RSC Making Mischief


Book Description

Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier by Somalia Seaton - a racially-motivated attack on a student forces her teacher to confront the uncomfortable truth lurking beneath the community. Fraser Grace's Always Orange, set in the aftermath of the London terrorist attacks, looking at how to be human in a world always on the edge. The Making Mischief Festival features work from some of today's most exciting playwrights who are challenging and questioning our society. The Festival runs from 27 July to 27 August from The Other Place Studio Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.




Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again


Book Description

Through a series of arresting vignettes and a collection of nameless characters, Alice Birch examines the language, behaviour and forces that shape women in the 21st century. The play asks what's stopping us from doing something truly radical to change them? Written in response to the provocation that well-behaved women seldom make history, the play is an assault on the language that has fueled violence against women throughout history. Problematic language frequently attached to women is interrogated, from lazy sexist clichés to the conventions around a marriage proposal. Through doing so, the play rails against the conventions of work, sex, motherhood, aging and love. Revolt. She said. Revolt again was first performed at the 2014 Midsummer Mischief Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. It transferred to the Royal Court Upstairs and was more recently produced at New York's Soho Rep. It is published here in a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Marissia Fragkou, who locates the play in our contemporary political and cultural context (including second- and third-wave feminism, and the #MeToo movement).




Maydays


Book Description

David Edgar's Trying It On is an autobiographical play, written to be performed by its author. It was first performed at Warwick Arts Centre on 7 June 2018, at the beginning of a tour which included dates at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre; the Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham; the Royal Shakespeare Company's Other Place Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; and the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London. It was commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre and produced by China Plate theatre studio. The play is performed on a set designed to look like a study, full of clutter, with a stage manager's table to the side. David addresses the audience directly, reflecting on the journey he's taken from the twenty-year-old of 1968, experiencing worldwide student revolt and being immersed in radical politics, to the seventy-year-old of today. He wants to know if those two Davids share the same beliefs, and if not, whether it is the world that's changed, or him. He conducts straw polls to find out the audience's position on certain topics. He presents video testimony from several authors and political commentators. And as his delves deeper into his own history, and the apparently deepening rift between generations today, the Stage Manager, a young woman called Danni, steps in to challenge his perspective.




A Museum in Baghdad


Book Description

This is about my responsibility. Doing what is right. Being where I'm needed. I've started a job and I must finish it. I owe it to the people of Iraq. In 1926, the nation of Iraq is in its infancy, and British archaeologist Gertrude Bell is founding a museum in Baghdad. In 2006, Ghalia Hussein is attempting to reopen the museum after looting during the war. Decades apart, these two women share the same goals: to create a fresh sense of unity and nationhood, to make the world anew through the museum and its treasures. But in such unstable times, questions remain. Who is the museum for? Whose culture are we preserving? And why does it matter when people are dying? A story of treasured history, desperate choices and the remarkable Gertrude Bell. This edition of Hannah Khalil's epic new play was published to coincide with the world premiere at the RSC's The Other Place in 2019.




Making Mischief: Two Radical New Plays


Book Description

The Making Mischief Festival features work from some of today’s most exciting playwrights who are challenging and questioning our society. The Festival runs from 24 May to 17 June from The Other Place Studio Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. THE EARTHWORKS: “The universe doesn’t care if we know how it works.” On the eve of the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, two strangers – a journalist and a scientist – share their experiences of loss and hope in a funny but deeply touching one-act play. MYTH:“I can only see wrong choices. Things that will make everything worse.” In one wine-fuelled evening, two couples debate their materialistic lifestyle. As their dinner party descends into chaos, their friendship and their lives are irreparably changed. A play about those things we don’t want to see or say.




Mojo


Book Description

THE STORY: Silver Johnny is the new singing sensation, straight out of a low-life Soho clubland bar in 1958. His success could be the big break for two dead-end workers in the bar, if they play their cards right and trust the owner of the place to




The Whip


Book Description

Winner of the 2020 Alfred Fagon Award. As the 19th Century dawns in London, politicians of all parties gather to abolish the slave trade once and for all. But the price of freedom turns out to be a multi-billion pound bailout for slave owners rather than those enslaved. As morality and cunning compete amongst men thirsty for power, two women navigate their way to the true seat of political influence, challenging members of parliament who dare deny them their say. In this provocative new play by Juliet Gilkes Romero, the personal collides with the political to ask, what is the right thing to do and how much must it cost?







One Flea Spare


Book Description

Set in plague-ravaged 17th century London where social roles and the boundaries that describe them have been into chaos. The definition of morality is up for grabs. History is being tantalised. And whilst the wealthy William Snelgrave dreams of sweating, swearing tars, and of how sailors satisfy their "baser instincts" so far away from female company, his own wife, untouched for 40 years, is discovering that her dreadfully burned body may not be numb after all. The human heart craves comfort, contact, tenderness; survival may take many forms




Studio Shakespeare


Book Description

An extensive history of The Royal Shakespeare Company's studio theatre, Studio Shakespeare: The Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place also includes a biography of its founder and first artistic director, Mary Ann 'Buzz' Goodbody (1947-75). Alycia Smith-Howard reveals how, as a socialist, feminist, and the RSC's first female director, Goodbody sought to invigorate classical theatre and its approach to producing the works of Shakespeare. The Other Place, which opened its doors in 1973, was her greatest achievement, and was, in the words of Ron Daniels of the American Repertory Theatre, 'a training ground for an entire generation of Shakespeare actors and directors'. The volume examines Shakespeare productions at The Other Place from 1973 to its closure in 1989. The author's sources include Goodbody's 'Mission Statement' for the studio theatre as well as other previously unavailable materials such as Goodbody's private papers, journal entries, director's notes and correspondence. In addition, it contains interviews and commentary from such theatrical luminaries as Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, Cicely Berry, Trevor Nunn, Peter Hall, Patrick Stewart, and many others. Smith-Howard's narrative discusses productions of twelve plays at The Other Place, among them King Lear (1974), Hamlet (1975), The Merchant of Venice (1978), Antony and Cleopatra (1982), King John (1988) and Othello (1989). The cast lists of productions at The Other Place are included in an appendix. Smith-Howard's study captures the spirit and ethos of an important and radical exercise in theatre which influenced the mainstream work of The Royal Shakespeare Company. It is a lucid, compelling and valuable contribution not only to Shakespeare studies but also to theatre history. This book, as directors once said, 'has legs'.