Enoch Arden in the Hope Shelter / by Judith Thompson ; based on Tennyson's Enoch Arden and the melodrama for piano by Richard Strauss.

vi, 55 p. ; 20 cm.

A play.

Enoch Arden in the Hope Shelter is a full-length drama by Judith Thompson. Taking as starting point Richard Strauss' 1898 melodrama Enoch Arden, itself based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1864 poem of the same name, Judith Thompson has written a contemporary story that suggests art as haven from harsh reality. Enoch Arden in the Hope Shelter is about the truly redemptive and empowering nature of art, and how it can be recreated and reclaimed by anyone with the hunger and the will to do so. Jabber and Ciel are two homeless lovers who are trying to create a performance piece for the shelter's talent show; Ciel is catatonic and will only express herself through Strauss' music on the piano and through classical song, and Jabber moves in and out of psychotic delusion; their lives are desperate but they find peace and refuge and blissful love in performing their own wild and woolly and personalized version of Tennyson's classic epic poem Enoch Arden. Judith Thompson's biting prose creates a shocking, relevant vision of love and art in forgotten places.

Produced by the Theatre Centre.

0887548482

Women

D T473en 2006