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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Downloadable Response Journal (Tom Stoppard Ser.)
by Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a play which, as it were, takes place in the wings of Hamlet, and finds both humour and poignancy in the situation of the ill-fated attendant lords. The National Theatre production in April 1967 made Tom Stoppard's reputation virtually overnight. Its wit, stagecraft and verbal verve remain as exhilarating as they were then and the play has become a contemporary classic.'One of the most original and engaging of post-war plays.' Daily Telegraph
Salvage: The Coast of Utopia Play 3 (The\coast Of Utopia Trilogy #Pt. 3)
by Tom StoppardSalvage is the final part of Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia. It is 1852. Alexander Herzen, who left Russia five years earlier, has arrived in London in retreat from a series of public and private calamities. Revolution in Europe has hit the rocks. 'I have lost every illusion dear to me,' he says. 'I'm forty. The world will hear no more of me.' But émigré circles in London (including Karl Marx) are buzzing with plots and intrigues, and Herzen's money, as well as his sardonic wit, soon have an outlet among them. With the accession of Alexander II, 'the Reforming Tsar', Herzen's revived spirits are boosted by the arrival of his childhood friend Nicholas Ogarev with his wife Natalie. Their journal 'The Bell', smuggled into Russia, enters its heyday in the struggle for the emancipation of the serfs. Will it be reform from above or revolution from below? At home the 'new men' who once looked on Herzen as their inspiration are in a hurry, and in London he is once more at odds with Michael Bakunin, who has escaped from exile in Siberia. Meanwhile Natalie Ogarev finds in him her romantic ideal, and Herzen's public and private travails are far from over.
Shipwreck: The Coast of Utopia Play 2 (The\coast Of Utopia Trilogy #Pt. 2)
by Tom StoppardShipwreck is the second part of Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia. It continues the story of the anarchist Michael Bakunin, the critic Vissarion Belinsky, the writer Ivan Turgenev, and their circle, but as the action shifts from Russia to Paris in the year of European revolution, it is Alexander Herzen and his wife Natalie who come to occupy the focus. Isaiah Berlin called Herzen a writer and thinker of genius, one of the greatest of nineteenth-century Russians; and it was here, in the intoxicating anticipation and the dashed hopes of the 1848 revolution - when the loss of his political illusions were overshadowed by a series of personal calamities - that Herzen found his greatness, seeking the way forward for Russia, the just society and the good life.
Skylight: Skylight, Amy's View, Judas Kiss, My Zinc Bed
by David HareSkylight premiered at the National Theatre in 1995 and then went on to become one of the most internationally successful plays of recent years. This is the definitive edition of Skylight.
A Slight Ache: The Birthday Party; The Room; The Dumb Waiter; A Slight Ache; The Hothouse; A Night Out; The Black And White; The Examination
by Harold PinterThis volume contains a selection of early works by Harold Pinter. In the title play, everything in Flora's garden is lovely, and would be for Edward too, if it were not for the slight ache in his eyes and the mysterious matchseller at the gate. This edition also includes A Night Out, The Dwarfs and several revue sketches.
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me: A Play
by Frank McGuinnessAn Englishman, an Irishman and an American are locked up together in a cell in the Middle East. As victims of political action, powerless to initiate change, what can they do? How do they live and survive? Frank McGuinness explores the daily crisis endured by hostages whose strength comes from communication, both subtle and mundane, from humour, wit and faith.Someone Who'll Watch Over Me premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1992 before transferring to the West End. On Broadway, it was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1993.
Three Plays After: The Yalta Game; The Bear; Afterplay (Faber Plays Ser.)
by Brian FrielThree exquisite masterpieces from Brian Friel, based on works by Chekhov: The Bear: A Vaudeville; Afterplay (where Sonya from Uncle Vanya and Andrey from Three Sisters meet), and The Yalta Game (from a theme in Chekhov's 1899 story, 'The Lady with the Lapdog'). The Yalta Game: from a theme in Chekhov's 1899 story 'The Lady with the Lapdog'Two strangers meet on holiday and almost manage to convince one another that disappointments are 'merely the postponement of the complete happiness to come...'The Bear: A VaudevilleElena Popova, a young and attractive widow, has immersed herself in the role of mourning for her philandering but now dead husband. Luka, her frail and ancient man-servant, tries in vain to snap her out of it. Then Smirnov barges in...Afterplay1920s Moscow, a small run-down café. Uncle Vanya's niece, Sonya Serebriakova, now in her forties, is the only customer. Until the arrival of the Three Sisters' put-upon brother Andrey Prozorov.Two Plays After (Afterplay and The Bear) premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in March 2002 and Afterplay transferred to the Gielgud Theatre, London, in September 2002.
Tom Stoppard Plays 4: Dalliance; Undiscovered Country; Rough Crossing; On the Razzle; The Seagull
by Tom StoppardThis fourth volume of Tom Stoppard's work for the stage brings together five of his most celebrated translations and adaptations of plays by Arthur Schnitzler (Dalliance and Undiscovered Country), Ferenc Molnar (Rough Crossing), Johann Nestroy (On the Razzle) and Anton Chekhov (The Seagull).
