Peter Bowles invites us backstage to witness the job of acting as it really is. This is a warm-hearted look at the lived experience of a jobbing actor – and a survival guide to anyone thinking of entering this most emotionally gruelling of industries. Behind the Curtain is the inside scoop on ‘the profession’ as told by a master raconteur – one who has trodden the boards in the West End for five decades. Armed with an array of classic anecdotes, Bowles shares some of the infamous ad-libs, opening night disasters and dressing room dramas that he has been party to over the years. Full of sage advice about the pitfalls of celebrity and the fluctuating fortunes of an actor – and his own journey from TV stardom to the labour exchange and back again.With tales of some biggest personalities in the history of showbiz such as Michael Gambon, Noel Coward, Rex Harrison, Laurence Olivier & John Gielgud, this is a book that captures the acting profession in all its eccentric glory.
‘NO! We can't change the subject! This is the subject! There is no other subject. Not for us.'Sickened by the everyday arguments and compromises he saw around him in his native London, the idealistic Josh has moved to Israel and joined the army. There, however, he finds himself in a situation with a Palestinian terror suspect which seems to challenge his most strongly held beliefs.Deftly cutting between different locations and time periods, Ryan Craig's play lets us see unexpected connections between disparate events, as well as bringing together people with apparently nothing in common. A wryly humorous, sometimes hilarious, look at a serious issue, What We Did to Weinstein moves between London life and the world of the intifada, creating a portrait of a society where idealism too easily becomes extremism and pragmatism hypocrisy.
‘Since your daughter’s death I’ve not been much of a hypnotist.’ A man loses his daughter to a car. Nothing now is what it is. It’s like he’s in a play – but he doesn’t know the words or the moves. The man who was driving the car is a stage hypnotist. Since the accident, he’s lost the power of suggestion. His act’s a disaster. For him, everything now is exactly what it is. For the first time since the accident, these two men meet. They meet when the Father volunteers for the Hypnotist’s act. And, this time, he really doesn’t know the words or the moves… An Oak Tree is a remarkable play for two actors. The Father, however, is played by a different actor – male or female – at each performance. They walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they’re in…until they’re in it. This is a breath-taking projection of a performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to their subject, from an audience to the stage. An Oak Tree is a bold and absurdly comic play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind. Winner of a Village Voice Obie for its autumn 2006 Off-Broadway run.
‘I looked around the room and I thought, I'm the only person in this room that hasn't killed anyone’ Talking to Terrorists is a play commissioned by the Royal Court and Out of Joint. The writer, director Max Stafford-Clark, and actors interviewed people from around the world who have been involved in terrorism. They wanted to know what makes ordinary people do extreme things. As well as those who crossed the line, they met peacemakers, warriors, journalists, hostages and psychologists. Their stories take us from Uganda, Israel, Turkey, Iraq and Ireland – to the heart of the British establishment. Talking to Terrorists was produced Out of Joint Theatre Company at the Royal Court Theatre and on a UK tour in 2005.
In a world bound by iron laws and dead rituals, two young men are struggling to make their way: Steerpike, the renegade kitchen-boy who seduces and murders his way up the social ladder, and Titus Groan, heir to Gormenghast, who comes to threaten its very existence.John Constable famously 'pulled off the impossible' ( The Times ) with his stage adaptation of Mervyn Peake's legendary Gormenghast trilogy. Commissioned and produced by the David Glass Ensemble, this gruesome, gothic drama has since become a landmark in the history of adaptation for the stage.
Your classmate is like your family. Maybe even more important than that. A group of schoolchildren, Jewish and Catholic, declare their ambitions: one to be a fireman, one a film star, one a pilot, another a doctor. They are learning the ABC. This is Poland, 1925. As the children grow up, their country is torn apart by invading armies, first Soviet and then Nazi. Internal grievances deepen as fervent nationalism develops; friends betray each other; violence escalates. Until these ordinary people carry out an extraordinary and monstrous act that darkly resonates to this day.Polish playwright, Tadeusz Slobodzianek, confronts his country’s involvement in the atrocities of the last century and follows the one-time classmates – amidst the weddings, parades, births, deaths, emigrations and reconciliations – into the next.
Mary Swanson just moved to Middletown. About to have her first child, she is eager to enjoy the neighbourly bonds a small town promises. But life in Middletown is complicated: neighbours are near strangers and moments of connection are fleeting. Middletown is a playful, poignant portrait of a town with two lives, one ordinary and visible, the other epic and mysterious. Middletown was awarded the prestigious Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play in 2010.‘The strange beauty of life and its sometimes unbearable weight are both considered with a screwball lyricism… pitch-perfect… delicate, moving and wry’ – New York Times
This is a provocative new play about Mikhail Kalashnikov – the Russian inventor of the AK47 assault rifle, and a decorated Soviet hero. Set in Kalashnikov's dacha amidst the dark woods and waters of a fairy tale Russian landscape, a young journalist, Volkov, comes to interview the elderly Kalashnikov about his time on the front line and his subsequent invention of the AK-47 assault rifle. With the help of his daughter and grand-daughter, Kalashnikov initially welcomes Volkov into his home but as the questions harden and ambiguities appear in Kalashnikov's recollections, some painful and extremely uncomfortable truths begin to emerge…
A brand new Christmas story for children, Holly and Ivan’s Christmas Adventure is a magical tale of two brave little toys who fall off the back of Santa’s Sleigh on Christmas Eve. Not wanting their new owners to wake up to no presents, they set off on an epic journey to find them.Presented here as both a story book and a play, Holly and Ivan’s Christmas Adventure is packed with charming illustrations.
Why does everyone steal from the twelfth man?Casey is back home. She’s here to sort her club out and they have some problems to solve. The solution is obvious. Money. And Casey knows where to get it. Inspired by real footballing events, Fit and Proper People exposes dealings that manufacture our national heroes, asking serious questions about who is running our social and cultural institutions, and how they are doing it.‘splices a breathless succession of scenes to illustrate the multiple sins corrupting the heart of football…sharp and ironic.’ Metro