An old contact from his "revolutionary" student days involves Martin in a political assassination against his will, with bad consequences for them both.
First produced in London in 1975, 'The Saliva Milkshake' deals with the dilemma of a liberal intellectual caught in the crossfire of a political crisis which forces him to make a commitment.
These five short plays date from Brenton's early involvement in such 'shoestring' groups as Portable Theatre. They are deliberately intended for the 'poor theatre' - as relevant today as when they were first written - since each play requires a small cast and minimal set, yet yields maximum theatricality. Christie in Love, Gum and Goo, Heads and The Education of Skinny Spew, were all first staged in 1969. The Saliva Milkshake was first staged in 1975.
This 26-volume set is a wide-ranging, time- and subject-spanning examination of the phenomenon of political protest. What drives people to take to the streets, and how do their governments respond? These questions and many more are analysed in areas as varied as sixteenth-century German peasant uprisings, revolutionary Russians at the Paris Commune, women protesting nuclear weapons at Greenham Common, and the role Christianity played in protests across the ages. An impressive reference resource, this set also looks at the policing of protests and official responses to them.
This collection of essays covers the related areas of aesthetics and politics, both in the field of theatre and in everyday life. Each contributor seeks to illustrate how drama subverts the foundations of the accepted models of perception and how it mediates on its own conventions.
Howard Brenton is one of Britain's best-known and most controversial dramatists The Romans in Britain was the play that brought calls to bring back censorship when it was first staged at the National in 1980. It conjures up "an era that is culturally as well as historically remote which is a notoriously difficult task, but Mr Brenton acheives it with great skill and effect...a very good play indeed." In The Thirteenth Night: "He sets the characters of Shakespeare to find the elements in the British character which could transform an Englishman into a Stalin, and closes in on his creation with an overall wit to match his horror" (The Times). The Genius "is teeming with memorable stage pictures, and bristling with Brenton's very best writing: flinty, impassioned, explosive" (Financial Times). In Bloody Poetry "Brenton is doing something markedly ambitious in this phantasmagoric play. He is celebrating the idea of the committed artist who seeks to stir and provoke sullen, defeated bourgeois England. At the same time, with clear-eyed honesty, he shows how difficult it is to upset the moral order" (The Guardian). Greenland is "on the one hand a cry of disillusionment with established political forms, on the other it is full of typically lively Brentonesque satire and lampoons...Brenton's message is a welcome antidote to the madness in which we all now seem to be living and a sharp blast against patriarchy as well as other attendant woes" (City Limits).
The year 1956 marked a point when British drama and theater fell into the hands of a group of young playwrights who revolutionized the stage. During that time, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter made the British theater as rich, varied, and vital as any national theater in history. This reference chronicles the history of British theater from 1956 to 1995 by providing detailed information about the playwrights of that period. Included are entries for some three dozen British playwrights active between 1956 and 1995. Entries are arranged alphabetically to facilitate use. Each entry supplies biographical information, the production history for particular plays, a survey of the playwright's critical reception, an assessment of the dramatist's work, and primary and secondary bibliographies. A selected, general bibliography at the end of the volume directs the reader to important sources of additional information about this period in theater history.
Essential for students of Theatre Studies, this series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and reassessment of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to the present. Each volume equips readers with an understanding of the context from which work emerged, a detailed overview of the range of theatrical activity and a close study of the work of four of the major playwrights by a team of leading scholars. Chris Megson's comprehensive survey of the theatre of the 1970s examines the work of four playwrights who came to promience in the decade and whose work remains undiminished today: Caryl Churchill (by Paola Botham), David Hare (Chris Megson), Howard Brenton (Richard Boon) and David Edgar (Janelle Reinelt). It analyses their work then, its legacy today and provides a fresh assessment of their contribution to British theatre. Interviews with the playwrights, with directors and with actors provides an invaluable collection of documents offering new perspectives on the work. Revisiting the decade from the perspective of the twenty-first century, Chris Megson provides an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1970s.
Television is a growth industry with an insatiable hunger for writing talent. Soaps, series dramas, plays, situation comedies - television constantly needs new writers. This inspiring book is full of professional tips and techniques that producers, agents and script editors would give you themselves - if only they had the time. Complete with vital information on how to sell your writing - and how much you can earn. Packed with tips for writing and selling. Lists essential contacts and phone numbers. Contents: List of Illustrations; The opportunities; 1. The basics; 2. Story & theme; 3. Style; 4. Structure; 5. Plotting; 6. Visual Interest; 7. Dialogue; 8. Characterisation; 9. Situation Comedy; 10. Presentation; 11. From Script to Screen; 12. The difficult Markets; 13. Programmes Looking for Writers; 14. Soap Operas; 15. Other Markets for Scripts; 16. Common Queries; 17. TV Talk; 18. Organisations That Will Help You; 19. Where to Send your Script; Further reading; Index.