Tom Stoppard Plays 5: The Real Thing; Night & Day; Hapgood; Indian Ink; Arcadia
by Tom StoppardThis fifth collection of Tom Stoppard's plays brings together five classic plays by one of the most celebrated dramatists writing in the English language.The collection includes The Real Thing, Night & Day, Hapgood, Indian Ink and Arcadia, about which the reviewer for the Daily Telegraph said 'I have never left a new play more convinced that I'd just witnessed a masterpiece'.
Tom Stoppard Plays 1: The Real Inspector Hound, Dirty Linen, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth & After Magritte
by Tom StoppardThe plays in this collection reveal in combination the 'frivolous' and 'serious' aspects of Tom Stoppard's talent: his sense of fun, his sense of theatre, his sense of the absurd, and his gifts for parody and satire. The author rounds off his brief introduction, giving the genesis of each piece, with the comment: 'The role of the theatre is much debated (by almost nobody, of course), but the thing defines itself in practice first and foremost as a recreation. This seems satisfactory'.Leading off is The Real Inspector Hound, the ultimate country-house whodunnit; Dirty Linen moves a Whitehall farce to Parliament Square; Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth subverts Shakespeare; and After Magritte explains the inexplicable.
Tom Stoppard Plays 3: Separate Peace; Teeth; Another Moon Called Earth; Neutral Ground; Professional Foul; Squaring the Circle.
by Tom StoppardThis third collection of plays by Tom Stoppard contains his television plays, written between 1965 and 1984. They show that Stoppard's writing for the small screen is comparable to his more celebrated stage work, as the masterly Professional Foul demonstrates. In his introduction the author briefly describes how the individual pieces came to be written and the circumstances of their original production.
Travesties
by Tom Stoppard'Travesties is a superb comedy, a work of thought and imagination.' Stage and Television'It is a champagne cocktail, compounded of a balletic nimbleness of invention, a bewildering intricacy of design which reaches the sublime heights where mathematics merge with poetry, and the audacious juggling of ideas of a master conjuror.' Sunday Telegraph'A dazzling pyrotechnical feat that combines Wildean pastiche, political history, artistic debate, spoof reminiscence, and song-and-dance in marvellously judicious proportions. The text itself is a Joycean web of literary allusions; yet it also radiates sheer intellectual joie de vivre, as if Stoppard were delightedly communicating the fruits of his own researches.' Guardian
Two Kafka Plays: Kafka's Dick & The Insurance
by Alan Bennett'You have to keep your ears open for Alan Bennett's Insurance Man. It had visual impact so powerful that you were in danger of missing some very good lines simply because nobody spoke them in close up; you had to catch them on the wing. And if there was one line that summed up both Bennett's play and Kafka's novel The Trial, which provided some of this framework, that line was "Just because you're the injured party, it doesn't mean you're not guilty".' GuardianKafka himself figures in these two brilliant scripts: one a hilarious comedy, the other a profound and searching drama. This edition includes an introduction by Alan Bennett.
Via Dolorosa
by David Hare'My whole life, it's been assumed, Western civilisation is an old bitch gone in the teeth. And so people say, go to Israel. Because in Israel at least people are fighting. In Israel, they're fighting for something they believe in.' Via DolorosaIn 1997, after many invitations, the 50-year-old British playwright resolved finally to visit the 50-year-old State of Israel. The resulting play, written to be performed by the author himself, offers a meditation on an extraordinary trip to both Israel and the Palestinian territory, which leaves Hare questioning his own values as searchingly as the powerful beliefs of those he met. Accompanying Via Dolorosa is the 1996 lecture When Shall We Live?, which also addresses questions of art and faith. Originally given in Westminster Abbey as the Eric Symes Memorial Lecture, it attracted record correspondence when an abridged version was published in the Daily Telegraph.
The Wind in the Willows
by Alan Bennett'Believe me, my young friend, there is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In them or out of them, it doesn't matter. Whether you get away or you don't, whether you arrive at your destination or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy.'Ever since the publication of Kenneth Grahame's novel in 1908, the characters of Ratty, Mole, Toad and Badger have delighted generations of readers. Now Alan Bennett has written an adaptation for the stage, a version which is both true to the original and yet carries that distinctive Bennett hallmark.Alan Bennett introduces this edition, writing about the history of the project and the staging of the production.'Bennett is even able to inject the odd sly joke for the adult without bewildering the tots... the result is a delightful evening, a treat for anyone.' The Times
Writing Left-Handed: Collected Essays
by David HareThe leading British writer-director of his generation, David Hare is also one of the most productive. The last two years have seen the outstanding success of two stage plays, The Secret Rapture and Racing Demon, and the release of two films, Paris by Night and Strapless.The pieces collected here, written left-handed, form both a concealed professional autobiography and a lucid commentary on his work.
