Oberon Books – serie

‘a one-off from the word go, and no history of English humour could overlook him.’ Tom StoppardN.F. Simpson (1919-2011) was a leading exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd, with the Royal Court classics A Resounding Tinkle (1957) and One Way Pendulum (1959) sealing his reputation as a comic master with a subtle philosophical undertow.Emerging during a revolutionary period in British theatre, Simpson rose to prominence alongside Harold Pinter, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker. His work has been embraced and performed by comedy legends including Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Beryl Reid and Dick Emery. His influence spread widely, from Peter Cook’s much loved character E.L. Wisty to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and helped spawn a generation of outstanding comic talent.This authorised collection presents the best of Simpson’s short works for audiences new and old. Featuring more than sixty pieces from across six decades, the full spectrum of an extraordinary career is brought together in one volume for the first time: monologues, sketches, criticism and poetry, written for radio, television, stage and print. It includes all of Simpson’s anarchic collaborations with Willie Rushton for Private Eye, a generous selection of previously unseen pieces from his final manuscript, as well as a critical introduction by Simpson collaborator Simon Usher.‘A wonderfully funny collection of the sort of short pieces that can only really find a suitable home in…well…a wonderfully funny collection of short pieces. Comic genius.’ David Nobbs'This is a treasure trove of the work of a fine, original, comic mind.’ Sheila Hancock‘A marvellous collection, showcasing the best of Simpson’s benignly radical, gently subversive genius. The truly remarkable thing is that his characters’ bizarre flights of lunacy seem saner and more rational with every passing year.’ Jonathan Coe‘Reading N. F. Simpson for the first time all those years ago was a revelation, a Taj Mahal to the head. He laid the foundation for most of what I truly love about comedy; he was the fifth Goon, the seventh Python, the Wally in Pete’n’Dud’n’Wally, the third Booshista, the Godfather of English Absurdism and a phenomenally good writer. You should read him as a matter of extreme urgency.’ Chris Addison‘N.F. Simpson is one of the greatest British philosophers and funniest playwrights of all time.’ David Quantick‘You might call N.F. Simpson a surrealist if he were not so funny. Or the Spike Milligan of suburbia if his plays were not so crafted. But really he was a one-off from the word go, and no history of English humour could overlook him.’ Tom Stoppard'Laugh out loud funny with a delightful sense of the absurd. A hilarious ode to the absurdity of the human spirit. Original, silly, and very funny.' Isy Suttie

The Official Biography by Peter Rankin‘My only gift is to grow a show,’ said Joan Littlewood, annoyed by what she had not achieved. Even so, her ability to do just that put her and her company, Theatre Workshop, head and shoulders above mid twentieth-century theatre.In the year when she would have been a hundred, which includes three revivals and a commemorative stamp, Peter Rankin, who worked with Joan for 38 years and in whose flat she died, takes the papers she left him and goes back to the beginning. As she told him: ‘You know me better than I know myself.’Drawing on Littlewood's personal archive, Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities observes at close hand one of the most influential theatre makers of the twentieth century.'the most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain.’ Peter Brook'one of two undoubted geniuses of the post-war British theatre, the other being Peter Brook.’ Sir Peter Hall'Joan Littlewood brought theatre to the people of east London and revolutionised the international theatre landscape with her bold and powerful productions. She was an inspiration to many and it’s important that we recognise the significance of her work...’ Kerry Michael, Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East

There are many skills one needs to produce a piece of dance. Bruce describes the basic foundation or ingredients of his version of Dance Theatre as: Movement, Drama, Sound and Vision. A choreographer has to study all of them to the best of their ability and learn how to combine them.There is no definitive method of choreography. Any choreographer who has a voice has learnt and executed it in their way. Choreographers pick up things here and there from what they see, who they work with, and assemble a craft themselves. So much of what they do as artists is intuition and instinct. Creativity cannot be tamed and fully understood or concluded. Artists are dealing with imagination. On Choreography and Making Dance Theatre will be an invaluable insight into Bruce's approach, both artistic and practical, as he documents his process from the beginnings of ideas to the realisation of a full-length production. Bruce provides am explanation of the range of skills he believes are required, and all that needs to be considered in the creation of dance theatre. Award-winning choreographer Mark Bruce’s aim as an artist is to tap the subconscious, our hearts; transcend our everyday lives and hopefully stumble upon some truth along the way. On Choreography and Making Dance Theatre is an invaluable artist’s guide to making innovative new dance work.

