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Avant Garde Theatre: 1892–1992
by Christopher InnesExamining the development of avant garde theatre from its inception in the 1890s right up to the present day, Christopher Innes exposes a central paradox of modern theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. What links the work of Strindberg, Artaud, Brook and Mnouchkine is an idealisation of the elemental and a desire to find ritual in archaic traditions. This widespread primitivism is the key to understanding both the political and aesthetic aspects of modern theatre and provides fresh insights into contemporary social trends. The original text, first published in 1981 as Holy Theatre, has been fully revised and up-dated to take account of the most recent theoretical developments in anthropology, critical theory and psychotherapy. New sections on Heiner Muller, Robert Wilson, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine and Sam Shepard have been added. As a result, the book now deals with all the major avant garde theatre practitioners, in Europe and North America. Avant Garde Theatre will be essential reading for anyone attempting to understand contemporary drama.
Avant Garde Theatre: 1892–1992
by Christopher InnesExamining the development of avant garde theatre from its inception in the 1890s right up to the present day, Christopher Innes exposes a central paradox of modern theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. What links the work of Strindberg, Artaud, Brook and Mnouchkine is an idealisation of the elemental and a desire to find ritual in archaic traditions. This widespread primitivism is the key to understanding both the political and aesthetic aspects of modern theatre and provides fresh insights into contemporary social trends. The original text, first published in 1981 as Holy Theatre, has been fully revised and up-dated to take account of the most recent theoretical developments in anthropology, critical theory and psychotherapy. New sections on Heiner Muller, Robert Wilson, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine and Sam Shepard have been added. As a result, the book now deals with all the major avant garde theatre practitioners, in Europe and North America. Avant Garde Theatre will be essential reading for anyone attempting to understand contemporary drama.
Avant-Garde Theatre Sound: Staging Sonic Modernity (Avant-Gardes in Performance)
by A. CurtinSound experimentation by avant-garde theatre artists of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries is an important but ignored aspect of theatre history. Curtin explores how artists engaged with the sonic conditions of modernity through dramatic form, characterization, staging, technology, performance style, and other forms of interaction.
Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities
by Liam Jarvis Karen SavageIn the context of the postdigital age, where technology is increasingly part of our social and political world, Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance traces how identity can be created, developed, hijacked, manipulated, sabotaged and explored through performance in postdigital cultures. Considering how technology is reshaping performance, this timely collection reveals how we engage in performance practices through expanded notions of intermediality, knotted networks and layering.This book examines the artist as activist and producer of avatars, and how digital doubles, artificial intelligence and semi-automated politics are problematizing and expanding our discussions of identity. Using a range of examples in theatre, film and internet-based performance practices, chapters examine the uncertain boundaries of networked 'informational selves' in mediatized cultures, the impacts of machine algorithms, apps and the consequences of digital legacies. Case studies include James Cameron's Avatar, Blast Theory's Karen, Ontroerend Goed's A Game of You, Randy Rainbow's online videos, Sisters Grimm's Calpurnia Descending, Dante or Die's User Not Found, Dead Centre's Lippy and Chekhov's First Play and Jo Scott's practice-as-research in 'place-mixing'.This is an incisive study for scholars, students and practitioners interested in the wider conversations around identity-formation in postdigital cultures.
Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities
by Liam Jarvis and Karen SavageIn the context of the postdigital age, where technology is increasingly part of our social and political world, Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance traces how identity can be created, developed, hijacked, manipulated, sabotaged and explored through performance in postdigital cultures. Considering how technology is reshaping performance, this timely collection reveals how we engage in performance practices through expanded notions of intermediality, knotted networks and layering.This book examines the artist as activist and producer of avatars, and how digital doubles, artificial intelligence and semi-automated politics are problematizing and expanding our discussions of identity. Using a range of examples in theatre, film and internet-based performance practices, chapters examine the uncertain boundaries of networked 'informational selves' in mediatized cultures, the impacts of machine algorithms, apps and the consequences of digital legacies. Case studies include James Cameron's Avatar, Blast Theory's Karen, Ontroerend Goed's A Game of You, Randy Rainbow's online videos, Sisters Grimm's Calpurnia Descending, Dante or Die's User Not Found, Dead Centre's Lippy and Chekhov's First Play and Jo Scott's practice-as-research in 'place-mixing'.This is an incisive study for scholars, students and practitioners interested in the wider conversations around identity-formation in postdigital cultures.
