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Iya-Ile: The First Wife (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Oladipo AgboluajeIt's 1989 in Lagos. Political hysteria and social change are sweeping Nigeria. Chief Adeyemi's wife Toyin is turning 40 and, behind the mansion walls, the household is preparing for her party. But there are other distractions. Their troublesome sons, returning from college, are more interested in seduction and starting revolutions than their parents' disintegrating marriage. Meanwhile Helen, the ambitious house girl, is waiting for her chance...Iya-Ile was in production at the Soho Theatre, London in Spring 2009.
New Nigerians (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Oladipo Agboluaje‘You cannot make dodo without frying plantain’, as Greatness Ogholi discovers while he prepares his Peoples’ Revolutionary Party to contest the presidential election. With so many temptations and competing interests standing in his way, can he gain power without losing his integrity? New Nigerians is a political satire about the state of populism in politics.
Oladipo Agboluaje: Plays One (Oberon Modern Playwrights)
by Oladipo AgboluajeThis is the first collection of plays by award-winning playwright Oladipo Agboluaje, a significant force in Black British drama. Described as an ‘exciting, vital new voice’ (Time Out), Agboluaje demonstrates his versatility to write plays that transcend African and British cultures.Early Morning is a satirical comedy about three Nigerian office cleaners who decide to mount a coup to institute Blackocracy in Great Britain.‘The comedy is witty, astute and sublimely irresponsible‘ The SpectatorThe Estate centres on the conflicts within the wealthy Adeyemi family as they make funeral arrangements for their late patriarch, Chief Adeyemi. The Estate is also a social study of class conflict in Nigeria.'Agboluaje writes with a sharp, satiric eye.’ GuardianThe Christ of Coldharbour Lane is the story of Omo who, believing he is the son of God, preaches to the people of Brixton to abandon the 'wilful peace' that is holding them down.‘an often hilarious, and often profound, snapshot of modern London...[a] thought-provoking piece of original theatre.’ The StageThe Hounding of David Oluwale is based on Kester Aspden's award-winning book and reworks the tragic story of David Oluwale, who was hounded by two police officers in 1960s Leeds, and of the man who fought to get justice for him. ‘a shocking and engrossing story...a kind of In Cold Blood set in Leeds Financial TimesIyale (The First Wife) is the prequel to The Estate and tells the story of Helen Adeyemi's rise from being the servant to becoming the wife of the patriarch, Chief Adeyemi.‘satirical yet sympathetic, brutal yet beautifully observed.‘ The Times
The Hounding of David Oluwale (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Oladipo Agboluaje Kester AspdenIn May 1969, David Oluwale's body was pulled from the River Aire in Leeds. Eighteen months later, the investigation into his death was to rip apart the Yorkshire police force as two officers were prosecuted for killing the Nigerian immigrant whist in police custody. The police acts of prejudice and violence brought to light through the investigation of 1971 shook the population of Leeds, and thirty nine years on, the details of Oluwale's death still haunt the area.Through The Hounding of David Oluwale, an adaptation of Kester Aspden’s critically acclaimed text, Agboluaje uses carefully selected accounts of Oluwale's life to reveal how an optimistic and much loved showman who loved to dance, became the tragic victim of police persecution and brutality.Adapted as part of the Eclipse Theatre Initiative, a scheme dedicated to raising awareness for the work of aspiring Black dramatists, this play is a gripping drama that unravels the deep rooted prejudice that resides within contemporary society. The Hounding of David Oluwale opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse at the end of January 2009.
Anarchic Dance
by Liz Aggiss Billy CowieLiz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, known collectively as Divas Dance Theatre, are renowned for their highly visual, interdisciplinary brand of dance performance that incorporates elements of theatre, film, opera, poetry and vaudevillian humour. Anarchic Dance, consisting of a book and DVD-Rom, is a visual and textual record of their boundary-shattering performance work. The DVD-Rom features extracts from Aggiss and Cowie's work, including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (premiered on BBC2 in 2002), rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstructions of Aggiss's solo performance in Grotesque Dancer. These films are cross-referenced in the book, allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis, theory, discussion and personal response. Extensively illustrated with black and white and colour photographs Anarchic Dance, provides a comprehensive investigation into Cowie and Aggiss’s collaborative partnership and demonstrates a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be engaged critically.
