The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant
The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant

Author: Tom Murphy

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2010-01-25

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1408145863

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An epic family drama, shot through with dark humour, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant tells the tragic story of a family disintegrating, having lost its moral values. Arina is an ambitious woman. As a servant girl she marries into the degenerative family she works for; her ruthless energy saves it from bankruptcy and she expands the family estate into an 'empire'. As matriarch she rules with an iron hand, her avarice insatiable, until she questions what it is all for. She slackens her hold and loses her power to the hypocrisy and relentless grasping of her 'chosen son'. Inspired by The Golovlyov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant is a haunting new work from leading Irish dramatist Tom Murphy, who has worked closely with the Abbey Theatre throughout his career. The play premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland, on 3 June 2009.

Donegal
Donegal

Author: Frank McGuinness

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2016-10-27

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 0571335764

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The Day family are Irish country-music royalty and Irene is their queen. Her relatives are completely dependent on her success. But as Irene's star fades, the Days are facing financial destruction. When the heir to her musical throne, Jackie Day, returns from the States with a new girlfriend, resentments simmer. Does Irene have the strength to hold the clan together? And will Jackie save them with the gift of a song?

Freefall
Freefall

Author: Michael West

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2010-07-10

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 1408135620

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There are things I haven't said. Things I want to say again. I need to think. I need more time. A sudden shock, and a man's life flashes before his eyes. He experiences an intense rush of extraordinary images and tangled memories, revelations and lost connections. People time and places swirl around him. As he valiantly attempts to stitch it all back together, will his luck hold out? The play's conceit follows a man who has suffered a stroke experiencing a series of flashbacks. Trapped within his own head, the audience are taken with him through a whistlestop tour of his life: a series of vivid, often painful episodes from childhood tragedy to crumbling marriage. In a beguiling portrait of mortality and humanity, Freefall explores memory, family and loss. From the author of Dublin by Lamplight and Foley, Freefall reunites award-winning Irish playwright Michael West with The Corn Exchange: Dublin's innovative theatre company who explore the boundaries and possibilities of theatre with their trademark style of Commedia dell'Arte. Freefall is a sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life, blending impressionistic beauty, poignancy and comedy.

Dublin by Lamplight
Dublin by Lamplight

Author: Michael West

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-05-25

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1350041122

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Martyn Wallace awoke in his boarding house and held his aching head. His room was brown and dirty and bare. He called it Reading Gaol. Amidst the filth and fury of Dublin 1904, the theatrical event of the century is about to explode! Fading stars, rebels, whores and romantics irreverently expose the strange and lurid world of Dublin by Lamplight. An instant hit when it first opened in 2004, this hugely entertaining and anarchic production is a night to change a nation's destiny! Unless it all goes horribly wrong . . . Written by Michael West in collaboration with Corn Exchange theatre company, Dublin by Lamplight was first produced at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in 2004, before a transfer to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2005. This new edition of the playscript was published to coincide with a major revival at the Abbey Theatre in spring 2017

Tina's Idea of Fun
Tina's Idea of Fun

Author: Sean P. Summers

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-06-23

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 1350006866

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Just wanna be a better mother, that's all... some sort of a decent mother. Tina can't get through to her son. Stuck on the drink and tormented by her past, what will she do to get his attention? Paddy is a quiet man just looking for someone to talk to. He's a Republican, but he'll shake his fist at anything these days. When Queen Elizabeth II makes her first visit to Ireland, Tina's post-protest party brings out the worst in everyone. What lengths will people go to, to make a connection? Tina's Idea of Fun was first published to coincide with the world premiere on the Peacock stage of The Abbey Theatre, Dublin in April 2016.

Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina

Author: Marina Carr

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2017-01-05

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 0571337201

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Vronsky What were you thinking about with your head stuck to the watering can? Anna Oh, the same, always the same. I was thinking about my happiness and about my unhappiness.Russia is changing. Rules have been broken. Chaos is looming. Families are falling apart. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is an examination of a country in the midst of extraordinary change. Through the impact of one woman's decision, it looks at the troubling cost of love on the human soul. Marina Carr brings a new perspective to Anna Karenina in her stage adaptation of this epic love story, which opened at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in December 2016.

Drum Belly
Drum Belly

Author: Richard Dormer

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-06-20

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 1472508777

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This city is changing. Different world from when I was a boy. I came over here when I wasn't much taller than you are now. Different world. You know what getting old is? Getting old is slowly losing everything that you're familiar with. Man has just set foot on the moon. The streets of Brooklyn are tense. The Irish Mafia is desperately trying to hold on to their power and more importantly their identity. After all, they built these streets. In this edgy new story, relationships between family, friends and enemies are ultimately challenged. Hold tight as Drum Belly casts you into New York City's deep and dark underworld.

Translated and Visiting Russian Theatre in Britain, 1945–2015
Translated and Visiting Russian Theatre in Britain, 1945–2015

Author: Cynthia Marsh

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-05-18

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 3030443337

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This book tackles questions about the reception and production of translated and untranslated Russian theatre in post-WW2 Britain: why in British minds is Russia viewed almost as a run-of-the-mill production of a Chekhov play. Is it because Chekhov is so dominant in British theatre culture? What about all those other Russian writers? Many of them are very different from Chekhov. A key question was formulated, thanks to a review by Susannah Clapp of Turgenev’s A Month in the Country: have the British staged a ‘Russia of the theatrical mind’?

The Theatre of Tom Murphy
The Theatre of Tom Murphy

Author: Nicholas Grene

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-10-05

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1472568125

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Tom Murphy shot to fame with the London production of A Whistle in the Dark in 1961, establishing him as the outstanding Irish playwright of his generation. The international success of DruidMurphy, the 2012-13 staging of three of his major plays by the Druid Theatre Company, served to underline his continuing appeal and importance. This is the first full scale academic study devoted to his theatre, providing an overview of all his work, with a detailed reading of his most significant texts. His powerful and searchingly honest engagement with Irish history and society is reflected in the violent Whistle in the Dark, the epic Famine (1968), the often hilarious Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and the darkly Chekhovian The House (2000). Folklore and myth figure more prominently in the spiritual drama of The Sanctuary Lamp (1975), the Faustian Gigli Concert (1983) and the women's stories of Bailegangaire (1985). The range and reach of Murphy's theatre is demonstrated in this informed reading, supported by key interviews with the playwright himself and his most important theatrical and critical interpreters.

The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance
The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance

Author: Dennis Kennedy

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2010-08-26

Total Pages: 705

ISBN-13: 0199574197

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An authoritative reference covering primarily actors, playwrights, directors, styles and movements, companies and organizations.