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Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Drama texts, plays > General
In a mental health unit inside a prison, a group of women discover
the music of punk rock band The Slits and form their own group. An
outlet for their frustration, they find remedy in revolution. But
in a system that suffocates, can rebellion ever be allowed? Written
by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (Emilia), Typical Girls is a funny, fierce
and furious part-gig, part-play, co-commissioned by Clean Break
theatre company.
"Its force of impact, its narrative muscle and its psychological
clarity make it still, nearly 150 years on, one of the most
shocking books in the canon." --Julian Barnes A BRAND NEW
TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPE
Mysterious disappearances, domestic cases, noiseless, bloodless
snuffings-out... the law can look as deep as it likes, but when the
crime itself goes unsuspected... oh yes, there's many a murderer
basking in the sun.
When Therese Raquin is forced to marry the sickly Camille, she
sees a bare life stretching out before her, leading every evening
to the same cold bed and every morning to the same empty day.
Escape comes in the form of her husband's friend, Laurent, and
Therese throws herself headlong into an affair. There seems only
one obstacle to their happiness; Camille. They plot to be rid of
him. But in destroying Camille they kill the very desire that
connects them. First published in 1867, Therese Raquin has lost
none of its power to enthral. Adam Thorpe's unflinching translation
brings Zola's dark and shocking masterwork to life.
Australia 1789. A young married lieutenant is directing rehearsals
of the first play ever to be staged in that country. With only two
copies of the text, a cast of convicts, and one leading lady who
may be about to be hanged, conditions are hardly ideal... Winner of
the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award in 1988, and many other
major awards, Our Country's Good premiered at the Royal Court
Theatre, London, in 1988 and opened on Broadway in 1991. 'Rarely
has the redemptive, transcendental power of theatre been argued
with such eloquence and passion.' Georgina Brown, Independent It is
published here in a new Student Edition, alongside commentary and
notes by Sophie Bush. The commentary includes a chronology of the
play and the playwright's life and work as well as discussion of
the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the
play was originally conceived and created.
Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel is a multi-award-winning play about
the empowerment of a black seamstress in New York City in 1905.
Esther sews exquisite lingerie for clients who range from wealthy
white patrons to prostitutes. She has saved enough to allow her to
dream of one day opening a beauty salon for black women, and at
thirty-five years old, longs for a husband and a future. When she
begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man
who is working on the Panama Canal, it looks like life may be about
to take a different course. Intimate Apparel was first produced by
South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, and Centerstage in
Baltimore, Maryland, in 2003, winning the New York Drama Critics'
Circle Award for Best Play and the American Theatre
Critics/Steinberg New Play Award. It received its UK premiere at
the Theatre Royal Bath in 2014 before transferring to Park Theatre,
London, the same year.
One of the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies and a masterpiece of dramatic construction. Catastrophe ensues when King Oedipus discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Masterly use of dramatic irony greatly intensifies impact of agonizing events. Sophocles' finest play, Oedipus Rex ranks as a towering landmark of Western drama. Explanatory footnotes.
A classic of 20th-century theatre, Ariel Dorfman's Death and the
Maiden ran for a year in the West End, was a hit on Broadway and
was filmed by Roman Polanski starring Ben Kingsley and Sigourney
Weaver. A woman seeks revenge when the man she believes to have
been her torturer happens to re-enter her life. Death and the
Maiden was given a first reading at the Institute for Contemporary
Art in London in November 1990. After a workshop production staged
in Santiago, Chile, in March 1991, the play had its world premiere
at the Royal Court Upstairs, London, in July 1991, transferring to
the Main Stage at the Royal Court in October. The play then
transferred to the West End, at the Duke of York's Theatre, in
February 1992. Death and the Maiden won the 1992 Olivier Award for
Best New Play.
Koos Prinsloo, wat in 1994 in die ouderdom van 37 jaar oorlede is, kan met reg as ’n James Dean van die Afrikaanse letterkunde beskou word: ’n ikoniese figuur wat te vinnig, te gevaarlik geleef en te vroeg gesterf het. Byna drie dekades ná die verskyning van sy eerste bundel en vyftien jaar ná sy dood, eggo sy stem steeds oor die grense van sy tyd en oeuvre heen – en dis in hierdie weerklank wat die toneelstuk Prinsloo Versus gestalte vind.
Prinsloo versus is nie ’n elegie aan Koos nie, maar die postmoderne vergestalting van ’n persoonlike tragedie, uitgespeel op private en openbare; persoonlike en artistieke slagvelde. Dis ’n veelvlakkige collage oor ’n kunstenaar wie se lewe en werk kwalik met ’n suikerlagie bedek kon word; wat gerebelleer het teen ’n patriargale kultuur en ’n diep weersin in alle vorme van outoriteit getoon het.
