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A Warwickshire Testimony
by April de AngelisThe past: the 'big house', the servant class, the close-knit family ties of a bygone generation. Rural idyll or claustrophobic hellhole? Desperate to get away from her family and from a culture where everybody knows everything about everybody, Edie moves out but can she ever manage to move on? The present: big business and incomers, no shops and no locals, where nothing stays the same for five minutes and where the 'quaintness' of the cottages is all that's left of village life. For better or for worse?April de Angelis's funny and compassionate new play powerfully illustrates a rapidly changing way of life by focusing on the loves, traumas and disputes of one Midlands family throughout the twentieth century.
Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie
by Samuel AdamsonNo one has recognised Reade Collins in the street for over a decade. Suddenly everyone seems to know who he is again - things are looking up. But there's a flip side to second-hand fame - and Reade discovers that there's more than one way of getting shafted. Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie is a wildly entertaining look at the nature of celebrity.Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 1999.
Acting Up
by David HareIn 1997 the 50-year-old playwright David Hare decided to visit the 50-year-old state of Israel and write a play - Via Dolorosa - about the conflict. He then chose to become the actor of his own play and set about learning to act the monologue for an uninterrupted 95 minutes on stage. Acting Up is a diary of the ups and downs of that learning curve as well as an insight into what it is actors, directors, producers and stage staff actually do in rehearsals. Hare's hilarious diary of his experience on both sides of the Atlantic tells of his difficulties in coming to terms with his terrifying change of career, but also grapples with more serious questions about the nature of acting itself.
Battle Royal
by Nick Stafford1795: England is at war with France, women are seen but not heard, and the Prince Regent, a man with 'an undeserved reputation for enjoying the amusements of his position whilst not embracing duties', is under pressure to marry and produce and heir.
The Boy Who Fell into a Book
by Alan AyckbournRockfist Slim's enemies have just plunged him into yet another desperate situation when Kevin has to close his detective book and go to sleep. But his own adventure is only just beginning. Fast-moving, fun and full of special effects, Ayckbourn's wonderfully inventive play for children brings alive several well-known children's books as Kevin and Rockfist Slim escape the baddies and plunge into many different worlds.The Boy Who Fell into a Book premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in December 1998.
Nick Dear Plays 1: Art of Success; In the Ruins; Zenobia; Turn of the Screw
by Nick DearThis first collection of Nick Dear's work for the stage displays the breadth and achievement of one of the most talented and inventive dramatists writing in Britain today. The volume contains two of his re-workings of eighteenth-century history, The Art of Success and In the Ruins, his intelligent and original political parable Zenobia and his chilling adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.
Tom Stoppard: Faber Critical Guide
by Jim HunterAre you fascinated by Stoppard's plays but want an informed view into their complexities?Are you studying his plays and looking for help with interpretation?Do you teach Stoppard and need a reliable guide?A Faber Critical Guide to Tom Stoppard's major work gives us all this and more:- an introduction to the distinctive features of the playwright's work- the significance of the playwright in the context of modern theatre- a detailed analysis of each of the classic plays: language, structure and character- feature of performance- select bibliographyComplied by experts in their field, for use in classroom, college or home, Faber Critical Guides are the essential companions to the work of all the leading dramatists.Also in this series: Faber Critical Guides to the major works of Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel, Sean O'Casey and Harold Pinter.
Steven Berkoff Plays 3
by Steven BerkoffThis is a collection of three history plays, each displaying the sparkling muscularity of language that marks Berkoff out as one of the foremost wordsmiths in the English language. Set in thirteenth-century England, Ritual in Blood looks at the persecution of the Jews. Messiah begins with the image of Christ on the cross and pits His humanity and transcendent goodness against the evil of those who would kill Him. Finally, Berkoff offers a sharp and accessible adaptation of Sophocles's Oedipus tragedy.
Steven Berkoff Plays 1: East; West; Greek; Sink the Belgrano!; Massage Lunch; The Bow of Ulysses; Sturm und Drang (Play Anthologies Ser.)
by Steven BerkoffSteven Berkoff is a phenomenon. Among the artists working in the theatre today he is probably the most theatrical - his special combination of speech, movement and spectacle is uniquely powerful. This first collection of his plays includes East, described by Berkoff as 'an outburst or revolt against the sloth of my youth and a desire to turn a welter of undirected passion and frustration into a positive form'. Also included in this collection are the plays West and Sink the Belgrano!
