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Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis (The Fourth Wall)

"Everything passes/Everything perishes/Everything palls" – 4.48 Psychosis How on earth do you award aesthetic points to a 75-minute suicide note? The question comes from a review of 4.48 Psychosis’ inaugural production, the year after Sarah Kane took her own life, but this book explores the ways in which it misses the point. Kane’s final play is much more than a bizarre farewell to mortality. It’s a work best understood by approaching it first and foremost as theatre – as a singular component in a theatrical assemblage of bodies, voices, light and energy. The play finds an unexpectedly close fit in the established traditions of modern drama and the practices of postdramatic theatre. Glenn D’Cruz explores this theatrical angle through a number of exemplary professional and student productions with a focus on the staging of the play by the Belarus Free Theatre (2005) and Melbourne’s Red Stitch Theatre (2007).

Sarah Kane’s Theatre of Psychic Life: Theatre, Thought and Mental Suffering (Methuen Drama Engage)

Sarah Kane was one of the landmark playwrights of 1990s Britain, her influence being felt across UK and European theatre. This is the first book to focus exclusively on Kane's unique approach to mind and mental health. It offers an important re-evaluation of her oeuvre, revealing the relationship between theatre and mind which lies at the heart of her theatrical project. Drawing on performance theory, psychoanalysis and neuroscience, this book argues that Kane's innovations generate a 'dramaturgy of psychic life', which re-shapes the encounter between stage and audience. It uses previously unseen archival material and contemporary productions to uncover the mechanics of this innovative theatre practice. Through a radically open-ended approach to dramaturgy, Kane's works offer urgent insights into mental suffering that take us beyond traditional discourses of empathy and mental health and into a profound rethinking of theatre as a mode of thought. As such, her theatre can help us to understand debates about mental suffering today.

Sarah Kane’s Theatre of Psychic Life: Theatre, Thought and Mental Suffering (Methuen Drama Engage)

Sarah Kane was one of the landmark playwrights of 1990s Britain, her influence being felt across UK and European theatre. This is the first book to focus exclusively on Kane's unique approach to mind and mental health. It offers an important re-evaluation of her oeuvre, revealing the relationship between theatre and mind which lies at the heart of her theatrical project. Drawing on performance theory, psychoanalysis and neuroscience, this book argues that Kane's innovations generate a 'dramaturgy of psychic life', which re-shapes the encounter between stage and audience. It uses previously unseen archival material and contemporary productions to uncover the mechanics of this innovative theatre practice. Through a radically open-ended approach to dramaturgy, Kane's works offer urgent insights into mental suffering that take us beyond traditional discourses of empathy and mental health and into a profound rethinking of theatre as a mode of thought. As such, her theatre can help us to understand debates about mental suffering today.

The Sarah Siddons Audio Files: Romanticism and the Lost Voice (Theater: Theory/Text/Performance)

English actress Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) was an international celebrity widely acclaimed for her performances of tragic heroines.We know what Siddons looked like—an endless number of artists asked her to sit for portraits and sculptures—but what of her famous voice? In lively and engaging prose, Judith Pascoe journeys to discover how the celebrated romantic actor’s voice sounded and to understand its power to move audiences to a state of emotional collapse. The author’s quixotic endeavor leads her to enroll in a “Voice for Actors” class, to collect Lady Macbeth voice prints, and to listen more carefully to the soundscape of her own life. The Sarah Siddons Audio Files is the first full-scale attempt to address the importance of the voice in romantic culture. Bringing together archival discoveries, sound recording history, and media theory, the book shows how the romantic poets’ preoccupation with voices is linked to a larger cultural anxiety about the voice’s ephemerality. The Sarah Siddons Audio Files contributes to a growing body of work on the fascinating history of sound, and will engage a broad audience interest in how recording technology has altered human experience.

Satire (Forms of Drama)

Satire reconsiders the entertainment, political dissent and comic social commentary created by innovative writers and directors since this theatrical form took the stage in ancient Athens. From Aristophanes to the 18th-century plays of John Gay and Henry Fielding, to the creations of Joan Littlewood, Bertolt Brecht, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Erika Mann, Brendan Behan and Dario Fo, practitioners of theatrical satire have prompted audiences to laugh at corruption, greed, injustice and abusive authority.In the theatre these artists jested at prominent citizens, scandals and fashions. In retrospect it can be seen that their topical references, allegories and impersonations also promoted intervention in public discourse and events outside the theatre, as satire extended its reach beyond the stage into society.Satire focuses on three exemplary satiric plays: The Knights by Aristophanes, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and The Hostage by Brendan Behan under Joan Littlewood's direction. Detailed discussion of these three innovative works reveals both changes and continuities in stage satire over the course of its long, hilarious history. The survey concludes with a discussion of stage satire as an endangered art in need of preservation by actors, directors and theatre historians.