Soos ’n briefskrywer in die Burger van 24 Oktober 2003 op die eerste vertoning van die stuk gereageer het: “Ek kon nie anders as om te dink dat Koos, waar hy ook al is, met ’n sardoniese glimlaggie sit en kyk na dié stuk nie.”
My theme is memory, that winged host? that soared about me one grey
morning of wartime. Billeted to Brideshead during the Second World
War, Captain Charles Ryder is overwhelmed by memories of his Oxford
days and holidays spent in the fine stately home under the
privileged spell of the dazzling Marchmains. As past and present
blur, Charles recalls his enchantment with the beguiling Sebastian,
his beautiful sister Julia and the doomed Catholic family, and
considers how they would change his life for ever. Evelyn Waugh's
Brideshead Revisited, reimagined for the stage by Bryony Lavery,
was co-produced by English Touring Theatre and York Theatre Royal.
The show premiered at York Theatre Royal in April 2016 and then
toured the UK.
Described as 'America's greatest living playwright' (Wall Street
Journal), Kenneth Lonergan is internationally acclaimed for his
trademark humour and his genius for capturing the real heart and
soul of human interactions. This volume gathers together three of
his landmark plays. This Is Our Youth (1996) is a wildly funny,
bittersweet and lacerating look at three days in the lives of three
affluent young Manhattanites in the 1980s. Its West End premiere in
2002 was notable for its successive casts of young Hollywood stars,
including Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin
and Summer Phoenix. 'A rambunctious and witty play... caustic,
cruel, compassionate' The New York Times. The Waverly Gallery
(1999) is a poignant, generous and frequently hilarious play about
a feisty grandmother's last battle against Alzheimer's disease.
More than a memory play, it captures the humour and strength of a
family in the face of crisis. It was a finalist for the 2001
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and revived on Broadway in 2018 to
widespread acclaim. 'Both one of the most beautiful things you'll
ever see in a Broadway theatre and one of the most profoundly sad'
Chicago Tribune. Lobby Hero (2001) tells the story of a luckless
young security guard trying to get his life together after being
thrown out of the navy. But working in a lobby proves to be no
sanctuary from the world, as he is unwittingly drawn into a murder
investigation. The play received its British premiere at the Donmar
Warehouse, London, in 2002, and was also revived on Broadway in
2018. 'Artfully intertwines private and public issues... [Lonergan]
has the lightest of touches and writes with deft humour' Guardian.
This collection, published alongside the UK premiere of Lonergan's
The Starry Messenger in 2019, also features an exclusive
introduction by the author.
An Inspector Calls, first produced in 1946 when society was undergoing sweeping transformations, has recently enjoyed an enormously successful revival. While holding its audience with the gripping tension of a detective thriller, it is also a philosophical play about social conscience and the crumbling of middle class values. Time and the Conways and I Have Been Here Before belong to Priestley’s ‘time’plays, in which he explores the idea of precognition and pits fate against free will. The Linden Tree also challenges preconceived ideas of history when Professor Linden comes into conflict with his family about how life should be lived after the war.
Franklin, a young black artist on the eve of his first show, meets
Andre, an older white art collector, and before long their feverish
connection develops into an unbreakable bond. But when Franklin's
mother, Zora, decides that her son is in peril, she enters into a
battle of wills with Andre over the soul of the man they both call
'baby'. Basquiats and Birkins, gospel and pop, fantasy and reality:
all collide around a Bel Air swimming pool in this deeply surreal
exploration of intimacy and identity. "Daddy" is Jeremy O. Harris's
blistering melodrama, first performed in New York City in 2019, and
at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2022, directed by Danya Taymor.
A gripping psycholgical thriller, DEAD RECKONING sees a renowned
artist finding himself caught up in a maze of chilling mind games
and deceit. When the mysterious Mr Todd arrives at painter Tony
Reed's house, Tony is forced to face the past that still haunts him
and make a decision that he has only ever fantasised about. This
decision leads Reed and his second wife Megan into a terrifying
nightmare from which there seems no escape. Who exactly is Mr Todd?
Just how far is Tony Reed prepared to go? And who really did kill
his adored first wife . . . ?Cast 3 male 1 female; Length Full; Set
Interior; Licence World in English
Nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Affiliate Theatre You see we are prisoners of a corrupt country
that is our own making. But don't pretend you don't participate.
You do. Of course you do. American banker Nick Bright knows that
his freedom comes at a price. Confined to a cell in rural Pakistan,
every second counts. Who will decide his fate? His captors, or the
whims of the market? Ayad Akhtar is a Pulitzer Prize-winner,
two-time Tony Award-nominee and winner of the Award in Literature
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This newly revised
edition of The Invisible Hand is published to coincide with the
first major revival at London's Kiln Theatre in July 2021.
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