The Trial of Ubu
The Trial of Ubu

Author: Simon Stephens

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 1408172445

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In The Trial of Ubu, Simon Stephens takes the grotesque and amoral megalomaniac dictator from Alfred Jarry's proto-surrealist 1896 play Ubu Roi and places him before a twenty-first century international tribunal. Set in January 2010, at the International Criminal Tribunal sitting in The Hague, it is day 436 of the trial of the dictator Ubu. Sitting before a UN constituted International Tribunal, he is charged with Crimes against Humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Simon Stephens' virtuosic satire examines the often absurd legal wrangling of the international justice system. The Trial of Ubu is a savage comedy that interrogates the assumptions of a Court as it struggles to deal with defendants who are not only opposed to the morality of law, but exist in a different moral dimension altogether. Exploring the central legitimacy and effectiveness of international law, Stephens asks how a civilised society can deal with the perpetrators of unspeakable crime, and wherein lies the legitimacy of any internationally convened tribunal. Taking a wry and intelligent look at the international courts when reduced to senseless and convoluted legal altercations, this funny yet unsettling play asks important questions about legal against moral justice, and the futility of reasoned argument in the presence of a heinous malefactor.

The Trial of Ubu
The Trial of Ubu

Author: Simon Stephens

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 1408172453

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In The Trial of Ubu, Simon Stephens takes the grotesque and amoral megalomaniac dictator from Alfred Jarry's proto-surrealist 1896 play Ubu Roi and places him before a twenty-first century international tribunal. Set in January 2010, at the International Criminal Tribunal sitting in The Hague, it is day 436 of the trial of the dictator Ubu. Sitting before a UN constituted International Tribunal, he is charged with Crimes against Humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Simon Stephens' virtuosic satire examines the often absurd legal wrangling of the international justice system. The Trial of Ubu is a savage comedy that interrogates the assumptions of a Court as it struggles to deal with defendants who are not only opposed to the morality of law, but exist in a different moral dimension altogether. Exploring the central legitimacy and effectiveness of international law, Stephens asks how a civilised society can deal with the perpetrators of unspeakable crime, and wherein lies the legitimacy of any internationally convened tribunal. Taking a wry and intelligent look at the international courts when reduced to senseless and convoluted legal altercations, this funny yet unsettling play asks important questions about legal against moral justice, and the futility of reasoned argument in the presence of a heinous malefactor.

Stephens Plays: 4
Stephens Plays: 4

Author: Simon Stephens

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-05-28

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1474260144

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Four plays inspired by and originating on the European stage from one of Britain's most important playwrights. Three Kingdoms was presented at Teater NO99 in Tallinn, Estonia on 17 September 2011, before opening at the Munich Kammerspiele, Germany, on 15 October 2011. 'An inconsolable mood of dread, abandon, violence and suspicion lurks beneath the show's skin of arty insouciance, and at times the script attains a lyrical pitch of accusation against the West that quite overrides the flippancy. There's something of value here.' Daily Telegraph; The Trial of Ubu premiered at the Schauspielhaus Essen in a co-production with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam. 'The play certainly gets at the banality of evil, and evokes the slow, sometimes dull, often uncertain slog of justice.' Sunday Times. Subtitled 'A Play For Young People', Morning was developed in partnership between the Lyric Hammersmith, London, and the Junges Theater, Göttingen. The Financial Times described it as 'theatrically daring and uncompromising'; Carmen Disruption, a reimagining of Bizet's opera, premiered at the Deutsche Spielhaus in spring, 2014, before its UK premiere at the Almeida, London, in April 2015. 'You can't help but be moved by the circumstances facing the five main characters. There's an understanding and a compassion amid the bleakness. And a fierce sense that something needs to change.' Guardian;

