"Matura's play not only offers a potted guide to Trinidadian ethnicity, economics and politics, but also a potent metaphor for the post-colonial process. It is also very funny ... the real power of Matura's play lies in its reminder, under all that surface exuberance, that the movement towards independence carried its own element of fancy-dress masquerade." The Guardian 1950s Port of Spain. Samuel, a young tailor's assistant, dreams of Trinidad's independence. On the eve of carnival everyone fills the streets, dressed up to play mas. This annual celebration turns to tragedy and spurs Samuel on to make a decision that will change the political landscape of the future of this vibrant, volatile island. Play Mas premiered at the Royal Court in 1974, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, and transferred to the West End. Described as a wickedly funny, exuberant and poignant play, it is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series for the first time, with a brand new introduction by Paulette Randall.

25 February 1964: 22-year-old Cassius Clay, soon to be Muhammad Ali, has just won the world heavyweight boxing title. Instead of hitting the town, he chooses to celebrate in a Miami hotel room with three close friends - activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football star Jim Brown. This fictional account of a real night imagines what might have happened in that tiny hotel room. As the Civil Rights movement stirs outside, and the melody of 'A Change is Gonna Come' hangs in the air, four men will emerge from that one night ready to define a new world. Kemp Powers' award-winning debut play One Night in Miami... deftly combines the personal and the political at a pivotal moment in history; it received the Ted Schmitt Award 2013 for its world premiere, and went on to be adapted into a critically acclaimed film directed by Regina King in 2020. It is published here in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series with a brand new introduction by Matthew Xia.

This volume critically analyses and theorises Asian interventions in the expanding phenomenon of Global Shakespeare. It interrogates Shakespeare's 'universality' from Asian perspectives: how this has been modified or even replaced by the 'global bard' as a recognisable brand, and how Asian Shakespeares have contributed to or subverted this process by both facilitating the worldwide dissemination of the bard's plays and challenging and resisting the very templates through which they become globally legible. Critically acclaimed Asian productions have prominently figured at premier Western festivals, and popular Asian appropriations like Bollywood, manga and anime have created new kinds of globally accessible Shakespeare. Essays in this collection engage with the emergent critical issues: the efficacy of definitions of the 'local', 'global', 'transnational' and 'cosmopolitan' and of the liminalities and mobilities in between. They further examine the politics of 'West' and 'East', the evolving markers of the 'Asian' and the equation of the 'glocal' with the 'Asian'; they attend to performance and archiving protocols and bring the current debates on translation, appropriation, and world literature to speak to the concerns of global and transnational Shakespeare. These investigations analyse recent innovative Asian theatre productions, popular cinematic and manga appropriations and the increasing presence of Shakespeare in the Asian digital sphere. They provide an Asian standpoint and lens in rereading the processes of cultural globalisation and the mobilisation of Shakespeare.

A girl is locked in a room. A boy brings another boy flowers. A girl has tied herself to a railing. A boy doesn't know who he is. A girl worries about impending catastrophe. A woman jumps in front of a train. A boy's heart falls out his chest. A butterfly has a broken wing. Laura Lomas's play Chaos is a symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes. A series of characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. Bouncing through physics, the cosmos, love and violence, they find order in the disorder of each other. Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size or mix of genders, and can incorporate chorus work, movement and music.

Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare. The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world.

It's Cabaret, we've got our heads down and we're dancing and drinking as fast as we can. The enemy is on its way, but this time it doesn't have guns and gas it has storms and earthquakes, fire and brimstone.... You were the glimmer. At the end of the tunnel. And you went out. Earthquakes in London is a fast and furious metropolitan crash of people, scenes and decades, as three sisters attempt to navigate their dislocated lives and loves, while their dysfunctional father, a brilliant scientist, predicts global catastrophe. The play deals, through amplified theatricality, with a range of contemporary issues from population growth to climate change. An all-pervasive fear of the future and a guilty pleasure in the excesses of the present drive Mike Bartlett's epic rollercoaster of a play from 1968 to 2525 and back again. Earthquakes in London first published in 2010 and has subsequently become a much-produced and widely studied drama text. It is published here as a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Bridget Escolme. The ancillary material is geared at students and includes: - an introduction outlining the play's plot, character, themes context and performance history - the full text of the play - a chronology of the playwright's life and work - extensive textual notes - questions for further study - an interview with the playwright

'It's been a year since I died, and still nobody has found me.' Summer, 1827. In a red barn in Suffolk, Maria Marten awaits her lover. A year later, hidden in a grain sack under the floor of the barn, Maria's body is found, barely identifiable - and the manhunt begins. The Red Barn Murder had all the hallmarks of a classic crime drama: a missing body, a country location, a disreputable squire and a village stuck in its age-old traditions. But whilst sending shockwaves throughout the country, Maria's own story was lost. The Ballad of Maria Marten rediscovers her story, bringing it back to vivid, urgent life. Beth Flintoff's thrilling play was first performed by an all-female cast in a production by Eastern Angles in July 2018. Subsequent national tours were produced with Eastern Angles by Matthew Linley Creative Projects in association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