This new edition of Barker’s seminal text Arguments for a Theatre outlinesthe theory and practice of his ‘Theatre of Catastrophe’. Author of over thirty plays, Howard Barker has long been an implacable foe of the liberal British establishment, and champion of radical theatre world-wide. His best-known plays are The Castle, Scenes from an Execution and The Possibilities. All his plays are emotionally highly charged, intellectually stimulating and have no truck with the theatrical conventions of what he terms the ‘Establishment Theatre’. These fragments, essays, thoughts and poems on the nature of theatre likewise reject the constraints of ‘objective’ academic theatre criticism. Rather they explore the collision (and collusion) of intellect and artistry in the creative act. This book is more than a collection of essays: it is a cultural manifesto.

Peter Wright has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher, producer and director in the theatre as well as in television for over 70 years.In Wrights & Wrongs, Peter offers his often surprising views of today’s dance world, lessons learned – and yet to learn – from a lifetime’s experience of ballet, commercial theatre and television. Peter started his career in wartime, with the Kurt Jooss company. He has worked with such greats as Pina Bausch, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Monica mason, Karen Kain, Miyako Yoshida and Carlos Acosta - as well as today's generation of starts including Alina Cajocaru, Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova and Lauren Cuthbertson. While now regarded as part of the British ballet establishment, for many years Peter developed his career outside London, particularly in Germany with John Cranko's Stuttgart Ballet. That distance gives him a unique and unrivalled view on ballet companies. His close association with choreographers Frederick Ashton, Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, Kenneth MacMillan and David Bintley gives Peter an authoritative perspective on British ballet. Wrights and Wrongs includes black-and-white photographs from Wright's career, and as Exeunt magazine comments: 'Anyone with an interest in British ballet will find plenty to occupy them in Wright’s book… the many dramas and delights of his life in dance spring forth from the page with brio.’

This beautifully produced new Royal Ballet branded book with photographs by Bill Cooper is a collection of exclusive photographs which shines the spotlight on Swan Lake. These exquisite photos feature some of the finest dancers on stage today and give an exclusive insight into the Royal Ballet’s work.Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first score for the ballet. Given its status today as arguably the best-loved and most admired of all classical ballets, it is perhaps surprising that at its premiere in 1877 Swan Lake was poorly received. It is thanks to the 1895 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that Swan Lake has become part of not only ballet consciousness but also wider popular culture. That success is secured not only by the sublime, symphonic sweep of Tchaikovsky’s score but also by the striking choreographic contrasts between Petipa’s royal palace scenes and the lyric lakeside scenes created by Ivanov.Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. Since then there has been a succession of productions, the most recent of which was overseen by Anthony Dowell. The 2019 Season sees a new production with additional choreography by ROH Artist-in-Residence Liam Scarlett. Scarlett, while remaining faithful to the Petipa-Ivanov text, will bring fresh eyes to the staging of this classic ballet, in collaboration with his long-term designer John Macfarlane.

Peggy Ramsay (1908-1991) was the foremost play agent of her time. Her list of clients shows her to have been at the centre of British playwriting for several generations from the late 1950s on.To her remarkable array of clients, her letter writing was notorious, marked by searing candour, both a wondrous motivation and an unforgiving scrutiny to be feared.‘Peggy judged by the most exalted standards and lashed her writers when they failed to meet them. Her force of personality made her well-nigh irresistible. The letters she wrote to her writers and to producers are extraordinary documents, filled with all these qualities, and indiscreet, blasphemous and saucy to boot.’ – Simon Callow

‘Draws on a vital history of trans performance – an emerging canon that may no longer be ignored.’ – Morgan M Page, from her forewordSeven turbulent years. Five radical performances. One landmark publication.None of Us is Yet a Robot charts artist and performer Emma Frankland’s gender transition against a shifting social and political landscape, while grappling with the systematic erasure of trans history.Richly illustrated with images from the performances and designed in close collaboration with the author, the book is a new experience in itself as well as a vital document of Emma's groundbreaking work in theatre.Featuring introductions from foremost theatre practitioners, including Maddy Costa and Travis Alabanza, this collection of work is an evocative exploration of a trans experience in twenty-first century Britain.