Anarchic Dance
by Liz Aggiss Billy Cowie Ian BramleyLiz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, known collectively as Divas Dance Theatre, are renowned for their highly visual, interdisciplinary brand of dance performance that incorporates elements of theatre, film, opera, poetry and vaudevillian humour. Anarchic Dance, consisting of a book and DVD-Rom, is a visual and textual record of their boundary-shattering performance work. The DVD-Rom features extracts from Aggiss and Cowie's work, including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (premiered on BBC2 in 2002), rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstructions of Aggiss's solo performance in Grotesque Dancer. These films are cross-referenced in the book, allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis, theory, discussion and personal response. Extensively illustrated with black and white and colour photographs Anarchic Dance, provides a comprehensive investigation into Cowie and Aggiss’s collaborative partnership and demonstrates a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be engaged critically.
The Dishonoured (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Aamina AhmadHow far would you go to protect your reputation and your honour? When war hero Colonel Tariq joins the intelligence service, his rise to the top seems assured. But during his first case investigating an alleged murder by a CIA agent, a diplomatic crisis erupts and angy mobs take to the streets. Tariq is instructed to do anything he can to end the crisis. As his professional ambition and private life collide, Tariq must make a life changing decision that will have far reaching consequences for the future of his family and his country. Set in a world of espionage and secret agents, Aamina Ahmad’s play is a compelling political thriller about surviving in a world of deceit and violence.
Towards an Ecocritical Theatre: Playing the Anthropocene (Routledge Environmental Humanities)
by Mohebat AhmadiTowards an Ecocritical Theatre investigates contemporary theatre through the lens of Anthropocene-oriented ecocriticism. It assesses how Anthropocene thinking engages different modes of theatrical representation, as well as how the theatrical apparatus can rise to the representational challenges of changing interactions between humans and the nonhuman world. To explore these problems, the book investigates international Anglophone plays and performances by Caryl Churchill, Stephen Sewell, Andrew Bovell, E.M. Lewis, Chantal Bilodeau, Jordan Hall, and Miwa Matreyek, who have taken significant steps towards re-orienting theatre from its traditional focus on humans to an ecocritical attention to nonhumans and the environment in the Anthropocene. Their theatrical works show how an engagement with the problem of scale disrupts the humanist bias of theatre, provoking new modes of theatrical inquiry that envision a scale beyond the human and realign our ecological culture, art, and intimacy with geological time. Moreover, the plays and performances studied here, through their liveness, immediacy, physicality, and communality, examine such scalar shifts via the problem of agency in order to give expression to the stories of nonhuman actants. These theatrical works provoke reflections on the flourishing of multispecies responsibilities and sensitivities in aesthetic and ethical terms, providing a platform for research in the environmental humanities through imaginative conversations on the world’s iterative performativity in which all bodies, human and nonhuman, are cast horizontally as agential forces on the theatrical world stage. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre studies, environmental humanities, and ecocritical studies.
Towards an Ecocritical Theatre: Playing the Anthropocene (Routledge Environmental Humanities)
by Mohebat AhmadiTowards an Ecocritical Theatre investigates contemporary theatre through the lens of Anthropocene-oriented ecocriticism. It assesses how Anthropocene thinking engages different modes of theatrical representation, as well as how the theatrical apparatus can rise to the representational challenges of changing interactions between humans and the nonhuman world. To explore these problems, the book investigates international Anglophone plays and performances by Caryl Churchill, Stephen Sewell, Andrew Bovell, E.M. Lewis, Chantal Bilodeau, Jordan Hall, and Miwa Matreyek, who have taken significant steps towards re-orienting theatre from its traditional focus on humans to an ecocritical attention to nonhumans and the environment in the Anthropocene. Their theatrical works show how an engagement with the problem of scale disrupts the humanist bias of theatre, provoking new modes of theatrical inquiry that envision a scale beyond the human and realign our ecological culture, art, and intimacy with geological time. Moreover, the plays and performances studied here, through their liveness, immediacy, physicality, and communality, examine such scalar shifts via the problem of agency in order to give expression to the stories of nonhuman actants. These theatrical works provoke reflections on the flourishing of multispecies responsibilities and sensitivities in aesthetic and ethical terms, providing a platform for research in the environmental humanities through imaginative conversations on the world’s iterative performativity in which all bodies, human and nonhuman, are cast horizontally as agential forces on the theatrical world stage. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre studies, environmental humanities, and ecocritical studies.