Speaking Like Magpies
by Frank McGuinnessBut I can hear them speaking like magpies,And they mean to thieve his life,The Lord's anointed servant,They mean to kill God.Speaking Like Magpies, specially commissioned by the RSC as part of the Gunpowder Season to mark the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, brings to vibrant life the background to this notorious event in British history. Frank McGuinness' play premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in September 2005, its final performance marking the end of the RSC's Gunpowder Season on 5 November 2005.
Heroes
by Gérald SibleyrasOne must strive a little for the epic, old boy.It's 1959 and Philippe, Gustave and Henri, three veterans from the first world war, dream of making their escape from the soldiers' home, if not to Indochina then at least as far as the poplar trees on the hill...Gérald Sibleyras's Le Vent des Peupliers premiered at the Wyndham's Theatre, London, in October 2005 as Heroes, an English-language version by Tom Stoppard. It received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2006.
Phaedra: in a version
by Jean RacineThe King is missing, presumed dead. His warrior son is braced for inheritance but is betrayed by his heart. Phaedra, the tormented Queen, has a terrifying secret that will shake Athens to its core.Based on Euripides' Hippolytus, Racine's Phaedra reveals the devastating potential of love and the brutality of human nature.Phaedra, in this new version by Frank McGuinness, premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in April 2006.
There Came a Gypsy Riding
by Frank McGuinnessThe McKenna family convenes at their remote West Ireland holiday home to mark the 21st birthday of their late son Gene. Eccentric cousin Bridget appears along the causeway, inviting herself for birthday cake and conversation, and ready to expose a family secret. Even Margaret, the unstoppable mother, and Leo, the ever-calm father, can't hold things together in the face of an unexpected visit from the past.There Came a Gypsy Riding premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in January 2007.
The Vertical Hour: A Play
by David HareNadia Blye is a young American war reporter turned academic who teaches Political Studies at Yale. A brief holiday with her boyfriend brings her into contact with a kind of Englishman whose culture and background is a surprise and a challenge, both to her and to her relationship. For thirty five years, David Hare has written plays which catch the flavour of our times, the interconnection between our secret motives and our public politics. Now, at last, he writes about an American, seeking to illustrate how life has subtly changed for so many people in the West in the new century.The Vertical Hour received its world premiere at the Music Box Theater, Broadway, on November 30, 2006, and received its UK premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 17 January 2008.
Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture
by Harold PinterArts, Truth and Politics is Harold Pinter's lecture on receipt of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Stuff Happens: A Play (Faber Drama Ser.)
by David HareStuff happens... And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.'The famous response of Donald Rumsfeld, American Secretary of Defense, to the looting of Baghdad, at a press conference on 11 April 2003, provides the title for a new play, specially written for the Olivier Theatre, about the extraordinary process leading up to the invasion of Iraq.How does the world settle its differences, now there is only one superpower? What happens to leaders risking their credibility with sceptical publics? From events which have dominated international headlines for the last two years David Hare has fashioned both a historical narrative and a human drama about the frustrations of power and the limits of diplomacy.Stuff Happens premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2004 season and has subsequently been performed around the world. In April 2006, it was given its New York premiere at the Public Theater in this new, slightly updated text.
The Permanent Way
by David HareIn 1991, before an election they did not expect to win, the Conservative government made a fateful decision to privatize the railways. As a result, the taxpayer subsidizes rail more lavishly then ever before. In The Permanent Way, David Hare, working with actors from the Out of Joint Company, tells the intricate, madcap story of a dream gone sour, by gathering together the first-hand accounts of those most intimately involved - from every level of the system. 'A drama that stirs indignation and pity in equal measure, political theatre that transcends the old conflicts between Right and Left to condemn the whole mindset and attitudes of those allegedly running our nation's affairs. It is, by a mile, the most significant and revealing new play of the year. If you want to understand why Britain isn't working, you need to see The Permanent Way.' Daily Telegraph'A compelling, fast-moving and astringently witty collage of first-hand testimonies and conflicting points of view... The picture that emerges with great force from these vivid, eloquently juxtaposed vignettes is of a debased culture that sets less store by the expertise that comes from intimate knowledge of a subject than by vacuous so-called management skills.' Independent'A vitally necessary piece of theatre.' Guardian
The Hothouse: The Birthday Party; The Room; The Dumb Waiter; A Slight Ache; The Hothouse; A Night Out; The Black And White; The Examination (Pinter, Harold Ser.)
by Harold PinterThe Hothouse was first produced in 1980, though Harold Pinter wrote the play in 1958 just before commencing work on The Caretaker. 'The Hothouse is one of Pinter's best plays: one that deals with the worm-eaten corruption of bureaucracy, the secrecy of government and the disjunction between language and experience.'Michael Billington.'The Hothouse is at once sinister and hilarious, suggesting an unholy alliance between Kafka and Fedyeau.'The National Theatre presented a major revival of The Hothouse in July 2007. 'The foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the twentieth century.'Swedish Academy citation on awarding Harold Pinter the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2005