Since her early break-through at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995, where she won the George Devine award and was joint winner of the Verity Bargate Award, Judy Upton has proven herself to be one of Britain's most prolific and diverse writers. In this, her second collection, we see work ranging from 1995 through to the 2000s and a collection of short work created during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Bruises (1995) Royal Court Theatre, London - "This is no angry polemic but a subtly atmospheric piece ... Neither writer nor director seeks easy answers in this coolly disturbing view of an issue usually hammered home with both fists." (Evening Standard) The Girlz (1998) Orange Tree, London - "Judy Upton's ever-promising career takes another small leap forward with this tantalising foray into characteristic Upton territory, the febrile world of foul-mouthed, disadvantaged young females from the south-east." (Time Out) Sliding With Suzanne (2001) Royal Court Theatre, London - "Judy Upton probably won't thank me for saying so, but her new play, Sliding with Suzanne, comes over as that rarest of phenomena - a contemporary play with a Right-wing agenda. If Margaret Thatcher went to see it she would be appalled by the language and much of the action but would, I suspect, end up applauding its sentiments." (Telegraph) Gaby Goes Global (2009) New Wimbledon Theatre, London - A wry and mischievous look at the benefits system, and the world of fine art. Gaby is a downtrodden employment advisor at the Benefit Delivery Centre. She tries to get rich by promoting the struggling artists who sign on. But it is Gaby who grabs all the attention - with the sort of exposure she hadn't bargained for... Lockdown Tales (2020) - "a story of struggle, hope, even more struggle and then hope which provides a sensitive and sincere insight into the mind of a key worker during lockdown ... a must watch and is the epitome of the type of work that should be produced during lockdown." (A Younger Theatre)

This book presents lectures and notes upon Shakespeare and other dramatists, including poetry, the drama and Shakespeare; order of Shakespeare's plays; notes on Shakespeare's plays from English history; and notes on some of the plays of Shakespeare, Johnson, Beaumont and Fletcher.

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of "Julius Caesar" on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

This book compares the theatrical cultures of early modern England and Spain and explores the causes and consequences not just of the remarkable similarities but also of the visible differences between them. An exercise in multi-focal theatre history research, it deploys a wide range of perspectives and evidence with which to recreate the theatrical landscapes of these two countries and thus better understand how the specific conditions of performance actively contributed to the development of each country's dramatic literature. This monograph develops an innovative comparative framework within which to explore the numerous similarities, as well as the notable differences, between early modern Europe's two most prominent commercial theatre cultures. By highlighting the nuances and intricacies that make each theatrical culture unique while never losing sight of the fact that the two belong to the same broader cultural ecosystem, its dual focus should appeal to scholars and students of English and Spanish literature alike, as well as those interested in the broader history of European theatre. Learning from what one 'playground' - that is, the environment and circumstances out of which a dramatic tradition originates - reveals about the other will help solve not only the questions posed above but also others that still await examination. This investigation will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre history, comparative drama, early modern drama, and performance culture.

But it's just one of those days. One of those days where I feel like I'm wearing myself on the outside. My heart, my soul, all my soft bits. Romance is a distant memory for two lonely animal lovers living in Dublin. When forlorn Dan and his dog Chapatti cross paths with the amiable Betty and her nineteen cats, an unexpected spark begins a warm and gentle story about two people re-discovering the importance of human companionship. A beautifully poignant and extremely funny new play by Galway playwright Christian O'Reilly (The Good Father, Inside I'm Dancing), Chapatti published to coincide with its European debut in Galway following a critically acclaimed world-premiere run in Chicago in Spring 2014.

Book of Sides II: Original, Two-Page Scenes for Actors and Directors is the second book in the Book of Sides series by Dave Kost, featuring original, two-page, two-character scenes for use in acting, directing, and auditioning classes. While shorter than the traditional three-to-six-page scenes commonly used in classes, Book of Sides II features longer scenes than the first Book of Sides with greater character development, more reversals, and stronger climaxes. Balanced, structured scenes designed specifically for educational use challenge both actors and directors equally with objectives, obstacles, tactics, and subtext; Two-page length is ideal for high-intensity exercises and faster-paced workshops; Printed in easy-to-read film-script format with plenty of room for notes; Scenes are completely original and unencumbered by copyright, so students may film and post legally on the internet; Universally castable, so all roles can be played by actors of any gender, appearance, skill level, or ethnicity; Accessibly-written for modern students, helping them to focus on the fundamentals of performance and directing; Simple and conducive to performing in a classroom without sets, costumes, or special props. This book was written by an educator for educators and designed for use in the classroom. Never search for scenes again!

'Bit risky though, isn't it? Just sort of turning up to an isolated peninsula in the North Sea without any sandwiches...' Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. Angie and Lauren are closing up the cafe for another winter; the birds have gone south and taken the tourists with them. The last visitor is Dennis, stopping by for his pasty and beans. But there's another arrival - one that's unforeseen and life-changing for them all. Tom Wells' Big Big Sky is a beautifully tender play which explores nature's influence on love, friendship and family - the belief that anyone who's lost can be found, even in the remotest of places. It was premiered at Hampstead Theatre in July 2021, directed by Tessa Walker.