The Ash Girl: The Break Of Day, After Darwin, Credible Witness, The Ash Girl, Dianeira
by Timberlake WertenbakerWhen an invitation to The Ball arrives at the Ash girl's house, from Prince Amir, she can't bring herself to believe that she, like her sisters, can go. With her mother dead and her father away, she must learn to fight the monsters that have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind. In this wondrous drama Timberlake Wertenbaker explores the beauty and terror inherent in growing up.The Ash Girl premiered at Birmingham Rep in 2001.
Credible Witness: The Break Of Day, After Darwin, Credible Witness, The Ash Girl, Dianeira
by Timberlake WertenbakerA young man flees to a distant land and vanishes. His mother follows, certain she will find him, but in this unfamiliar place all certainties seem to crumble. In this story of love and loss, Wertenbaker explores passions simmering in contemporary Britain: the longing for identity, the despair of fragmentation and the fragile hopes of lives redefined.Credible Witness premiered at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs of the Royal Court, London, 2001
In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Theatre Bks.)
by Aleks SierzThe most controversial and newsworthy plays of British theatre are a rash of rude, vicious and provocative pieces by a brat pack of twentysomethings whose debuts startled critics and audiences with their heady mix of sex, violence and street-poetry.In-Yer-Face Theatre is the first book to study this exciting outburst of creative self-expression by what in other contexts has been called Generation X, or Thatcher's Children, the 'yoof' who grew up during the last Conservative Government. The book argues that, for example, Trainspotting, Blasted, Mojo and Shopping and F**king are much more than a collection of shock tactics - taken together, they represent a consistent critique of modern life, one which focuses on the problem of violence, the crisis of masculinity and the futility of consumerism. The book contains extensive interviews with playwrights, including Sarah Kane (Blasted), Mark Ravenhill (Shopping and F**king), Philip Ridley (The Pitchfork Disney), Patrick Marber (Closer) and Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane).
Luminosity
by Nick StaffordThe Mercer family's fortune started in eighteenth-century England, increased via South African gems in the nineteenth, and is managed on an ethical basis today. But when a modern Mercer begins digging beneath the surface, the family's past suddenly appears less clear-cut than the gems they once traded. Set in the West Midlands of England in 1799 and 1999 and in Kimberley, South Africa in 1899, Luminosity tells three tales of interlinked lives where greed, lies and generosity have surprising results.Luminosity premiered at The Pit, Barbican Centre, London, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001.
The Secret Love Life of Ophelia
by Steven BerkoffHamlet and Ophelia express the infinite variety of their passion in a work which takes the form of an epistolary play in verse. Steven Berkoff's startlingly original drama charts the lovers' story beneath the surface of Shakespeare's play. With a muscularity of language tempered with tenderness, Berkoff's play is shot through with images of courtly love, sexual desire and intimations of future tragedy. The chill of the ending perfectly offsets the preceding violent heat in what is another unique piece of work from the individual talent that is Steven Berkoff.The Secret Love Life of Ophelia was first performed at the King's Head Theatre, London, on 25 June 2001.
Nightingale and Chase
by Zinnie HarrisPlayed this game. Inside, with the other girls. The 'he is going to meet you' game. The 'he is going to meet you with flowers' game. The 'he is going to turn up in a limo' game. The 'he is going to bring champagne' game. The 'he is going to cover you in kisses, or cum, or love bites or bloody Belgian chocolate' game, doesn't matter but when you walk out of those gates. He is going to be there, that is the game.Chase is waiting to be released from prison. And Nightingale is there to meet her. Everything is under control and they're both going to get it right. This time.Nightingale and Chase premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2001.
Peter Gill Plays 1
by Peter GillThis first collection of Peter Gill's plays spans his work from 1965 to 1987. The plays are studies of love and time, loss and the fear of loss. The collection includes the plays The Sleepers Den, Over Gardens Out, Small Change, Kick for Touch, In The Blue and Mean Tears, and is introduced by John Burgess.
