Contemporary Dramatists
2 total works
HighTide Plays: 1
by Beth Steel, Harry Melling, Dan Lefranc, and Anders Lustgarten
Published 7 September 2016
HighTide Theatre Festival was founded in 2006 and has since become one of the most prolific homes of new writing. It has been described by the Telegraph as "one of the little gems of the artistic calendar in Britain" and by the Daily Mail as "famous for championing emerging playwrights and contemporary theatre".
2016 marks ten years of HighTide, during which time numerous emerging playwrights and new plays have shot to prominence.
This anniversary volume brings together four of the key plays that have come out of HighTide Theatre Festival's programme during this time:
Ditch by Beth Steel is a clear-eyed look at how we might behave when the conveniences of our civilisation are taken away, and a frightening vision of a future that could all too easily be ours.
peddling by Harry Melling is a poetic monologue about a young homeless man, which confronts whether it's a good thing to turn a blind eye and let people get on with their lives, or whether that's exactly how people fall through the cracks.
The Big Meal by American writer Dan LeFranc is a deeply comic and touching drama that looks at love, marriage, raising children and the general onslaught of life.
Lampedusa by Anders Lustgarten follows the day-to-day life of those whose job it is to enforce our harsh new rules on immigration: an Italian coastguard and a payday lender from Leeds.
All now established in their own right, these four plays demonstrate HighTide's extraordinary role in identifying and nurturing writers tackling some of the biggest issues of today.
The volume was published to coincide with HighTide's 10th annual festival in September 2016 and features an introduction by HighTide Artistic Director, Steven Atkinson.
2016 marks ten years of HighTide, during which time numerous emerging playwrights and new plays have shot to prominence.
This anniversary volume brings together four of the key plays that have come out of HighTide Theatre Festival's programme during this time:
Ditch by Beth Steel is a clear-eyed look at how we might behave when the conveniences of our civilisation are taken away, and a frightening vision of a future that could all too easily be ours.
peddling by Harry Melling is a poetic monologue about a young homeless man, which confronts whether it's a good thing to turn a blind eye and let people get on with their lives, or whether that's exactly how people fall through the cracks.
The Big Meal by American writer Dan LeFranc is a deeply comic and touching drama that looks at love, marriage, raising children and the general onslaught of life.
Lampedusa by Anders Lustgarten follows the day-to-day life of those whose job it is to enforce our harsh new rules on immigration: an Italian coastguard and a payday lender from Leeds.
All now established in their own right, these four plays demonstrate HighTide's extraordinary role in identifying and nurturing writers tackling some of the biggest issues of today.
The volume was published to coincide with HighTide's 10th annual festival in September 2016 and features an introduction by HighTide Artistic Director, Steven Atkinson.
The first play collection from Anders Lustgarten, "perhaps Britain's most visible and visibly engaged political playwright" (Time Out London), containing plays from the start of his career up to 2015 with the most recent play in the collection, Shrapnel, and one previously unpublished play. The volume includes an introduction by the playwright.
A Day at the Racists (2010, Finborough Theatre) is a devastatingly timely examination of the rise of the BNP in London, which attempts to understand why people might be drawn to the BNP and diagnoses the deeper cause of that attraction: the political abandonment and betrayal of the working class by New Labour.
If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep (Royal Court Theatre, 2013) offers an exploration of our current government's politics of austerity and a look at possible alternatives.
Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre, 2013) unpicks the political complexities of Zimbabwe through the devastating personal journeys of two very different people, both scarred by one of Africa's most notorious dictatorships.
Shrapnel (Arcola Theatre, 2015) takes as its subject The Roboski massacre is one of the most controversial episodes in the 'war on terror'. Piecing together the fragments of the tragedy, Anders Lustgarten's startling new play dares to ask what a massacre is made of.
Kingmakers (Salisbury Playhouse, 2015) imagines ten years after the signing of Magna Carta when the barons' takeover isn't quite going to plan. With the peasants grumbling about enormous castles and broken promises, the threat of rebellion hangs in the air. This play has not previously been published.
The Insurgents (Finborough Theatre, 2007) is Anders Lustgarten's look at contemporary London and its class divide. Private equity has turned the city into a high-fenced playground for a tax-exempt, big business elite. This play has not previously been published.
A Day at the Racists (2010, Finborough Theatre) is a devastatingly timely examination of the rise of the BNP in London, which attempts to understand why people might be drawn to the BNP and diagnoses the deeper cause of that attraction: the political abandonment and betrayal of the working class by New Labour.
If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep (Royal Court Theatre, 2013) offers an exploration of our current government's politics of austerity and a look at possible alternatives.
Black Jesus (Finborough Theatre, 2013) unpicks the political complexities of Zimbabwe through the devastating personal journeys of two very different people, both scarred by one of Africa's most notorious dictatorships.
Shrapnel (Arcola Theatre, 2015) takes as its subject The Roboski massacre is one of the most controversial episodes in the 'war on terror'. Piecing together the fragments of the tragedy, Anders Lustgarten's startling new play dares to ask what a massacre is made of.
Kingmakers (Salisbury Playhouse, 2015) imagines ten years after the signing of Magna Carta when the barons' takeover isn't quite going to plan. With the peasants grumbling about enormous castles and broken promises, the threat of rebellion hangs in the air. This play has not previously been published.
The Insurgents (Finborough Theatre, 2007) is Anders Lustgarten's look at contemporary London and its class divide. Private equity has turned the city into a high-fenced playground for a tax-exempt, big business elite. This play has not previously been published.