Satire: Theatrical Satire In The Age Of Walpole (Forms of Drama)

Satire reconsiders the entertainment, political dissent and comic social commentary created by innovative writers and directors since this theatrical form took the stage in ancient Athens. From Aristophanes to the 18th-century plays of John Gay and Henry Fielding, to the creations of Joan Littlewood, Bertolt Brecht, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Erika Mann, Brendan Behan and Dario Fo, practitioners of theatrical satire have prompted audiences to laugh at corruption, greed, injustice and abusive authority.In the theatre these artists jested at prominent citizens, scandals and fashions. In retrospect it can be seen that their topical references, allegories and impersonations also promoted intervention in public discourse and events outside the theatre, as satire extended its reach beyond the stage into society.Satire focuses on three exemplary satiric plays: The Knights by Aristophanes, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and The Hostage by Brendan Behan under Joan Littlewood's direction. Detailed discussion of these three innovative works reveals both changes and continuities in stage satire over the course of its long, hilarious history. The survey concludes with a discussion of stage satire as an endangered art in need of preservation by actors, directors and theatre historians.

Satire & The State: Sketch Comedy and the Presidency

Satire & The State focuses on performance-based satire, most often seen in sketch comedy, from 1960 to the present, and explores how sketch comedy has shaped the way Americans view the president and themselves. Numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents that have seeped into the American consciousness – Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, and Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush all worked to shape the actual politician’s public persona. The book analyzes these sketches and many others, illustrating how comedy is at the heart of the health and function of American democracy. At its best, satire aimed at the presidency can work as a populist check on executive power, becoming one of the most important weapons for everyday Americans against tyranny and political corruption. At its worst, satire can reflect and promote racism, misogyny, and homophobia in America. Written for students of Theatre, Performance, Political Science, and Media Studies courses, as well as readers with an interest in political comedy, Satire & The State offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between comedy and the presidency, and the ways in which satire becomes a window into the culture, principles, and beliefs of a country.

Satire & The State: Sketch Comedy and the Presidency

Satire & The State focuses on performance-based satire, most often seen in sketch comedy, from 1960 to the present, and explores how sketch comedy has shaped the way Americans view the president and themselves. Numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents that have seeped into the American consciousness – Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, and Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush all worked to shape the actual politician’s public persona. The book analyzes these sketches and many others, illustrating how comedy is at the heart of the health and function of American democracy. At its best, satire aimed at the presidency can work as a populist check on executive power, becoming one of the most important weapons for everyday Americans against tyranny and political corruption. At its worst, satire can reflect and promote racism, misogyny, and homophobia in America. Written for students of Theatre, Performance, Political Science, and Media Studies courses, as well as readers with an interest in political comedy, Satire & The State offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between comedy and the presidency, and the ways in which satire becomes a window into the culture, principles, and beliefs of a country.

Saturn Returns (Modern Plays)

There are echoes. Do you know what I mean? They were here. And then they weren't. And I have to stay here. Because this is where they were.Every thirty years, the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the universe it occupied on the day of your birth. Its arrival is said to herald pivotal events in a person's life.In Saturn Returns, we follow one man, Gustin Novak, at the ages of 28, 58 and 88, as he reaches a series of crossroads with three key women and comes to understand how the echoes of the past have defined the orbit of his life. An enthralling time-bending structure allows us to watch Gustin over a period of sixty years in a series of deftly interwoven scenes. Moving from wry humour to touching poignancy, this new play from one of American theatre's brightest new voices unashamedly looks for answers to life's big questions.

Saturn Returns (Modern Plays)

There are echoes. Do you know what I mean? They were here. And then they weren't. And I have to stay here. Because this is where they were.Every thirty years, the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the universe it occupied on the day of your birth. Its arrival is said to herald pivotal events in a person's life.In Saturn Returns, we follow one man, Gustin Novak, at the ages of 28, 58 and 88, as he reaches a series of crossroads with three key women and comes to understand how the echoes of the past have defined the orbit of his life. An enthralling time-bending structure allows us to watch Gustin over a period of sixty years in a series of deftly interwoven scenes. Moving from wry humour to touching poignancy, this new play from one of American theatre's brightest new voices unashamedly looks for answers to life's big questions.