Awkward Conversations with Animals I’ve F*cked (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Rob HayesOne-night stands are awkward. One-night stands with animals are more awkward. And when you’re as desperate to please as Bobby, things get awkward as f*ck. He’s just a guy with too much love to give, and a burning desire to give it to consensual adult mammals.
The Awkward Years (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Matthew BulgoLily's like a lot of other 20-somethings - working a dead-end job, stuck in a cycle of one-night stands and not where they expected to be at the age of 27. Her friends all feel like their lives are falling apart…except Lily's really is. Can she stop the rot before she crumbles away to nothing?The Awkward Years fuses a muscular text with frenetic movement and an evocative sound and lighting design to produce a breakneck-speed show about grief, hope and staying alive.
B (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Guillermo Calderón William Gregory“But don’t say that word.” “What word?” “The word that starts with B.” Alejandra and Marcela are planting bombs in the middle of the night. They don’t want violence. They just want to be heard. Prison’s not much of a threat when most of your friends are inside. But José Miguel is from another generation, and he’s committed to change by any means possible. ‘We used to kill kings. We use to kill millionaires. And now all we do is make threats on the Internet. That’s why I’m offering you the chance to start a war.’ Acclaimed Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón makes his Royal Court debut with the world premiere of his play B, exploring what revolution and violence mean to two different generations. B was first developed on an attachment with the Royal Court International Department, and premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 28 September 2017, in a production directed by Sam Pritchard.
B for Baby (Modern Plays)
by Carmel Winters'It was like we were two children - two innocent children just... playing' Mrs C wants a baby not a Christmas tree. B wants a real hairdresser's scissors and a wife. D wants a snow globe and 'a big head of dirty auld curls'. All of them want their own place in the world. And if they can't find it, they'll create one of their own. The play follows B and D in the care home where they are residents, and where Mrs C is a carer, on their special - 'very fecking special' - journey towards happiness. B for Baby is a tender, sharp-witted new play set in a residential care home for people with severe learning disabilities. Treating this taboo subject with humanity and humour, the piece's acuity and generously compassionate portraits result in a moving, if at times uncomfortable, drama. Poignantly exploring forbidden topics, B for Baby invites the reader or audience to rediscover the power and joy of make-believe. The play was first presented by the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage, September 2010.
B for Baby (Modern Plays)
by Carmel Winters'It was like we were two children - two innocent children just... playing' Mrs C wants a baby not a Christmas tree. B wants a real hairdresser's scissors and a wife. D wants a snow globe and 'a big head of dirty auld curls'. All of them want their own place in the world. And if they can't find it, they'll create one of their own. The play follows B and D in the care home where they are residents, and where Mrs C is a carer, on their special - 'very fecking special' - journey towards happiness. B for Baby is a tender, sharp-witted new play set in a residential care home for people with severe learning disabilities. Treating this taboo subject with humanity and humour, the piece's acuity and generously compassionate portraits result in a moving, if at times uncomfortable, drama. Poignantly exploring forbidden topics, B for Baby invites the reader or audience to rediscover the power and joy of make-believe. The play was first presented by the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage, September 2010.
Babies (Modern Plays)
by Jonathan HarveyWinner of the George Devine Award in 1993, Babies premiered at the Royal Court theatre, London in September 1994Liverpudlian Joe Casey is twenty-four, gay and a form tutor at a south-east London comprehensive. Joe's life is spliced between the drug-using excesses of his lover Woodie and the advances of his female pupils (and their mothers). A warm and funny comedy by the author of the 1993 hit Beautiful Thing.