The Promise
by Nick DearIn the savage 1942 winter siege of Leningrad, as the Russians fight off the Nazi invaders, three teenagers - Lika, Marat and Leondik - are thrown together. Losing everything from their past, they forge a new love that binds them and a new hope which keeps them alive: the promise of a better future.Arbuzov's classic of the 1960s is revived here in Nick Dear's stunning adaptation for the Tricycle Theatre, London in 2002.
Timberlake Wertenbaker Plays 2
by Timberlake WertenbakerThis second collection of Timberlake Wertenbaker's plays contains her work from 1995 to 2001. Diameira is published here for the first time. The collection also includes The Break of Day, After Darwin, Credible Witness and The Ash Girl, and is introduced by the author.
Tony Harrison Plays 2: The Misanthrope; Phaedra Britannica; The Prince's Plays
by Tony HarrisonThis second collection of Tony Harrison's poetry for the stage contains his adaptations of Molière, Racine and Victor Hugo. Included are the plays The Misanthrope, Phaedra Britannica and The Prince's Plays.The volume contains introductions, written by Tony Harrison, to each of the plays.
Original Sin: Cardiff East, Certain Young Men, The York Realist, Original Sin
by Peter GillAngel, a spell-bindingly beautiful boy, is plucked from the streets to be the plaything of a wealthy newspaper proprietor. This street-boy turned socialite moves with ease between the worlds of privilege and poverty in 1890s Paris and London. Angel's rapid success turns as swiftly into self-destruction as he is caught in a downward spiral of obsession, money, murder, suicide and white slavery.Original Sin premiered at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre in June 2002.
Damsels in Distress: Roleplay
by Alan AyckbournThis is a trilogy of plays by the most performed playwright in the world, all set in a flat in Docklands. Lynette's teenage daughter comes up with a surprising way to save the family finances. A night of passion takes a mysterious and dangerous turn. An important family occasion is thrown into chaos by the arrival of some uninvited guests.
Power
by Nick DearSome say power's an illusion. But Louis is the master of illusion. He has turned government into a spectacle, politics into a circus.Nick Dear's new play on the origins of the Sun King is a dark and dazzling tale of ambition, corruption and illusion. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London, in June 2003.
Dark Earth
by David HarrowerWhen Valerie and Euan's car breaks down in remote countryside near the Antonine Wall they have a problem. With their mobiles left at home and an evening out arranged in Glasgow, they have to find help fast.This comes in the form of Petey and Ida and their twenty-year-old daughter Christine, a farming family who live and breathe the history and traditions of the small area of earth they've made their home. Dark Earth premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in July 2003.
The Secret Rapture: Fanshen; A Map Of The World; Saigon; The Bay At Nice; The Secret Rapture (Books That Changed The World Ser.)
by David HareAn elderly antiquarian bookseller has just died at his home in the country. His two daughters come to attend to things. Isobel, who has been nursing him, is a partner in a small design firm. Marion is in politics - already a junior minister. It is Marion's profession to provide answers, and to back those who offer solutions, but not all human situations yield to a professional approach - least of all when they involve their junior step-mother Katherine.In this elegantly constructed play, a mordant comedy of manners deepens into a painfully unsparing examination of the consequences of applying principled pragmatism to human feelings.'David Hare has written one of the best English plays since the war and established himself as the finest British dramatist of his generation.' John Peter, Sunday Times
The Crafty Art of Playmaking
by Alan AyckbournWith over sixty plays written and premièred at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough before going on to play in the West End or the Royal National Theatre, London, or Broadway, Alan Ayckbourn's expertise in writing and directing plays is unsurpassed.For the first time, here in The Crafty Art of Playmaking, he shares all his tricks of the trade. From helpful hints on writing (Where do you start? How do you continue? What is comedy and how do you write it? What is tragedy and how does it work?), to tips on directing (working with actors and technicians, when to listen to the other experts, how to cope with rehearsals), the book provides a complete primer for the tyro and a refresher for the more experienced. Written in an accessible and highly entertaining style, with anecdotes galore to illustrate the how, when, where and why, it's worth the cover price for the jokes alone.'A marvellously useful and enjoyably good-humoured book' Daily Telegraph