Satyric Play: The Evolution Of Greek Comedy And Satyr Drama

Satyric Play: The Evolution of Greek Comedy and Satyr Drama

Satyric Play is the first book to offer an integrated analysis of Greek comedy and satyr drama. Using a literary-historical approach, Carl A. Shaw argues that comedy and satyr plays influenced each other in nearly all stages of their development. Although satyr drama was written by tragedians and employed a number of formal tragic elements, the humorous chorus of half-man, half-horse satyrs encouraged sustained interaction between poets of comedy and satyr play. From sixth-century proto-drama, through classical productions staged at the Athenian City Dionysia, to bookish Alexandrian plays of the third-century, the remains of comic and satyric performances reveal a range of literary, aesthetic, historical, religious, and geographical connections. Shaw analyzes the details of this interplay diachronically, looking at a wide range of literary and material evidence. He shows that ancient critics and poets allude to comic-satyric associations in surprising ways, vases depict fascinating performative connections, and the plays themselves share titles, plots, modes of humor, and occasionally even a chorus of satyrs. Satyric Play uncovers and examines the complex, shifting relationship between comedy and satyr drama, offering insight into the development of these genres and the Greek theatrical experience as a whole.

Sauchiehall Street (Modern Plays)

Sauchiehall Street. The busiest street in Glasgow. In a sprawling top floor office, Dorothy Darvel, actors' agent extraordinaire, is one of the busiest women on the street. Busy shaping the careers of her hopeful young clients, busy trying to stem the flow of the best ones to powerful London agencies and busy trying to check the reckless spending of her once famous actor husband, Gerard. All this while trying to haul his declining career back on track... By the author of the "darkly humourous and addictively engaging" Wiping My Mother's Arse, winnner of the Scottish Fringe Firsts, 2001. Sauchiehall Street premiered at the Cumbernauld Theatre, North Lanarkshire, Scotland in March 2004 in a production by Vanishing Point Theatre Company.

Sauchiehall Street (Modern Plays)

Sauchiehall Street. The busiest street in Glasgow. In a sprawling top floor office, Dorothy Darvel, actors' agent extraordinaire, is one of the busiest women on the street. Busy shaping the careers of her hopeful young clients, busy trying to stem the flow of the best ones to powerful London agencies and busy trying to check the reckless spending of her once famous actor husband, Gerard. All this while trying to haul his declining career back on track... By the author of the "darkly humourous and addictively engaging" Wiping My Mother's Arse, winnner of the Scottish Fringe Firsts, 2001. Sauchiehall Street premiered at the Cumbernauld Theatre, North Lanarkshire, Scotland in March 2004 in a production by Vanishing Point Theatre Company.

Savage (Oberon Modern Plays)

The shocking story of brutal medical experiments on gay men by the Nazis. Copenhagen 1940. Zack and Nikolai are happy in love and enjoy a blissful lifestyle on the gay scene until they are arrested during the Nazi invasion of Denmark. Zack, an American attaché with diplomatic immunity goes free. But Nikolai is handed over to the notorious Dr Carl Værnet who claims to have discovered a ‘cure’ for homosexuality. Værnet was encouraged by the Nazis to conduct cruel experiments on homosexuals which left them mutilated for life. The choice was to suffer this torture or die in a concentration camp. A Holocaust story which resonates through history.

Saved (Modern Classics)

Described by its author as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre before members of the English Stage Society in a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby, Saved became a notorious play and a cause célèbre. In a letter to the Observer, Sir Laurence Olivier wrote: 'Saved is not a play for children but it is for grown-ups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it.' Saved has had a marked influence on a whole new generation writing in the 1990s.Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

Saved: Saved; Early Morning; The Pope's Wedding (Modern Classics)

Described by its author as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre before members of the English Stage Society in a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby, Saved became a notorious play and a cause célèbre. In a letter to the Observer, Sir Laurence Olivier wrote: 'Saved is not a play for children but it is for grown-ups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it.' Saved has had a marked influence on a whole new generation writing in the 1990s.Edward Bond is "a great playwright - many, particularly in continental Europe, would say the greatest living English playwright" (Independent)

Saved (Student Editions)

Described by Edward Bond as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties and reflects a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre for members of the English Stage Society at a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby in its pram, Saved became a notorious play and a cause célèbre. It has since had a profound influence on a whole new generation of writers who emerged in the 1990s. Commentary and notes by David Davis.

Saved: Saved; Early Morning; The Pope's Wedding (Student Editions)

Described by Edward Bond as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic', Saved is a play set in London in the sixties and reflects a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. The play was first staged privately in November 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre for members of the English Stage Society at a time when plays were still censored. With its scenes of violence, including the stoning of a baby in its pram, Saved became a notorious play and a cause célèbre. It has since had a profound influence on a whole new generation of writers who emerged in the 1990s. Commentary and notes by David Davis.

