When an invitation to The Ball arrives at the Ash girl's house, from Prince Amir, she can't bring herself to believe that she, like her sisters, can go. With her mother dead and her father away, she must learn to fight the monsters that have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind. In this wondrous drama Timberlake Wertenbaker explores the beauty and terror inherent in growing up.The Ash Girl premiered at Birmingham Rep in 2001.
THE STORY: Mary Traverse, the pretty, carefully schooled daughter of a wealthy London merchant, chafes at her pampered existence, and hungers for knowledge and experience of the outside world. Leaving her father's protection she is, at first, shock
In return for aid in war, King Pandion of Athens gives his daughter in marriage to Tereus, King of Thrace. But once in Thrace Procne misses her sister Philomele and sets out to fetch her from Athens. On the way back Tereus deceives and seduces Philomele, silencing her by tearing out her tongue.
Torn between army politics and the love of his soldiers on the front line, a legendary leader spirals out of control. Inspired by Sophocles' classical play, Our Ajax draws on interviews with contemporary servicemen and women to create a modern epic of heroism, love and homeland. Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Ajax premiered at the Southwark Playhouse, London, in November 2014.
The range of Marivaux's work and the subtlety beneath its apparent frivolity are demonstrated here by two of his most famous plays: 'Les Fausses Confidences' (False Admissions) and 'L'Heureux Stratageme' (Successful Strategies). Love is the subject of both plays, with underlying themes of deceit and self-delusion. The former play deals with social mobility and the power of money, while the latter, lighter in tone, takes place on a country estate with a cast of aristocrats and their servants. Both plays had their British premier in this translation at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith in 1983. This collection also includes 'La Dispute,' an intriguing one-act piece, first produced in this translation on BBC Radio...Amazon.com.
Millie, a director, discusses with her actors, Ian and Tom, how to interpret two famous historical figures from the nineteenth century. It's 1831. The naturalist Charles Darwin is invited to travel with Robert Fitzroy into uncharted waters off the coast of South America aboard 'The Beagle'. Their five year journey is fraught with philosophical and personal tensions. Fitzroy, a staunch Christian, has faith in the unquestionable authority of the Bible; Darwin begins to explore a more radical vision, his theory of natural selection. A meditation on history and human relationships, After Darwin links past and present through these five characters, and raises timeless questions about faith, friendship and how we interpret the past. After Darwin was first performed in July 1998, at Hampstead Theatre, London.
America. 1776. Christian is a Quaker. His family came to America to live in peace. But he is a young man fired up by dreams of revolution. Should he defy his community and pick up a gun? Thomas Jefferson is an idealist, with a vision of liberty for all. But America is a fractured coalition of states, in a bloody war for independence. How will he balance the ideal with the reality? Susanna was born a slave. But the British promise liberation for those who join their fight against the revolution. Where does true freedom lie? Jefferson's Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker premiered at Watford Palace Theatre in February 2015.
British theatre of the past fifty years has been brilliant, varied, and controversial, encompassing invigorating indigenous drama, politically didactic writing, the formation of such institutions as the National Theatre, the exporting of musicals worldwide from the West End, and much more. This entertaining and authoritative book is the first comprehensive account of British theatre in this period. Dominic Shellard moves chronologically through the half-century, discussing important plays, performers, directors, playwrights, critics, censors, and agents as well as the social, political, and financial developments that influenced the theatre world. Drawing on previously unseen material (such as the Kenneth Tynan archives), first-hand testimony, and detailed research, Shellard tackles several long-held assumptions about drama of the period. He questions the dominance of Look Back in Anger in the 1950s, arguing that much of the theatre of the ten years prior to its premiere in 1956 was vibrant and worthwhile. He suggests that theatre criticism, theatre producers, and such institutions as the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company have played key roles in the evolution of recent drama. And he takes a fresh look at the work of Terence Rattigan, Harold Pinter, Joe Orton, Alan Ayckbourn, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and other significant playwrights of the modern era. The book will be a valuable resource not only for students of theatre history but also for any theatre enthusiast.