Scaramouche Jones


Book Description

It's 11pm on Millennium Eve. The ancient clown, Scaramouche Jones, has given his last performance and waits in his dressing room for the stroke of midnight - and his own centenary.




The Devil's Passion or Easter in Hell


Book Description

Within the next hour, our operatives will isolate, engage and capture or kill the notorious leader of the most extreme, dangerous and contagious ideology to emerge in the modern era, whose terror activities represent the gravest threat to our interests across the region and the wider world. I refer, of course, to the radical preacher and populist demagogue Y'shua Bar-Yessuf – the man known, by way of shorthand to our operatives, as “Jesus”. Satan, the narrator of Justin Butcher's one-man play who is looking out for our best interests, is on a mission to harness the ways of the dangerous extremist preacher Jesus. Jesus' radical teachings and popularity have the potential to wreak havoc in the Middle East. This is exactly the sort of man the government warn us of, again and again. This clever and evocative passion play from the devil's perspective considers Jesus' relevance to contemporary issues, and retells the story of Christ's life from the perspective of the enemy. The Devil's Passion received its world premiere in June 2015 at St James's, Piccadilly, and was revived and toured in 2016.




Clowns, Fools and Picaros


Book Description

By its very nature the clown, as represented in art, is an interdisciplinary phenomenon. In whichever artform it appears - fiction, drama, film, photography or fine art - it carries the symbolic association of its usage in popular culture, be it ritual festivities, street theatre or circus. The clown, like its extended family of fools, jesters, picaros and tricksters, has a variety of functions all focussed around its status and image of being "other." Frequently a marginalized figure, it provides the foil for the shortcomings of dominant discourse or the absurdities of human behaviour. Clowns, Fools and Picaros represents the latest research on the clown, bringing together for the first time studies from four continents: Europe, America, Africa and Asia. It attempts to ascertain commonalities, overlaps and differences between artistic expressions of the "clownesque" from these various continents and genres, and above all, to examine the role of the clown in our cultures today. This volume is of interest for scholars of political and comic drama, film and visual art as well as scholars of comparative literature and anthropology.




A Spectacle of Dust


Book Description

Vibrant and candid memoirs of the late, great British character actor, Pete Postlethwaite. After training as a teacher, Pete Postlethwaite started his acting career at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where his colleagues included Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher and Julie Walters. After routine early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as THE PROFESSIONALS, Postlethwaite's first success came with the acclaimed British film DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES in 1988. He then received an Academy Award nomination for his role in THE NAME OF THE FATHER in 1993. His performance as the mysterious lawyer "Kobayashi" in THE USUAL SUSPECTS is well-known, and he appeared in many successful films including ALIEN 3, BRASSED OFF, THE SHIPPING NEWS, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, as Friar Lawrence in Baz Luhrmann's ROMEO + JULIET, and in INCEPTION with Leonardo diCaprio. Pete Postlethwaite was one of the best-loved and widely admired performers on stage, TV (SHARPE, THE SINS) and in cinema. In THE ART OF DISCWORLD, Terry Pratchett said that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as 'a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite', while Steven Spielberg called him 'the best actor in the world', about which Postlethwaite said: 'I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, "the thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world."' This is the story of a diverse and multi-talented actor's eventful life, told in his own candid and vibrant words.




Restoration


Book Description

Restoration is set in eighteenth-century England: a world of cruelty, injustice and iron privilege. Lord Are is forced by poverty into an unwanted marriage with the daughter of a wealthy mineowner. One morning, during breakfast, he commits a bizarre and fatal crime. He seeks to pin responsibility for it on his guileless, illiterate footman, Bob Hedges. A battle ensues between Bob's black, justice-hungry wife and the fortified privilege of the ruling classes. This is a new programme text edition of the play with minor revisions to the original text and produced for the tour by Oxford Staeg Company.




Rough Crossings


Book Description

Simon Schama's extraordinary novel in a new stage adaptation by Caryl Philips. As the American War of Independence reaches its climax, a plantation slave and a British Naval Officer embark on an epic journey in search of freedom. Divided by barriers of race but united in their ambitions for equality, their convictions will change attitudes towards slavery forever. Sweeping from the Deep South of America to the scorched earth of West Africa, Rough Crossings is a compelling true story that marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. Rough Crossings was staged by Headlong Theatre Company which opened at Birmingham Rep in September 2007 and toured the Lyric Hammersmith, Liverpool Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse.




Scaramouche Jones (play)


Book Description

Material in the Australian performing arts programs and ephemera (PROMPT) collection consists of programs and related items for Australian performing arts organisations, Australian artists performing overseas, professional productions performed in Australia (including those featuring overseas performers) and overseas performances of Australian plays, music, etc.




The Way of Awen


Book Description

Awaken the bard within in this inspiring journey into your creative potential. Expanding upon the foundation of The Bardic Handbook, this volume explores the transformations the bardic initiate must go through to become a fully-fledged Bard. This originally took 12 years of study in the Bardic Colleges - but communities need bards right now, bringing healing and hope with their words and music and so the training process is accelerated over 12 months, echoing the 12 years of Taliesin's journey from Gwion Bach to the Shining Brow. Extracts from the author's notebooks and journals over 20 years illustrate his own journey - showing how this ancient wisdom has been gleaned and validated by powerful personal experience. The Way of Awen is a way of living creatively.




Theatre Record


Book Description




Rose


Book Description

This powerful one-woman play is a moving reminder of some of the harrowing events that shaped the century and remains sadly relevant today with racial tensions and allegations of antisemitism continuing to dominate the news. Blending the personal with the political, this sharply drawn portrait of a feisty Jewish woman traces Rose's story from the devastation of Nazi-ruled Europe to conquering the American dream. Rose reflects on what it means to be a survivor. Her remarkable life began in a tiny Ukrainian village, took her to Warsaw's ghettos and a ship called The Exodus, and finally to the boardwalks of Atlantic City, the Arizona canyons, and salsa-flavoured nights in Miami beach. This revised edition was published to coincide with the new production at London's Park Theatre starring Maureen Lipman as Rose.