The Theatre of Simon Stephens
The Theatre of Simon Stephens

Author: Jacqueline Bolton

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-06-17

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1474238661

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Simon Stephens is one of Europe's pre-eminent living playwrights. Since the beginning of his career in 1998, Stephens's award-winning plays have been translated into over twenty languages, been produced on four continents, and continue to feature prominently in the repertoires of European theatre. His original works have garnered numerous awards, with his stage adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time winning seven Olivier Awards and enjoying acclaim on Broadway. In the first book to provide a critical account of Stephens's work, Jacqueline Bolton draws upon the playwright's unpublished personal archives, as well as original interviews with directors and actors, to advance detailed analyses of his original plays and their productions, examine contemporary approaches to playwriting, and deliver insights into broader debates regarding text, performance and authorship. Caridad Svich addresses Stephens's theatrical output between 2014 and 2019, and essays from Mireia Aragay and James Hudson provide additional perspectives on international productions and the playwright's adaptive practices. Andrew Haydon's edited interviews with six of Stephens's key collaborators – Marianne Elliott, Sarah Frankcom, Sean Holmes, Ramin Gray, Katie Mitchell and Carrie Cracknell – further illuminate the work from a director's viewpoint. The Theatre of Simon Stephens situates the playwright's oeuvre within his embrace of aesthetics and working relations encountered in European theatre cultures, focusing in particular upon shifting attitudes towards the function of the playwright, the relationship between playwrights and directors, and the role of the audience in live performance. The Companion serves as a lively and engaging study of one of the most restlessly creative and important dramatists of our generation.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time GCSE Student Edition
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time GCSE Student Edition

Author: Simon Stephens

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-04-21

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1474240321

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Written specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. In Simon Stephens's multi-award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon's novel, Christopher's investigation into the death of the neighbour's dog tears his world apart and confronts him with the struggle to survive when everything feels foreign. In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text itself, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well as background information on the playwright. The Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions never lose sight of their readership, and offer students the confidence to engage with the material, explore their own interpretations, and improve their understanding of the works.

Shakespeare Survey: Volume 67, Shakespeare's Collaborative Work
Shakespeare Survey: Volume 67, Shakespeare's Collaborative Work

Author: Peter Holland

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-10-02

Total Pages: 1030

ISBN-13: 1316061876

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Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and productions. Since 1948, the Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for Volume 67 is 'Shakespeare's Collaborative Work'. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at http://www.cambridge.org/online/shakespearesurvey. This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic, and save and bookmark their results.

The Subversive Poetics of Alfred Jarry
The Subversive Poetics of Alfred Jarry

Author: Marieke Dubbelboer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 135154019X

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Paradox and provocation were essential features of all of the work of Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). His non-conformist attitude, whether employed to subvert literary or artistic conventions or to scrutinize social and political issues, marked both his literary writing and his view of the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the experimental and satirical Almanachs du Pere Ubu (1898 and 1901), which to date have received little critical attention. Jarry's groundbreaking use of collage in these early works, his absurdist humour and his rethinking of literary authorship and artistic originality foreshadow many innovations of twentieth-century art and literature. In this generously illustrated study Marieke Dubbelboer examines key characteristics of Jarry's poetics through an analysis of the Almanachs and addresses their role within the European avant-garde.

Trial by Theatre
Trial by Theatre

Author: Barbara Day

Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press

Published: 2019-11-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 802463953X

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The motto Národ sobě – “From the Nation to Itself” – inscribed over the proscenium arch of Prague’s National Theatre symbolizes the importance theatre holds for the Czechs. During the National Awakening of the 19th century, theatre took the place of politics, becoming an instrument of national identity in the hands of the revivalists. In what was then part of a German-speaking empire, the Czechs devised a complex and evocative theatre language made up of allegory, allusion, juxtaposition, games, wordplay, legend, history, illusion and music. A sophisticated avant-garde theatre flowered in Czechoslovakia between the wars, and became a symbol of independence during the Nazi occupation. It survived Socialist Realism and Stalinism to blossom again in the “Golden Sixties” when Prague became “the theatre capital of Europe” (Kenneth Tynan) and a generation of theatre and film directors (Radok, Grossman, Schorm) and playwrights (Havel, Kundera, Topol) were at the forefront of the Prague Spring. Reprisals took place after the 1968 Soviet invasion when, under “normalization,” hardline Communists tried to silence the voices of the ‘60s; thousands were forced into internal and external emigration. The theatre culture, however, flexible and experienced from previous repression, again provided a basis of opposition to totalitarianism. For two decades it operated in the provisional spaces of culture houses, studios, gymnasiums, bars, trade union halls, art galleries and living rooms. Strategies were devised and implemented to bring freedom back to the theatre and society. A strong sense of justice and ethics intensified the mutual commitment of theatres and audiences, leading the way to the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the installation of a playwright as President.