The tenth collection of plays by Howard Barker, one of the most
significant and controversial dramatists of our time. His plays
challenge, unsettle and expose. Plays Ten comprises the plays Ahno,
Distance, Critique of Pure Feeling, Irrespective, Immense Kiss,
Exquisite. In Ahno, A Prince of Now, a youthful dictator is
revealed as simultaneously revolutionary and reactionary, in
politics and in love. His shocking efforts to create a new social
order are mirrored in his unconventional passion for a seventy-five
year old woman, who along with his devoted commissar, a group of
fanatical priests, and a disturbingly perceptive Dalmatian, make up
a menacing court of activists. In Exquisite, Barker’s theme is
the ethical ambiguity of slavery. In a dimly feudal setting, but
constantly referring to our time, unsolved murders decimate a
stable community. The protagonist, a loyal and uncritical serf,
declines to speculate on the cause, whilst at the same time
possessing the power to put an end to it. His ambiguous
relationship with authority, and his refusal to quarrel with his
own status, reveals Barker’s heretical manner with moral
platitudes. Alongside full-scale and even epic dramas, Barker has
always written short works for small casts. In Distance he views
the horrors of The Great War from an unusual perspective, that of
the mother of a killed son, who arrives at her own philosophy of
mourning. In Irrespective, a reclusive intellectual – in his
final years – finds himself pestered for moral teaching by a
wretched populace which has hitherto ignored him. In Critique of
Pure Feeling, an old woman, sceptical of love but not of property,
finds herself recklessly participating in an erotic duel. Immense
Kiss, one of Barker’s most terrible visions, takes place as an
army enters a besieged city, where a young conscript, discovering a
woman abandoned in a room, finds himself stretched between longing
and civility.
General
Imprint: |
Oberon Books Ltd
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Oberon Modern Playwrights |
Release date: |
October 2018 |
Authors: |
Howard Barker
(Author)
|
Dimensions: |
210 x 130 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
366 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-78682-421-9 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
General
|
LSN: |
1-78682-421-3 |
Barcode: |
9781786824219 |
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