An impoverished family are evicted from their country smallholding. They agree to go their separate ways for five years, then to meet again to reassess their fortunes. Swankiller, the thrusting eldest son, decides to try his luck in the big city. Homeless, jobless, penniless and eventually alone, he discovers the brutal undertow beneath the city's varied and beguiling surface. Steeped in the atmospere and folklore of Suffolk coastal towns, Swankiller describes a man's search for identity and happiness in a fallen world. A genuinely epic play, it was performed with a cast of fifty at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh in 1996.

This is a new edition prepared by English Touring Theatre's Artistic Director, Stephen Unwin and actor Michael Cronin, which simplifies both punctuation and stage direction, allowing directors, actors and readers to approach this most familiar of plays with a fresh and open mind.

A new children's play that opened at the UK's Hampstead Theatre in December 2003.

" Includes the plays Lenin in Love, The Teddy Bears' Picnic and The Potsdam Quartet Three gripping political plays: Lenin in Love takes up the alleged sexual troika and sadistic inclinations of one of the foremost political leaders of the 20th century. The Teddy Bears' Picnic is an ironic comedy which shows Stalin playing relaxed host and bon viveur in his country retreat. His Politburo guests are somewhat less relaxed. The Potsdam Quartet features four embittered musicians hired to entertain Stalin, Truman, Atlee and Churchill as they 'divide up the world'."

A haunting and poetic domestic drama.

An irreverent comedy set in the court of Charles II.

A gripping piece based on interviews and documented evidence of police brutality.

Based on the playwright's experiences during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

A comedy about real love for a soap star off the screen.

An Argentinian play translated, by the author of Frozen, for England's National Theatre.

A country comedy from the author of Nice Dorothy

In the last diner at the end of a world ravaged by war, a menu of love, death and revenge is served by the 'hired help'. This book presents universal tales from the forgotten war.

"The arrival of a perceptively class conscious and nuanced playwright.' - Time Out

Witty and resourceful adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic

"Hilarious, excoriating and intensely moving" London Guardian

"Provocative and very timelythis is a brave play." -Observer

"There is a mystery in every play that is written, no matter whether classical and poetic or modern and demotic, and it is the sound and the rhythm of the writing which take us there."Cicely Berry, the Royal Shakespeare Company's Voice Director, has been working alongside some of Britain's greatest actors and directors for over fifty years and is widely regarded as one of the most significant voice teachers in the world.From Word to Play draws on Cicely's extensive experience of working with theatre companies in Britain and throughout the world. It is her manifesto for a return to the words themselves: for moving away from an over-conceptualised, over-literal view of language and rediscovering the meaning in its sounds and rhythms. At the heart of this book is a concise, practical guide for directors in rehearsal, setting out work strategies that help bring out both the shape and the details within all kinds of text - whether verse or prose, seventeenth-century or contemporary.With a Foreword by Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC.

Chief Adeyemi is engulfed in burial arrangements for her recently deceased husband, an influential entrepreneur with an extended family scattered across the globe. His children arrive from abroad to hear their father's Will. As they divide his estate, events take an unatural turn and sparks begin to fly.

What if bed-hopping among university students was not just inevitable, but mandatory? A sexy radical girl, an over-sexed jock and an ancient professor of Ancient Greek discover that with the lights off, a serious attempt to end discrimination can also be a very dirty joke.

Five specially commissioned discussions of verbatim theatre - in the words of the people who make it.'What a verbatim play does is flash your research nakedly. It’s like cooking a meal but the meat is left raw.’ - Max Stafford-ClarkPlays which use people’s actual words as the basis for their dramaare not a new phenomenon. But from the stages of national theatres to fringe venues and universities everywhere, ‘verbatim’ theatre, as it has come to be known, is currently enjoying unprecedented attention and success. It has also attracted high-profile criticism and impassioned debate. In these wide-ranging essays and interviews, six leading dramatists describe their varying approaches to verbatim, examine the strengths and weaknesses of its techniques and explore the reasons for its current popularity. They discuss frankly the unique opportunities and ethical dilemmas that arise when portraying real people on stage, and consider some of the criticisms levelled at this controversial documentary form.'The intention is always to arrive at the truth.' - Nicolas Kent

Eduardo Houth is the author's alter-ego. Writing of himself in the third person and in the historic tense, the author achieves a fluency and an uncommon measure of objectivity. The result is an exercise in self-description, partisan but without the shrill self-justification so common in authentic autobiography.