LITMIR.BIZ

Includes the plays The Lady's Not for Burning, A Yard of Sun andSiegeIn this volume of Christopher Fry's original stage work, his most famous play The Lady's Not for Burning – 'Spring' in his set of 'Seasonal Plays' – is joined by the 'Summer' play A Yard of Sun , written in the mid-1930's.Celebrated for the sensuousness and joyous wit of its language, The Lady's Not for Burning is a key play in the revival of verse drama in the 1940's, and the scale of its success made Fry one of the most famous playwrights of his day. A Yard of Sun , Fry's last full-length stage play, is set in Siena just after the end of World War Two. Without ignoring the struggles and privations of war, the play is funny, touching and ultimately optimistic.Based on the medieval story of Aucassin and Nicolette and conceived as a form of 'pageant', Siege with its mixing of verse and prose, sprawling structure, employment of different speech patterns and deliberately contemporary touches, gives a unique insight into Fry's development as a stage-craftsman.

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With his louche air and a developed taste for smoking, gambling, port and women, it’s hard to believe Cis Farringdon is only fourteen. And that’s because he isn’t. Agatha, his mother, lopped five years from her true age and his when she married the amiable Posket.Well, when I heard the new dad was a police magistrate, I was scared. Said I to myself, ‘If I don’t mind my Ps and Qs, the Guv’nor – from force of habit – will fi ne me all my pocket-money.’The imminent arrival of Cis’ godfather sends Agatha incognito to the Hôtel des Princes to warn him of her deception. But it’s also where her son has cajoled his otherwise staid stepfather into joining him for a binge. High-spirited carousing leads to a police raid and a night of outrageous mishap as the trapped guests make desperate attempts to conceal themselves from the law and from each other. Indignities escalate at court the next day where Posket, the police magistrate, must preside.

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Presented here are four epic history plays from Sir Arnold Wesker, which touch on the age-old conflicts caused by religion, science and the Establishment.Set in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, 1563, Shylock (1972) is based on the same three stories from which Shakespeare wove his play, The Merchant of Venice . The core plot remains, but the relationships and characterisations are very different. Caritas (1980) is at once the story of a monastic young woman in the fourteenth century but also a metaphor for the wrong decisions which can imprison us for life. In 1144 a young boy was found brutally murdered in Thorpe Wood. The Jews were accused of slaughtering a Christian child to use his blood for Passover and mock the crucifixion. Blood Libel (1991) investigates a calumny which persists to this day. Meanwhile Longitude (2002) tells of the eighteenth-century race to accurately measure longitude – and claim a £20,000 reward from Parliament.

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I place Boguslaw Schaeffer's genius firmly at the centre of the European cultural heritage which expressed avant-gardism during my lifetime.' Richard DemarcoThis anthology of plays by Boguslaw Schaeffer, a Polish playwright, composer, musicologist and graphic designer, includes his most frequently performed works: Scenario for a Non-Existing, but Possible Instrumental Actor (1976), Quartet for Four Actors (1979), and Scenario for Three Actors (1987). The plays are examples of Instrumental Theatre. Like Schaeffer’s microtonal compositions, they are carefully structured and employ cyclical repetitions, and codes. Schaeffer’s most famous instrumental play, the Quartet for Four Actors , has been so successful that it has been staged by practically every Polish theatre. Scenario for a Non-Existing, but Possible Instrumental Actor , opened in 1976 and has since been staged over 1,500 times around the world. During its 40-year run, it has been critically acclaimed and has won many awards, including the 1995 Grand Prix at New York’s Theatre Festival. Winner of many prestigious international awards, Scenario for Three Actors , has been a permanent fixture in many Polish theatres since its premiere. Schaeffer is a universal artist, unafraid to explore a range of fields, forms, and subject matter, and his theatre, like his music, defies previous, established conventions and techniques, surprising its audiences with innovative and invigorating form and style.

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In 1993, black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in a racist attack by a gang of white youths. The police investigation failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict.Based on the harrowing transcripts of the public inquiry, this is a dramatic reconstruction of the first hearings which reflected the national outcry at the police's mishandling of the case. First seen at the Tricycle Theatre, London, this remarkable production received instant acclaim and subsequently transferred to the West End.

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"You put it in the freezer, so when you transfer it to the boiling water it doesn't feel a thing. I suppose that this is how I've felt recently. I've been in some deep freeze and suddenly I can feel steam in my face, I'm falling headlong into scalding water."It's 2005, the sun is shining and Loretta is planning to make her daughter's favourite meal. But when Sophie stops talking to her, children start vanishing, and rooms begin to cry, Loretta can't help feeling that something is up and that she might have something to do with it.A play about one woman's journey back to her childhood, to stop her past flooding into the present.