The Scar Test (Modern Plays)

I haven't hurt anyone, killed, raped, murdered - I just ran away - came here to be safe. But I'm locked up. I just - I can't believe this is England.They have run away from unimaginable horrors looking only for safety. But, imprisoned together at Yarl's Wood Dentention Centre, these women are stuck in a limbo that offers them exactly the opposite. Based on verbatim interviews from current and former detainees, The Scar Test takes you inside one of England's migrant detention centres, exposing the conditions the inmates must endure whilst awaiting a decision on their fate. Told with compassion, Hannah Khalil's play throws a spotlight on the harrowing ordeals of the female migrants seeking refuge in Britain and the obstacles they face in the process.Published to coincide with its 2017 London and regional tour, The Scar Test originally debuted in 2015 with Untold Arts company.

The Scar Test (Modern Plays)

I haven't hurt anyone, killed, raped, murdered - I just ran away - came here to be safe. But I'm locked up. I just - I can't believe this is England.They have run away from unimaginable horrors looking only for safety. But, imprisoned together at Yarl's Wood Dentention Centre, these women are stuck in a limbo that offers them exactly the opposite. Based on verbatim interviews from current and former detainees, The Scar Test takes you inside one of England's migrant detention centres, exposing the conditions the inmates must endure whilst awaiting a decision on their fate. Told with compassion, Hannah Khalil's play throws a spotlight on the harrowing ordeals of the female migrants seeking refuge in Britain and the obstacles they face in the process.Published to coincide with its 2017 London and regional tour, The Scar Test originally debuted in 2015 with Untold Arts company.

The Scarecrow and His Servant (Oberon Modern Plays)

Outrageously zany and filed with non-stop surprises, Simon Reade’s theatrical adaptation of The Scarecrow and His Servant, renowned author Philip Pullman's fictional children's tale, is an enchanting play for young readers and performers. Delve into the magical world of Scarecrow as you accompany him as Jack, his trusty help-mate, and together you can embark on adventures that will make your head spin. From dodging dangerous bandits and surviving terrifying shipwrecks, to soaring through the skies with wild birds, this play is a roller-coaster ride of never-ending escapades. But when the river-polluting Buffaloni tyrants catch up with you for a final showdown, who will come to your rescue and save the day?A production of The Scarecrow and His Servant ran at the Southwark Playhouse in December 2008-January 2009.

Scarfed for Life (Modern Plays)

Supporters? Sport? It may as well be bare knuckle boxing or dug fighting!A modern parable set against the backdrop of the first Old Firm clash of the season. Funny, tough and thought-provoking, Scarfed for Life tells the story of two teenage friends caught in the crossfire of polite suburban prejudice and garden equipment.The play draws on what sectarianism and prejudice actually mean to young Glaswegians, and how it affects them and their peers. The Old Firm is the collective name for the Glasgow association football clubs Celtic and Rangers. Scarfed for Life is a hard-hitting play based on the experiences of discrimination and prejudice among the young people of Glasgow.

Scarfed For Life: 2nd edition (Modern Plays)

A modern parable set against the backdrop of the first Old Firm clash of the season. Funny, hard-hitting and thought-provoking, the second edition of Scarfed for Life tells the story of two teenage friends caught in the crossfire of polite suburban prejudice and garden equipment. Ideal for secondary school students, the play draws on what sectarianism and prejudice actually mean to young Glaswegians, and how it affects them and their peers. Scarfed for Life is a hard-hitting play based on the experiences of discrimination and prejudice among the young people of Glasgow.The play toured secondary schools in Scotland in 2011 and Scottish prisons in 2013. The language in this edition has been revised specifically with school-age students in mind, and is an ideal, issue-led play for students 14+.

Scarfed for Life: 2nd Edition (Modern Plays)

Supporters? Sport? It may as well be bare knuckle boxing or dug fighting!A modern parable set against the backdrop of the first Old Firm clash of the season. Funny, tough and thought-provoking, Scarfed for Life tells the story of two teenage friends caught in the crossfire of polite suburban prejudice and garden equipment.The play draws on what sectarianism and prejudice actually mean to young Glaswegians, and how it affects them and their peers. The Old Firm is the collective name for the Glasgow association football clubs Celtic and Rangers. Scarfed for Life is a hard-hitting play based on the experiences of discrimination and prejudice among the young people of Glasgow.