filming Belfast, Beirut and Berlin in Troubled Times
by Stephanie SchwerterBelfast, Beirut and Berlin are notorious for their internal boundaries and borders. As symbols for political disunion, the three cities have inspired scriptwriters and directors from diverse cultural backgrounds. Despite their different histories, they share a wide range of features central to divided cities. In each city, particular territories take on specific symbolic and psychological meanings. Following a comparative approach, this book concentrates on the cinematographic representations of Belfast, Beirut and Berlin. Filmmakers are in constant search for new ways in order to engage with urban division. Making use of a variety of genres reaching from thriller to comedy, they explore the three cities' internal and external borders, as well as the psychological boundaries existing between citizens belonging to different communities. Among the characters featuring in films set in Belfast, Berlin and Beirut we may count dangerous gunmen, prisoners' wives, soldiers and snipers, but also comic Stasi-members, punk aficionados and fake nuns. The various characters contribute to the creation of a multifaceted image of city limits in troubled times.
Japanese Horror Cinema and Deleuze: Interrogating and Reconceptualizing Dominant Modes of Thought
by Rachel Elizabeth BarracloughUsing theories of national, transnational and world cinema, and genre theories and psychoanlaysis as the basis of its argument, Japanese Horror Cinema and Deleuze argues that these understandings of Japanese horror films can be extended in new ways through the philosophy of Deleuze. In particular, the complexities and nuances of how films like Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), Audition (1999) and Kairo (2001) (and beyond) form dynamic, transformative global networks between industries, directors and audiences can be considered. Furthermore, understandings of how key horror tropes and motifs apply to these films (and others more broadly), such as the idea of the “monstrous-feminine”, can be transformed, allowing these models to become more flexible.
Literature and Religious Experience: Beyond Belief and Unbelief
This book challenges the status quo of studies in literature and religion by returning to “experience” as a bridge between theory and practice. Essays focus on keywords of religious experience and demonstrate their applications in drama, fiction, and poetry. Each chapter explores the broad significance of its keyword as a category of psychological and social behavior and tracks its unique articulation by individual authors, including Conrad, Beecher Stowe and Melville. Together, the chapters construct a critical foundation for studying literature not only from the perspectives of theology and historicism but from the ways that literary experience reflects, reinforces, and sometimes challenges religious experience.