In late November 1623, Edward Blount finally took delivery at his bookshop at the sign of the Black Bear near St Paul's of a book that had been long in the making. Master William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies was the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, appearing some seven years after their author's death in 1616. Its 950 folio pages included thirty-six plays, half of which had not previously been printed, divided under the three generic headings of the title. There was no fanfare at the book's arrival. There was nothing of the marketing overdrive that marks an important new publication in our own period: no advertising campaign, no reviews, interviews, endorsements or literary prizes, no queues in St Paul's Churchyard, no sales figures, price war, copycat publications or bestseller lists - in short, no sensation. Nevertheless, it is hard to overstate the importance of this literary, cultural and commercial moment. This book, generously illustrated with key pages from the publication and comparative works tells the human, artistic, economic and technical stories of the birth of the First Folio - and the emergence of Shakespeare's towering reputation.

My son is dead and sitting on the throne. 1605. Orthodox Russia stands alone, defiant against the Roman Catholic and Protestant West. The Kremlin has suppressed all opposition and keeps a ruthless grip on power with the support of the church and an appeal to nationalist sentiment. In Poland, a formidable young opponent appears: Dmitry. At his back a Polish army fuelled by fear of the Russian threat marches on Moscow. But is he who he thinks he is? An explosive new version of the great German writer Schiller's last, unfinished play - resurrected in the unique, pulsating dramatic verse of Peter Oswald, which premiered in the original production directed by Tim Supple. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Marylebone Theatre in London, in September 2022.

This eighth volume of The Shakespearean International Yearbook presents a special section on 'European Shakespeares', proceeding from the claim that Shakespeare's literary craft was not just native English or British, but was filtered and fashioned through a Renaissance awareness that needs to be recognized as European, and that has had effects and afterlives across the Continent. Guest editors Ton Hoenselaars and Clara Calvo have constructed this section to highlight both how the spread of 'Shakespeare' throughout Europe has brought together the energies of a wide variety of European cultures across several centuries, and how the inclusion of Shakespeare in European culture has been not only a European but also a world affair. The Shakespearean International Yearbook continues to provide an annual survey of important issues and developments in contemporary Shakespeare studies. Contributors to this issue come from the US and the UK, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa, Canada, The Netherlands, India, Portugal, Greece, France, and Hungary. In addition to the section on European Shakespeares, this volume includes essays on the genre of romance, issues of character, and other topics.

As one of the most adventurous literary and cultural critics of his generation, Terence Hawkes' contributions to the study of Shakespeare and the development of literary and cultural theory have been immense. His work has been instrumental in effecting a radical shift in the study of Shakespeare and of literary studies. This collection of essays by some of his closest colleagues, friends, peers, and mentees begins with an introduction by John Drakakis, outlining the profound impact that Hawkes' work had on various areas of literary studies. It also includes a poem by Christopher Norris, who worked with Hawkes for many years at the University of Cardiff, as well as work on translation, social class, the historicist and presentist exploration of Shakespearean texts, and teaching Shakespeare in prisons. The volume features essays by former students who have gone on to establish reputations in areas beyond the study of literature, and who have contributed ground-breaking volumes to the pioneering New Accents series. It concludes with Malcolm Evans' innovative account of the migration of semiotics into the area of business. This book is a vibrant and informative read for anyone interested in Hawkes' unique blend of literary and cultural theory, criticism, Shakespeare studies, and presentism.

The first multi-author international anthology of Eastern European plays to deal with the fall of Communism. Includes: "Portrait" by Slawomir Mrozek (Poland); "Chickenhead" by Gyorgy Spiro (Hungary); "Military Secret" by Dusan Jovanovic (Slovenia); "Horses at the Window" by Matei Visniec (Romania); and "Sorrow, Sorrow, Fear, the Rope, and the Pit "by Karel Steigerwald (Czechoslovakia).

For more than four centuries, cultural preferences, literary values, critical contexts, and personal tastes have governed readers' responses to Shakespeare's sonnets. Early private readers often considered these poems in light of the religious, political, and humanist values by which they lived. Other seventeenth- and eighteenth- century readers, such as stationers and editors, balanced their personal literary preferences against the imagined or actual interests of the literate public to whom they marketed carefully curated editions of the sonnets, often successfully. Whether public or private, however, many disparate sonnet interpretations from the sonnets' first two centuries in print have been overlooked by modern sonnet scholarship, with its emphasis on narrative and amorous readings of the 1609 sequence. First Readers of Shakespeare's Sonnets reintroduces many early readings of Shakespeare's sonnets, arguing that studying the priorities and interpretations of these previous readers expands the modern critical applications of these poems, thereby affording them numerous future applications. This volume draws upon book history, manuscript studies, and editorial theory to recover four lost critical approaches to the sonnets, highlighting early readers' interests in Shakespeare's classical adaptations, political applicability, religious themes, and rhetorical skill during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.