Playing for time explores connections between theatre time, the historical moment and fictional time. Geraldine Cousin persuasively argues that a crucial characteristic of contemporary British theatre is its preoccupation with instability and danger, and traces images of catastrophe and loss in a wide range of recent plays and productions. The diversity of the texts that are examined is a major strength of the book. In addition to plays by contemporary dramatists, Cousin analyses staged adaptations of novels, and productions of plays by Euripides, Strindberg and Priestley. A key focus is Stephen Daldry’s award-winning revival of Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, which is discussed in relation both to other Priestley ‘time’ plays and to Caryl Churchill’s apocalyptic Far Away. Lost children are a recurring motif: Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, for example, is explored in the context of the Soham murders (which took place while the play was in production at the National Theatre), whilst three virtually simultaneous productions of Euripides’ Hecuba are interpreted with regard to the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren.
This work is primarily concerned with a director's and an actor's approach to King John. Attention is given to a number of key 19th-century productions, but the main focus is on 20th-century performance, in particular John Barton's two 1970s adaptations, the 1984 BBC television production and Deborah Warner's 1988 RSC production.
First Published in 2000, Recording Women documents the work of three leading feminist theatre companies, Sphinx Theatre Company, Scarlett Theatre and Foresight Theatre, through a combination of interviews with theatre practitioners and detailed descriptions of productions in performance. Each of the six productions is innovative in content and style. Scarlett Theatre’s Paper Walls and Foresight Theatre’s Boadicea: The Red-Bellied Queen employ a skillful mixture of text, music, physical performance, humour and seriousness to explore, respectively, domestic abuse and rape (of women and community). Scarlett Theatre’s The Sisters and Sphinx’s Voyage in the Dark adapt existing texts. The sisters is a ritualized re-enactment of Chekhov’s Three Sisters in which only the female characters from the play appear. Voyage in the Dark uses film-noir-like theatrical effects and the insistent rhythms of the tango to evoke the rootlessness and sense of alienation that characterizes Jean Rhys’s novel. Slap (Foursight Theatre) and Goliath (Sphinx) are both one woman shows. Slap, performed by Naomi Cooke, explores images of motherhood, including lesbian motherhood and the concept of virgin birth. Goliath, performed by Nicola McAuliffe, is a dramatization, by Bryony Lavery, of Beatrix Campbell’s powerful study of the 1991 riots in Cardiff, Oxford and Tyneside. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of theatre studies.
This is a story set in the North Carolina Mountains. It is about two families of Scotch-Irish and also French decent. It centers in on one 11 year old girl and her 6 year old sister and two boy cousins, one is 12 and the other one is 8 years old. The story begins in the year 1914. The author got many of the story ideas for this book from an elderly lady who was doing an oral history for the Rural Life Museum Director at the college where the author of this book studied teaching. The author worked in the library. But this sweet lady decided she wanted to write her story and she requested someone to illustrate it and this is what brought the two together. While the elderly lady wrote her local history book, the college asked the author and the lady to do an Elderhostel Class for the college. The elderly lady told the author many stories she did not put in her book. One of these stories became the Fire and another the Grandfather. There really was a Frenchman who came to this community with his trained monkey and an organ grinder. And that monkey is really buried in the family cemetery. The author also included stories that her father told her such as the Ghost. This story was of a haunting lady that killed her husband in the early 1800s. She was hung for it in 1838 and this too is a true story from these mountains.
Trois de Trois is a book consisting of three short stories that focus on circumstances and relationships. The novel includes “Louisa,” “Passion B,” and “La Gare du Nord.” “Louisa” is a narrative, not so much about circumstances but an account of the series of events that made rich family relationships. “Passion B” is in the spirit and how that which is not circumstantially possible may become possible. “La Gare du Nord” is the tale of the existing battle with the mesh of circumstances. How do you win?
These stories represent journeys made by many wise old warriors. The warriors spoke of mysterious balms; timing in our lives (being at the right place at the right time); the loss of hope due to certain circumstances; different types of famines in our lives, personal stress, and secrets; the exploitation of the elderly; the old mothers of the church; wise counsel; and the many joys we find in life.
This vivid memoir recounts the experience of Shudha Mazumdar, a woman born at the turn of the century to Indian parents whose ideas on child rearing differed greatly. Her father, a wealthy Europeanized Zamindar, tried to instill Western values, while Shudha's mother emphasized the traditional, even going as far as arranging a marriage for her daughter when she was thirteen. Although true to Indian traditions, Shudha eventually manifested her father's influence by becoming a published writer, by becoming a member of a number of social service organizations, and by serving as the Indian Delegate to the International Labour Organization.
When a Dublin family is torn apart, can a new start in Liverpool help heal the wounds? 1940s Dublin Handsome widower Johnny Cassidy is out of work, broken-hearted and lost as to how to look after his four children. At his lowest ebb, he's forced to realise that help sometimes comes from the strangest places. With Johnny's family over the sea in Liverpool, it's his wife's spinster cousin Nora who comes to the rescue and has her life turned upside down by this brood of children. With Nora around, Ella Cassidy can be a teenager again rather than trying to raise her younger siblings, while older brother, Sean, finds that music might be his salvation. It seems that each member of the Cassidy family cherishes secret dreams, but will they bring them together or tear them apart? A warm and inviting story of family and friendship, duty and desire, perfect for fans of Maureen Lee and Lyn Andrews.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a flamboyant character and a skilled swordsman, not in the least afraid of drawing attention to himself in public-for he can be highly amusing, even at his own expense, with jokes about his enormous nose. But he has a weakness: he has fallen in love with his beautifulcousin Roxane, and because of his own appearance is too ashamed to declare his love. Meanwhile Roxane is besotted with a handsome, but foolish young man, Christian, in the same company of guards as Cyrano. Cyrano is devastated by this, and horrified by her request that he should protect the youngman and encourage him to write her love letters. Writing letters is something Christian can't do-but Cyrano generously offers to help, even if it means breaking his own heart. Soon Cyrano pours out his feelings in the most romantic letters ever. The question is will Roxane ever discover the truth?And if she does will it be too late for Cyrano?
A delightful story of Albert, an albertosaurus (cousin of a tyrannosaurus): of his life and death, and of the discovery of his fossil and journey to a museum. Illustrated by primary school children and based on scientific research, Albert is an ideal introduction to dinosaurs and fossils.
Fiona's parents have the local shop and bar, and her younger sisters are already leading independent lives. Bridget is at a convent school preparing to be a nun and Angela has led a life of her own since she was hospitalised up in Dublin for years with childhood polio. Then, sudden tragedy forces Fiona to postpone her departure for New York. As her mother sinks into illness and depression, her responsibilities mount. When help is offered by her aunt and cousin, Fiona is mystified by her mother's animosity towards them.
This book is based on the true story of a Sicilian immigrant who flees his own country when an outraged husband, Vittorio, finds lovers Carmela and Gino together and intends to kill him. In 1900 Sicily, husbands shoot the offenders, and the townspeople turn their heads. Gino escapes to America and works in a coal mine in Pennsylvania, saves his money, travels to California and plants cherry trees. After the birth of three daughters, he finally has a son. Tragedy strikes when an unknown assailant shoots and kills his wife and child with a sawed-off shotgun. Accused of the murder, he is tried and then acquitted. In a deep depression, he rides the rails for months like a common hobo. When his daughters marry, a lonely Gino marries the friend of his youngest daughter. A few years later his wife finds Gino shot through the head. Is it suicide? Or did a wretched man finally get his satisfaction?
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