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You have to laugh. It is a tragedy in three movements: The Thighs, The Dick, The Fame and a counter-movement: Italy. An actress creates a physical and vocal mask challenging a provocative, scandalous and beastly text. Words might be sung, howled and shrieked but a chant never emerges. In her naked physicality she tells a personal story in an unbroken flow of thoughts/words rendered as sounds and movement. The deafening screams being choked. Appeased. Imploded. This female onstage offers herself up in a feast, ready to be torn apart by anyone. A poetic piece born of the flesh that returns to the flesh, captured in a tightly-sealed aesthetic. Applause required. The Shit is driven by a desperate attempt to pull ourselves out of the mud, the latest products of the cultural genocide aptly described by Pasolini since the modern consumer society began taking form. A totalitarianism, according to Pasolini, even more repressive than the one of the Fascist era, because it's capable of crushing us softly. Si deve ridere. E' una tragedia in tre tempi: Le Cosce, Il Cazzo, La Fama e un controtempo: L Italia. Nella sua nudità e intimità pubblica, l'attrice costruisce una maschera fisica/vocale sfidando un testo scandaloso, provocatorio e rabbioso. La scrittura è cantabile, ma il canto non emerge mai, ed è invece preponderante la chiave dell invettiva, del grido, del corpo che sussulta la sua storia personale in un flusso di pensieri/parole raccontati come suoni. Strazianti. Urla assordanti e contratte. Sopite. Implose. La femmina si offre dal vivo come in un banchetto, pronta a venire sbranata da tutti. Una partitura poetica che nasce così dalla carne e alla carne ritorna, pur dentro a una rigidissima confezione estetica. Applausi obbligatori. La Merda ha come spinta propulsiva il disperato tentativo di districarsi da un pantano o fango, ultimi prodotti di quel genocidio culturale di cui scrisse e parlò Pier Paolo Pasolini all affacciarsi della società dei consumi. Quel totalitarismo, secondo Pasolini, ancor più duro di quello fascista poiché capace di annientarci con dolcezza.

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Dracula and Frankenstein: Two Horror Plays brings together two classic horror tales updated for the 21st century and adapted for the stage by two of Britain’s leading playwrights.Bram Stoker’s Dracula adapted by Bryony LaveryThis is the modern world. Its inhabitants can go anywhere, even toTransylvania. They can communicate globally in the blink of an eye. Buttheir feet, in their modern shoes, walk upon the gravestones of a vastcosmic graveyard. Count Dracula is still alive. He could always comethrough walls, arrive on a moonbeam but, in the modern world, he hasemails, smartphones, webcams and the worldwide web…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein adapted by Lisa EvansMary is imprisoned in a present-day psychiatric hospital, convicted ofmurdering her baby daughter. During her incarceration she becomesobsessed with Mary Shelley’s famous novel. The novel comes to lifewithin her imagination, and we are left to question just who the realmonster really is, Mary or Frankenstein himself…

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Anyone who has ever had to call a plumber, let alone try to fathom a computer handbook, will be fatally familiar with the bewilderment of the outsider exposed to the shop-talk of professions other than his or her own. Do you know your Mirror Scrims from your Mirror Balls? Or your Get Outs from your Get Ins? Or indeed your Get Offs? If not, The Oberon Glossary of Theatrical Terms 2nd edition is here to help you out. The Oberon Glossary of Theatrical Terms 2nd edition is a new edition of the successful A-Z which includes explanations of over 1,300 technical, backstage, acting, musical, dance and show business terms in common usage. Completely revised and updated, this concise and compact glossary explains and clarifies all theatre jargon. From amateur dramatics fans to West End directors, this new book is a must have addition to the bookshelves of all theatre and performing arts aficionados.

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In The Wedding Feast an idealistic, altruistic shoe manufacturer arrives at an employee’s wedding, with disastrous consequences. One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round features a comic plot involving academics who get high on a hash birthday cake, a recalcitrant daughter, and the appearance of an illegitimate son who is a magician. In Groupie 61-year-old Mattie Beancourt is shocked to discover her idol, the famous painter Mark Gorman, living alone in near poverty. She is sunny, he is curmudgeonly and the impact of their friendship is startling. Set against a scene of defiant old age, The Old Ones examines the eccentric rituals of old age and plays out the conflict between the optimistic and pessimistic spirit.

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