The Girlfriend Act: Discover the swoony fake dating YA romance
by Safa Ahmed"Effortlessly charming and deeply moving, The Girlfriend Act has so much heart and humour" - Ann Liang, author of If You Could See The SunAspiring actress Farah Sheikh is tired of being in the background.Ex-child star Zayan Amin needs a break from the spotlight.And after a disastrous audition where she's told she doesn't "fit the aesthetic" for her university's play, Farah meets The Tragedies. A group of West London theatre kids rejected from the stage for similarly dubious reasons.Together, Farah and The Tragedies find themselves in the limelight and get the chance to perform. But, there's a catch. Recently disgraced child star, Zayan, will be involved.The deal: Zayan regains popularity via the publicity of his new romance, and in exchange, he'll star in (and more importantly, fund) a play for The Tragedies.Can Farah uphold her side of the bargain, and prove her critics wrong?"A heartfelt celebration of the communities we are born into and the families we choose for ourselves. A stunning debut with an everlasting impact." - Ananya Devarajan, author of Kismat Connection
Transgression in Korea: Beyond Resistance and Control (Perspectives On Contemporary Korea)
by Juhn Young AhnSince the turn of the millennium South Korea has continued to grapple with transgressions that shook the nation to its core. Following the serial killings of Korea’s raincoat killer, the events that led to the dissolution of the United Progressive Party, the criminal negligence of the owner and also the crew members of the sunken Sewol Ferry, as well as the political scandals of 2016, there has been much public debate about morality, transparency, and the law in South Korea. Yet, despite its prevalence in public discourse, transgression in Korea has not received proper scholarly attention. Transgression in Korea challenges the popular conceptions of transgression as resistance to authority, the collapse of morality, and an attempt at self- empowerment. Examples of transgression from premodern, modern, and contemporary Korea are examined side by side to underscore the possibility of reading transgression in more ways than one. These examples are taken from a devotional screen from medieval Korea, trickster tales from the late Choson period, reports about flesheating humans, newspaper articles about same- sex relationships from colonial Korea, and films about extramarital affairs, wayward youths, and a vengeful vigilante. Bringing together specialists from various disciplines such as history, art history, anthropology, premodern literature, religion, and fi lm studies, the context- sensitive readings of transgression provided in this book suggest that transgression and authority can be seen as forming something other than an antagonistic relationship.
Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography
by Michael Ainger'A Gilbert is of no use without a Sullivan.' With these words, W.S. Gilbert summed up his reasons for persisting in his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan despite the combative nature of their relationship. In fact, Michael Ainger suggests in Gilbert and Sullivan the success of the pair's work is a direct result of their personality clash, as each partner challenged the other to produce his best work. After exhaustive research into the D'Oyly Carte collection of documents, Ainger offers the most detailed account to date of Gilbert and Sullivan's starkly different backgrounds and long working partnership. Having survived an impoverished and insecure childhood, Gilbert flourished as a financially successful theater professional, married happily and established himself as a property owner. His sense of proprietorship extended beyond real estate, and he fought tenaciously to protect the integrity of his musical works. Sullivan, the product of a supportive family who nourished his talent, was much less satisfied with stability than his collaborator. His creative self-doubts and self-demands led to nervous and physical breakdowns, but it also propelled the team to break the successful mode of their earliest work to produce more ambitious pieces of theater, including The Mikado and The Yeoman of the Guards . Offering previously-unpublished draft libretti and personal letters, this thorough double-biography will be an essential addition to the library of any Gilbert and Sullivan fan.
Popular Performance
by Adam Ainsworth Oliver Double Louise PeacockThere is no fourth wall in popular performance. The show is firmly rooted in the here and now, and the performers address the audience directly, while the audience answer back with laughter, applause or heckling. Performer and role are interlaced, so that we are left uncertain about just how the persona we see onstage might relate to the private person who presents it to us. Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into:* performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety* performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning* issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance* issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.