Babies: Beautiful Thing; Babies; Boom Bang-a-bang; Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (Modern Plays)
by Jonathan HarveyWinner of the George Devine Award in 1993, Babies premiered at the Royal Court theatre, London in September 1994Liverpudlian Joe Casey is twenty-four, gay and a form tutor at a south-east London comprehensive. Joe's life is spliced between the drug-using excesses of his lover Woodie and the advances of his female pupils (and their mothers). A warm and funny comedy by the author of the 1993 hit Beautiful Thing.
Baby Reindeer (Modern Plays)
by Richard GaddI looked at her, wanting her to laugh. Wanting her to share in the joke. But she didn't. She just stared. I knew then, in that moment – that she had taken it literally...Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd has a chilling story to tell about obsession, delusion and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake.This powerful and engaging monologue play portrays a man brought to the edge by the actions of a chance encounter which takes a toll on all aspects of his life. In doing so it asks important questions about victims, the justice system and how one decision has the ability to change your life.
Baby Reindeer (Modern Plays)
by Richard GaddI looked at her, wanting her to laugh. Wanting her to share in the joke. But she didn't. She just stared. I knew then, in that moment – that she had taken it literally...Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd has a chilling story to tell about obsession, delusion and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake.This powerful and engaging monologue play portrays a man brought to the edge by the actions of a chance encounter which takes a toll on all aspects of his life. In doing so it asks important questions about victims, the justice system and how one decision has the ability to change your life.
Babylon Heights
by Dean Cavanagh Irvine WelshIf you put four dwarfs in one room with enough opium and alcohol, it's bound to end in tears...In 1935 MGM studios embarked on a movie adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The production called for the casting of many dwarfs to play the Munchkins of the mythical Land of Oz and the studio began recruiting 'small persons' from all over the world. During production, rumours spread around Hollywood of wild Munchkin sex orgies, drunken behavior and general dwarf debauchery. More sinisterly, a Munchkin is said to have committed suicide by hanging himself on the set during filming - what appears to be a small human body is clearly visible hanging from a tree in the Tin Man scene. It is a claim that has passed into Hollywood legend. Set in a hotel room in Culver City, California, Babylon Heights is Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh's scabrous and hilarious imagining of what could, very possibly, have led to that dwarf suicide. Babylon Heights premiered at the Exit Theatre, San Francisco, in June 2006.
Bacchae (Plays For Performance Ser.)
by Euripides Robin RobertsonDionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, has come to Thebes, and the women are streaming out of the city to worship him on the mountain, drinking and dancing in wild frenzy. The king, Pentheus, denouces this so-called 'god' as a charlatan. But no mortal can deny a god and no man can ever stand against Dionysus.This stunning translation, by the award-winning poet Robin Robertson, reinvigorated Euripides' devastating take of a god's revenge for contemporary readers, bringing the ancient verse to fervid, brutal life.
Bacchae (Oberon Classics)
by Mike PoultonWhen a new god - the god of the life force, the god of sensuality, wine and the dance, the god that other religions fear - arrives in a buttoned-down world, he finds a leader who no longer believes in a power higher than himself, who will do whatever it takes to preserve the status quo. But this society is a ticking time bomb, revolution is in the air and the people are desperate for change. The women of Thebes are ready to explode and destroy everyone and everything that gets in their way in Mike Poulton's all-new version of this dark and liberating play
The Bacchae and Other Plays: Bacchae And Other Plays (Penguin Classics Series)
by EuripidesThrough their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged with guilt after the vengeful murder of his mother. In the Bacchae, a king mistreats a newcomer to his land, little knowing that he is the god Dionysus disguised as a mortal, while in Iphigenia at Aulis, the Greek leaders take the horrific decision to sacrifice a princess to gain favour from the gods in their mission to Troy. Finally, the Rhesus depicts a world of espionage between the warring Greek and Trojan camps.
Bacchai (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Colin TeevanDionysos, the God of wine and theatre has returned to his native land to take revenge on the puritanical Pentheus who refuses to recognise him of his rites. Remorselessly, savagely and with black humour, the God drives Pentheus and all the city to their shocking fate. Limelight after decades of anonymity. This version was specially commissioned by the National Theatre for a production in May 2002, directed by Sir Peter Hall and scored by Sir Harrison Birtwhistle.
Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, Volume 2
by George Bernard ShawBack to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw. The five plays are:In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden); The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day; The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170; Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000; As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920 The plays were published with a preface titled The Infidel Half Century, and first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre.
Backward Ran Sentences: The Best of Wolcott Gibbs from the New Yorker
by Thomas Vinciguerra Wolcott Gibbs"Maybe he doesn't like anything, but he can do everything," New Yorker editor Harold Ross once said of the magazine's brilliantly sardonic theater critic, Wolcott Gibbs. And, for over thirty years at the magazine, Gibbs did do just about everything. He turned out fiction and nonfiction, profiles and parodies, filled columns in "Talk of the Town" and "Notes and Comment," covered books, movies, nightlife and, of course, the theater. A friend of the Algonquin Round Table, Gibbs was renowned for his wit. (Perhaps his most enduring line is from a profile of Henry Luce, parodying Time magazine's house style: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.")While, in his day, Gibbs was equal in stature to E.B. White and James Thurber, today, he is little read. In Backward Ran Sentences, journalist Tom Vinciguerra introduces Gibbs and gathers a generous sampling of his finest work across an impressive range of genres, bringing a brilliant, multitalented writer of incomparable wit to a new age of readers.
Bad Blood Blues (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Paul SirettAre Africans being exploited as guinea pigs' to test new drugs for multi-national pharmaceutical companies? Why is HIV/AIDS treatment too expensive for countries where the virus is most rife? Is it okay to sacrifice lives to protect the integrity of medical studies? Bad Blood Blues is a powerfully intense new play that leads us deep into a personal and sexual moral maze while confronting the ethics of HIV/AIDS drug trials in Africa.
The Bad Boy of Athens: Classics From The Greeks To Game Of Thrones
by Daniel Mendelsohn‘Mendelsohn takes the classical costumes off figures like Virgil and Sappho, Homer and Horace … He writes about things so clearly they come to feel like some of the most important things you have ever been told.’ Sebastian Barry
Badhai: Hijra-Khwaja Sira-Trans Performance across Borders in South Asia (Forms of Drama)
by Adnan Hossain Claire Pamment Jeff RoyThis is the first full-length book to provide an introduction to badhai performances throughout South Asia, examining their characteristics and relationships to differing contexts in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Badhai's repertoires of songs, dances, prayers, and comic repartee are performed by socially marginalised hijra, khwaja sira, and trans communities. They commemorate weddings, births and other celebratory heteronormative events. The form is improvisational and responds to particular contexts, but also moves across borders. For students of theatre and performance, anthropology, religion, gender and cultural studies, this book illuminates an important form of performance, considering its changing status and uncertain futures.The book draws from anthropology, theatre and performance studies, music and sound studies, ethnomusicology, queer and transgender studies, and sustained ethnographic fieldwork to examine badhai's place-based dynamics, transcultural features, and communications across the hijrascape. This vital study analyses these performances' layered, scalar, and sensorial practices, extending ways of understanding hijra-khwaja sira-trans performance.
Badhai: Hijra-Khwaja Sira-Trans Performance across Borders in South Asia (Forms of Drama)
by Adnan Hossain Claire Pamment Jeff RoyThis is the first full-length book to provide an introduction to badhai performances throughout South Asia, examining their characteristics and relationships to differing contexts in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Badhai's repertoires of songs, dances, prayers, and comic repartee are performed by socially marginalised hijra, khwaja sira, and trans communities. They commemorate weddings, births and other celebratory heteronormative events. The form is improvisational and responds to particular contexts, but also moves across borders. For students of theatre and performance, anthropology, religion, gender and cultural studies, this book illuminates an important form of performance, considering its changing status and uncertain futures.The book draws from anthropology, theatre and performance studies, music and sound studies, ethnomusicology, queer and transgender studies, and sustained ethnographic fieldwork to examine badhai's place-based dynamics, transcultural features, and communications across the hijrascape. This vital study analyses these performances' layered, scalar, and sensorial practices, extending ways of understanding hijra-khwaja sira-trans performance.