Present Laughter

Present Laughter

Author: Noël Coward

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-05-04

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1350354031

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"An honest, even profound reflection on the price of fame, with some genuine sexual frisson and an undercurrent of pathos." - The Hollywood Reporter At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs - his line of harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered... and all hell breaks loose. Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change, and remains one of the playwright's most enduring hits. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Russell Jackson.


Home Chat

Home Chat

Author: Noël Coward

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-11-08

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 1350025372

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

I am shirking off the chains that have shackled me for so long – I have suddenly come to realise that I am a woman – a living, passionate, pulsating woman – it never occurred to me before. Janet Ebony and her best friend, Peter Chelsworth, are innocently sharing a sleeping compartment when their train to Paris is involved in a disastrous railway accident. Outrage and scandal ensue as Janet's husband, Paul, and her fearsome mother-in-law accuse Janet and Peter of adultery. Aghast at their families' accusations, Janet and Peter decide to take revenge by inventing an adulterous affair ... Written with Noël Coward's trademark wit and insight, Home Chat is a distinctly modern comedy about female sexuality and fidelity in a society rigidly governed by decorum and reputation. This edition was published to coincide with the first revival of the play since its premiere in 1927.


New York Magazine

New York Magazine

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1982-07-26

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.


The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Author: Milan Kundera

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2023-03-28

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0063290693

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"An absolutely dazzling entertainment. . . . Arousing on every level—political, erotic, intellectual, and above all, humorous." —Newsweek "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius." —New York Times Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.


The Sound of Laughter

The Sound of Laughter

Author: Peter Kay

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2009-07-15

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1409062767

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Peter Kay's unerring gift for observing the absurdities and eccentricities of family life has earned himself a widespread, everyman appeal. These vivid observations coupled with a kind of nostalgia that never fails to grab his audience's shared understanding, have earned him comparisons with Alan Bennett and Ronnie Barker. In his award winning TV series' he creates worlds populated by degenerate, bitter, useless, endearing and always recognisable characters which have attracted a huge and loyal following. In many ways he's an old fashioned kind of comedian and the scope and enormity of his fanbase reflects this. He doesn't tell jokes about politics or sex, but rather rejoices in the far funnier areas of life: elderly relatives and answering machines, dads dancing badly at weddings, garlic bread and cheesecake, your mum's HRT... His autobiography is full of this kind of humour and nostalgia, beginning with Kay's first ever driving lesson, taking him back through his Bolton childhood, the numerous jobs he held after school and leading up until the time he passed his driving test and found fame.


Laughter After

Laughter After

Author: David Slucki

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0814344798

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Laughter After will appeal to a number of audiences—from students and scholars of Jewish and Holocaust studies to academics and general readers with an interest in media and performance studies.


La Bête

La Bête

Author: David Hirson

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780802138217

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Written entirely in rhyming couplets, La Bete is a quicksilver tragicomedy of language in which a crisis befalling an imagined seventeenth-century acting troupe provides the basis for a relentlessly deepening Chinese box of opinions about life and art.".


Humour, Comedy and Laughter

Humour, Comedy and Laughter

Author: Lidia Dina Sciama

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1782385436

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Anthropological writings on humor are not very numerous or extensive, but they do contain a great deal of insight into the diverse mental and social processes that underlie joking and laughter. On the basis of a wide range of ethnographic and textual materials, the chapters examine the cognitive, social, and moral aspects of humor and its potential to bring about a sense of amity and mutual understanding, even among different and possibly hostile people. Unfortunately, though, cartoons, jokes, and parodies can cause irremediable distress and offence. Nevertheless, contributors’ cross-cultural evidence confirms that the positive aspects of humor far outweigh the danger of deepening divisions and fueling hostilities


Loose Knit

Loose Knit

Author: Theresa Rebeck

Publisher: Samuel French, Inc.

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780573694523

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Comedy Theresa Rebeck Characters: 2 male, 5 female Combination set: interior and exterior. Once a week in the heart of New York City five women gather to knit. As the sweaters pile up, their lives fall apart. Liz is having an affair with her sister's husband, Gina's lost her job, Paula is having an identity crisis, and Margie just wants a date. Into their lives steps Miles, a cool businessman who made his first million before he was thirty and is now looking for a wi