Oberon Modern Playwrights
3 total works
Includes the plays Incarcerator, Five Visions of the Faithful, Silence and Violence, The Last Days of Desire, The Biggleswades.
With an Introduction by David Pownall, and an essay by Peter Craze
A volume of language-rich, theatrically-ambitious tragedies. Betts’ hugely popular verse drama Incarcerator (White Bear and BAC) was a Time Out Critics' Choice, while his Five Visions of the Faithful (White Bear), is a series of uncompromising narratives exploring freedom, faith, death and desire. In Silence and Violence the wife of a war hero seduces a much-reviled sculptor as Betts examines the artist’s quest for self-expression in a Philistine state. Betts’ first radio play, The Last Days of Desire, was commissioned by the BBC.
With an Introduction by David Pownall, and an essay by Peter Craze
A volume of language-rich, theatrically-ambitious tragedies. Betts’ hugely popular verse drama Incarcerator (White Bear and BAC) was a Time Out Critics' Choice, while his Five Visions of the Faithful (White Bear), is a series of uncompromising narratives exploring freedom, faith, death and desire. In Silence and Violence the wife of a war hero seduces a much-reviled sculptor as Betts examines the artist’s quest for self-expression in a Philistine state. Betts’ first radio play, The Last Days of Desire, was commissioned by the BBC.
Includes the plays The Optimist, The Swing of Things and The Company Man
In this third volume of his collected plays Torben Betts portrays a world of floundering, sub-alpha males and suicidally miserable women, of bullying parents, torturous childhoods and failing relationships, characters all baffled by the most basic question: how do we live good lives and be happy in the modern world?
Set on Guy Fawke's Night The Optimist (2002) concerns a Government Defence Minister who must face up to the consequences of the choices he has made, both professionally and personally. The Swing of Things (2005) hilariously examines a world where status anxiety and affluenza seem to have corrupted the soul of a whole generation. In The Company Man (2006) a dying woman's last night is marred by the conflict between her accomplished yet emotionally damaged husband and their deeply troubled son.
In this third volume of his collected plays Torben Betts portrays a world of floundering, sub-alpha males and suicidally miserable women, of bullying parents, torturous childhoods and failing relationships, characters all baffled by the most basic question: how do we live good lives and be happy in the modern world?
Set on Guy Fawke's Night The Optimist (2002) concerns a Government Defence Minister who must face up to the consequences of the choices he has made, both professionally and personally. The Swing of Things (2005) hilariously examines a world where status anxiety and affluenza seem to have corrupted the soul of a whole generation. In The Company Man (2006) a dying woman's last night is marred by the conflict between her accomplished yet emotionally damaged husband and their deeply troubled son.
Three pitch-black comedies from an exciting new writer: A Listening Heaven, Mummies and Daddies and Clockwatching
A Listening Heaven, which focuses on one family’s painful inability to grieve for a dead son, was first produced in 1999 to critical acclaim at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where Betts was the resident dramatist.
Mummies and Daddies, developed at the RNT Studio, brutally yet hilariously lays bare the soullessness of consumerism.
In Clockwatching, produced at both the SJT and the Orange Tree Theatre in 2001, a despotic man descends into helplessness when his servile wife falls seriously ill.
With an introduction by Connal Orton.
A Listening Heaven, which focuses on one family’s painful inability to grieve for a dead son, was first produced in 1999 to critical acclaim at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where Betts was the resident dramatist.
Mummies and Daddies, developed at the RNT Studio, brutally yet hilariously lays bare the soullessness of consumerism.
In Clockwatching, produced at both the SJT and the Orange Tree Theatre in 2001, a despotic man descends into helplessness when his servile wife falls seriously ill.
With an introduction by Connal Orton.