Midsummer mischief : four radical new plays.Midsummer mischief : four radical new plays.
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Titre
Midsummer mischief : four radical new plays.
Éditeur
Description
164 p.; 21 cm.
Contenu
The ant and the Cicada / Timberlake Wertenbaker ; 4 characters (1m, 3w). -- Revolt. She said. Revolt again / Alice Birch ; 5 characters (5 women) ; 6 characters (6 women). -- I can hear you / E.V. Crowe ; 5 characters (2m, 3w). -- This is not an exit / Abi Zakarian ; 4 characters (4 women).
Sommaire
THE ANT AND THE CICADA : Zoe is an artist, living in debt in the old family house in Greece; Selina is her sister, who turns up with a practical plan to save her, which Zoe will hate. It may have taken a few gauche strokes to establish this scenario: defensive liberalism, infuriatingly airy-fairy Art versus depressingly selfish Economy – but the final scene, in which we too are immersed in Zoe’s performance art, brings all the agony, frustration and complexity of the Greek crisis to life. Erica Whyman’s sensitive direction allows this brilliant play to speak clearly. Wertenbaker dares difficult questions, encapsulated in Zoe’s furious speech on the vicious nature of “god the market… Your irrational and capricious god”, and involves us (quite literally) in Greece’s uncertain future. Whether you believe Elgin saved or stole his Marbles, there is no doubting the rueful humour of the observation that “the Parthenon… can’t fit into the British Museum”: we are now beyond the old solutions. Using intimate family faultlines, strong-armed semi-legal negotiation and the louring shadow of Fascism to create an explosive, conflicting atmosphere of fulfilment and betrayal, Wertenbaker’s clear-eyed view of how Greece came into this mess, and her anxiety at what its resolution will be, is fascinating and moving.
REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN : Like a shot of philosophical adrenalin delivered to the arm, Alice Birch’s series of short scenes provoke us to be honest about the failures of feminism to date. Porn is an ongoing testament to that failure. Associated by certain lingual tics (potatoes, bluebells) but otherwise not following any deliberate plot pattern, Birch’s scenes distort social paradigms, often to comic effect, to soften us up for the philosophical punch to close, while minimalist set design by Madeleine Girling and Whyman’s strong sense of movement bring dazzling energy to the whole.
I CAN HEAR YOU : Tommy is dead. It's always tragic when they die young. People have posted loads of nice stuff on his Facebook page. His sister Ruth has returned for the funeral and wants to get it just right. Proper cutlery and a good spread. The send-off he deserved, and certainly better than they managed when mum died. The following Sunday Ruth's plans to leave again are interrupted as the doorbell rings and in walks a still very much dead, Tommy. E.V. Crowe's naturalistic supernatural play examines what the possibilities are for the women in Tommy's family, and questions if it's as easy for everyone to reveal what it is they want.
THIS IS NOT AN EXIT : One day Nora decides she can't have it all; where would she put it? Desperate to fight but not knowing how or against what, she attempts to navigate the difficult terrain of womanhood; but certain others have different ideas. . . This new play is a funny and ferocious drama about the absurdity at the heart of modern womanhood, and what really stands in the way of fulfilment.
Production
The Midsummer Mischief Festival was first presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Other Place at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on June 14 2014. The Festival transferred to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court on July 15 2014.
First public presentation : The Other Place at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on June 14, 2014.
Director : Programme A (The Ant and the Cicada, and Revolt. She said. Revolt again.) directed by Erica Whyman ; Programme B (I can hear you , and This is not an exit) directed by Jo McInnes.
ISBN
9781783191574
Collaboration
Cote
D M6291 2014
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