Popular Performance
by Adam Ainsworth Oliver Double Louise PeacockThere is no fourth wall in popular performance. The show is firmly rooted in the here and now, and the performers address the audience directly, while the audience answer back with laughter, applause or heckling. Performer and role are interlaced, so that we are left uncertain about just how the persona we see onstage might relate to the private person who presents it to us. Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into:* performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety* performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning* issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance* issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.
Dancing with Philoctetes: Reflections on Pain and Remembrance
by Abigail AkaviaAbandoned by his community, doomed to a solitary existence with his voice as sole companion: can Sophocles’ Philoctetes still speak to us? What do his screams have to say? Dancing with Philoctetes: Reflections on Pain and Remembrance juxtaposes a new adaptation of Sophocles’ play with an essay describing the process of bringing it to life in a world on the brink of a pandemic. Akavia investigates Sophocles’ nuanced portrayal of the fragility of empathy in the face of suffering, and also shares the challenges of embodying and vocalizing Sophocles’ text onstage. She proposes that the pandemic and its aftermath offer a renewed perspective on Philoctetes’ thematization, not just of empathy and disease, but of the longing to return: to home, to health, to what memory holds. Akavia’s treatment of Philoctetes starts out from his body and voice and journeys on to loneliness, toxic masculinity, nostalgia, cancer, dreaming, parenthood, language, ballet lessons, siblings, music, and growing up. Here, scholarship and creative non-fiction combine to tell a story of reading, performing, thinking about, and living (through) tragedy.
Preaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Maisha S. AkbarPreaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays examines several lynching plays to foreground black women’s performances as non-normative subjects who challenge white supremacist ideology. Maisha S. Akbar re-maps the study of lynching drama by examining plays that are contingent upon race-based settings in black households versus white households. She also discusses performances of lynching plays at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the South and reviews lynching plays closely tied to black school campuses. By focusing on current examples and impacts of lynching plays in the public sphere, this book grounds this historical form of theatre in the present day with depth and relevance. Of interest to scholars and students of both general Theatre and Performance Studies, and of African American Theatre and Drama, Preaching the Blues foregrounds the importance of black feminist artists in lynching culture and interdisciplinary scholarship.
Preaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Maisha S. AkbarPreaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays examines several lynching plays to foreground black women’s performances as non-normative subjects who challenge white supremacist ideology. Maisha S. Akbar re-maps the study of lynching drama by examining plays that are contingent upon race-based settings in black households versus white households. She also discusses performances of lynching plays at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the South and reviews lynching plays closely tied to black school campuses. By focusing on current examples and impacts of lynching plays in the public sphere, this book grounds this historical form of theatre in the present day with depth and relevance. Of interest to scholars and students of both general Theatre and Performance Studies, and of African American Theatre and Drama, Preaching the Blues foregrounds the importance of black feminist artists in lynching culture and interdisciplinary scholarship.
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race (Oxford Handbooks)
by Patricia AkhimiePremodern critical race studies, long intertwined with Shakespeare studies, has broadened our understanding of the definitions and discourse of race and racism to include not only phenotype, but also religious and political identity, regional, national, and linguistic difference, and systems of differentiation based upon culture and custom. Replete with fresh readings of the plays and poems, The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race brings together some of the most important scholars thinking about the subject today. The volume offers a thorough overview of the most significant theoretical and methodological paradigms such as critical race theory, feminist, and postcolonial studies; a dynamic look at intersections of race with queer, trans, disability, and indigenous studies; and a vibrant array of new approaches from ecocriticism, to animality, and human rights, from book history, to scholarly editing, and repertory studies; and an exploration of Shakespeare and race in our contemporary moment through discussions of political activism, pedagogy, visual arts, film, and theatre. Woven through the collection are the voices of practicing theatre professionals who have grappled with the challenges of race and racism both in performance and in the profession itself.
