South African born internationally acclaimed director and playwright, Yael Farber, sets her explosive new adaptation of Strindberg's Miss Julie in the remote, bleak beauty of the Eastern Cape Karoo. Transposed to a post-apartheid kitchen a single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds between a black farm-labourer, the daughter of his master and the woman who has raised them both. The visceral struggles of contemporary South Africa are laid bare, as John and Mies Julie spiral in a deadly battle over power, sexuality, mothers and memory. Haunting and violent, intimate and epic, the characters struggle to address issues of reprisal and the reality of what can and cannot ever be recovered.
Four plays by Richard Bean with an introduction by Chris Campbell. Includes: Toast , Mr England , Smack Family Robinson and Honeymoon Suite .
‘Drugs and alcohol have never let me down. They have always loved me. There are substances I can put into my bloodstream that make the world perfect. That is the only absolute truth in the universe. I’m being difficult because you want to take it away from me.' Emma was having the time of her life. Now she’s in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn’t with Emma, it’s with everything else. She needs to tell the truth. But she’s smart enough to know that there’s no such thing. When intoxication feels like the only way to survive the modern world, how can she ever sober up?
Across the UK thousands of people are involved in protests and debates, sparked into action by the largest cuts to public spending since WWII – cuts which are the turning point of a generation, undermining the welfare state, higher education and the arts in one fell swoop. Theatre Uncut is a national theatre event in response to these cuts, bringing together some of the UK’s leading dramatists. Theatre Uncut ’s flagship event took place in London from 16- 19 March 2011. Drama groups, universities, youth clubs and theatre companies nationwide joined the event, staging their own versions of the shorts in a national theatrical uprising. Now published in this new collection, Theatre Uncut containsthese short plays, addressing audiences who want to think about what the budget cuts really mean, and who they are really hitting. A debate is underway. Protest might begin, minds might be changed, views challenged, ideas formed. Theatre Uncut is a response to a situation that we cannot control, and over whichwe had no say.
Features the plays Sweet talk, Alterations, In the Mood and El DoradoMichael Abbensetts is the writer who gave Caribbeans a real voice in Britain.Sweet talk is a witty, energetic and finally moving account of a marriage in crisis.Alterations is a comedy set in a tailor's shop, inspired by a real visit to a small room off Carnaby Street where two black tailors had set up shop with just two sewing machines and an ironing board.In the Mood focuses on two Caribbean Second World War veterans, whose nostalgic Remembrance Sunday lunch is disrupted by a visit from their frivolour and irritating friend, in search of a loan and as many free drinks as he can get his hands on.El Dorado turns its attention to a mixed-race, middle class family interred in their formerly grand but now dilapidated house. A grandson returns home to lay some ghosts to bed, and gains an alarming insight into the truths of home life.
“How I deplore the bogus waysOf society these days -A sort of national contestTo find out who can a*se-lick best!”In this witty cutting version of Le Misanthrope Molière’s angry hero Alceste becomes Alan – journalist, intellectual and free spirit- who finds himself adrift in a social whirl of false flattery and schmooze. In a world where nobody calls a spade a spade (or even knows what a spade is for), how can the cantankerous but high-minded Alan secure the affections of Celia – a spoiled, feckless, fickle socialite, who happens to be the love of his life?The Grouch was first performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2008
Drawing on the themes of cruelty, imperialism and betrayal, Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan's new play, The Diver, ingeniously links the ancient Japanese Tales of Genji with a Noh theatre play and a contemporary murder. In a production at Soho Theatre award-winning actress Kathryn Hunter rejoined legendary Japanese director Hideki Noda and the team behind Soho/Tokyo hit play The Bee for this physical and inventive collaboration.The Diver opened at the Soho Theatre in June 2008.
Set in the backdrop of early 60s London, Telstar is the story of the World's first Independent record producer, Joe Meek. A maverick genius who enjoyed phenomenal early success with ‘Telstar’, the biggest selling record of its time, before bad luck, depression, heart break and paranoia forced him to murder and suicide.A gay, amphetamine addicted, talented but deeply troubled soul who dabbled in the occult, Meek is already an iconic figure in the world of British pop, whose messy end had a bizarre inevitability.Far from being a maudlin tale, this stranger than fiction true story is a brilliantly sharp and beautifully observed satirical comedy.Telstar opened at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End in June 2005, with a blistering central performance from Con O’Neill as Joe Meek.
Using only Charles Dickens’ extraordinary words and a chameleon ensemble of eight actors, Neil Bartlett's powerful stage version of this much-loved story brings its settings and characters to thrilling theatrical life.From its opening image of little Pip, alone on the windswept marshes, to the haunted darkness of mad Miss Haversham's cobweb-strewn lair, this brand-new adaptation especially commissioned by Aberystwyth Arts Centre takes its audience on a journey right to the heart of Dickens’ great exploration of childhood terrors and hopes – and of adult dreams and regrets.
Two tales of multiple misunderstanding by the eighteenth-century master of complex, witty comedies.In the tightly-structured, erotically-charged fable The Triumph of Love, a young princess, conscious that her claim to the throne is less than honourable, disguises herself as a man in order to dupe her enemies and persuade the rightful ruler to return. This faithful and vivid translation by Braham Muray and Katherine Sand was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in 2007.In The Game of Love and Chance, a pair of prospective lovers each swap places with their servants, while their relatives, fully apprised of both deceptions, look on in amusement. Neil Bartlett's adaptation, first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith, finds inventive modern equivalents for Marivaux's ludic theatricality and its roots in the Commedia dell'Arte.