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race (Oxford Handbooks)
by Patricia AkhimiePremodern critical race studies, long intertwined with Shakespeare studies, has broadened our understanding of the definitions and discourse of race and racism to include not only phenotype, but also religious and political identity, regional, national, and linguistic difference, and systems of differentiation based upon culture and custom. Replete with fresh readings of the plays and poems, The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race brings together some of the most important scholars thinking about the subject today. The volume offers a thorough overview of the most significant theoretical and methodological paradigms such as critical race theory, feminist, and postcolonial studies; a dynamic look at intersections of race with queer, trans, disability, and indigenous studies; and a vibrant array of new approaches from ecocriticism, to animality, and human rights, from book history, to scholarly editing, and repertory studies; and an exploration of Shakespeare and race in our contemporary moment through discussions of political activism, pedagogy, visual arts, film, and theatre. Woven through the collection are the voices of practicing theatre professionals who have grappled with the challenges of race and racism both in performance and in the profession itself.
Disgraced: A Play (Modern Plays)
by Ayad AkhtarDisgraced by Ayad Akhtar is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2013. New York. Today. Corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor is happy, in love, and about to land the biggest career promotion of his life.But beneath the veneer, success has come at a price. When Amir and his artist wife, Emily, host an intimate dinner party at their Upper East Side apartment, what starts out as a friendly conversation soon escalates into something far more damaging. After taking US audiences by storm in a sold out run in New York, Disgraced transferred to the Bush Theatre in London in 2013.
Disgraced (Modern Classics)
by Ayad Akhtar“A continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world, with an accent on the incendiary topic of how radical Islam and the terrorism it inspires have affected the public discourse.” New York Times New York. Today. Corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor is happy, in love, and about to land the biggest career promotion of his life. But beneath the veneer, success has come at a price. When Amir and his artist wife, Emily, host an intimate dinner party at their Upper East Side apartment, what starts out as a friendly conversation soon escalates into something far more damaging.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2013, Disgraced premiered in Chicago before transferring to New York's Lincoln Center in 2012. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by J.T Rodgers.
Disgraced: A Play (Modern Classics)
by Ayad Akhtar“A continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world, with an accent on the incendiary topic of how radical Islam and the terrorism it inspires have affected the public discourse.” New York Times New York. Today. Corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor is happy, in love, and about to land the biggest career promotion of his life. But beneath the veneer, success has come at a price. When Amir and his artist wife, Emily, host an intimate dinner party at their Upper East Side apartment, what starts out as a friendly conversation soon escalates into something far more damaging.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2013, Disgraced premiered in Chicago before transferring to New York's Lincoln Center in 2012. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by J.T Rodgers.
The Invisible Hand (Modern Plays)
by Ayad AkhtarWe are prisoners of a corrupt country of our own makingAmerican banker Nick Bright knows that his freedom comes at a price. Confined to a cell within the depths of rural Pakistan, every second counts. Who will decide his fate? His captors, or the whims of the market?Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Ayad Akhtar has written an intense, fast-moving political thriller, which lays bare the raw, unfettered power of global finance.The Invisible Hand received its world premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop on 8 December 2014 and its UK premiere at the Tricycle Theatre, London, on 12 May 2016.
The Invisible Hand (Modern Plays)
by Ayad AkhtarYou see we are prisoners of a corrupt country that is our own making. But don't pretend you don't participate. You do. Of course you do.American banker Nick Bright knows that his freedom comes at a price. Confined to a cell in rural Pakistan, every second counts. Who will decide his fate? His captors, or the whims of the market?Ayad Akhtar is a Pulitzer Prize-winner, two-time Tony Award-nominee and winner of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.This newly revised edition of The Invisible Hand is published to coincide with the first major revival at London's Kiln Theatre in July 2021.
The Invisible Hand (Modern Plays)
by Ayad AkhtarYou see we are prisoners of a corrupt country that is our own making. But don't pretend you don't participate. You do. Of course you do.American banker Nick Bright knows that his freedom comes at a price. Confined to a cell in rural Pakistan, every second counts. Who will decide his fate? His captors, or the whims of the market?Ayad Akhtar is a Pulitzer Prize-winner, two-time Tony Award-nominee and winner of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.This newly revised edition of The Invisible Hand is published to coincide with the first major revival at London's Kiln Theatre in July 2021.