Andrew Muir

Examines the similarities in the work of Bob Dylan and William Shakespeare.

The True Performing of It

"The Last Mistress" is the story of Richard Brown, who leaves an English boarding school at the end of World War II to find his way in the world. Believing that he might have a vocation to take Holy Orders, he decided to travel to Jerusalem and then onto Rome. A brief stay in Paris opens a new world to him. On arrival in Palestine, he gets caught up in the war between Jews and Arabs and is conscripted into the Palestine Police. Posted on the border between Palestine and Lebanon, he gets the opportunity to visit Beirut and enjoy its pleasures before being demobilized and sent back to London. --- His journey through life does not stop there. Graduating from Imperial College, London University, he enters the business world, and as a high-flying investment banker he decides that the sky's the limit. He travels around the world, continuing with his lighthearted erotic romp through life before a tragic event brings him back to earth and allows him to find his true vocation. --- Though by no means an autobiography, much of the background, especially the events in Palestine, are factual and well authenticated. However, as with his previous novels, the author draws on his personal experiences and titillates us with descriptions of gastronomic delights and seductive and sensual pleasures of love.

The Last Mistress

This is a fascinating exploration of the influence of Shakespeare within Cambridge, both through its university and annual festival.

A Celebration of the Shakespeare Festival

Shakespeare in Cambridge

They say the weirdest things happen when you are on acid... I was with my philosopher friend and her ambitious biochemist brother when I first took LSD. As Danny and Bugs vented their frustration at how out of touch the world had become, I realised reality really was stranger than fiction. My second acid trip was at an illegal rave by the mysterious woods near my home. I saw orbs pulsate in the sky above the Dead Tree and visitors from places I didn’t understand were welcomed into our world. And on my final trip, as I lay wrecked and paranoid, cowering inside a verge by a road, I watched in horror as the world began to end. Those Afraid of the Light is a tale of the end of the world; viewed through the eyes of a dropout and through the scientific and theological perspectives of his best friend Danny.

Those Afraid of the Light

When Rome fell in 473AD, Constantinople became the capital of the remnants of the Roman Empire. Virtually every province west of Greece had fallen to the Goths or barbarians and in north Africa to the Visigoths. This historical novel tells the story of Theodora, one time actress or vedette who became the wife of Flavius Justinian, four years before he became Emperor Justinian. -- Theodora so impressed Justinian with her political expertise that he took the unprecedented step of allowing her to rule by his side as Empress. Together they began the task of restoring the Roman Empire to its former glory, reclaiming lands lost fifty years earlier. During the infamous Nikka riots, when Justinian was preparing to flee for his life, Theodora showed her courage, leadership and determination when she vowed to stay. She inspired her entourage with a rousing speech and commanded the young General Belisarius to attack and eliminate the mob which was occupying the stadium, which he did with devastating efficiency. Thereafter, Justinian devoted himself to codifying the law and rebuilding the city and its palaces and churches which had been destroyed by the riots, leaving Theodora and Belisarius to reconquer the lands which had made up the Roman Empire. -- This is the story of the battles for the lost lands from Libya to Italy and the relationship which developed between the Empress and the General as they struggled together to resurrect the glory that had been the greatest empire in the world.

Theodora the Justinian Wars

Weighed down by prohibitive maintenance costs of their 43 cathedrals and beset by declining revenues from a dwindling membership, the Church of England is close to bankruptcy. With no more properties to sell and no shareholders to bail them out, the Archbishop of Canterbury is at his wit's end. The Catholic Church also has its problems - notably on an increasing number of cases of child molestation by their priests dominating the Press. But it has money - and especially in England, where immigrants from Catholic countries are swelling their congregations and consequently their coffers. In a gesture of apparent ecumenical generosity, Pope Paul offers to absorb the Anglican Church's current deficit with a handsome gift of 120 million pounds... --- The protagonists of "The Mission" are Sister Ursula Green and Father Richard Brown SJ who are on a clandestine mission to bring about fundamental changes to the Church of Rome that will allow women to be ordained. Working from the inside, using Father Brown's financial skills and Sister Ursula's feminine wiles, they come up with a unique approach that receives the Pope's blessing. Other characters who play a leading part in the development of the plot are Don Guido Leone, the Mafia boss in Sicily who has a hidden secret, John Reilly, the defrocked Catholic Archbishop of Westminster who marries a blond teenager, a Benedictine monk who shoots himself to avoid exposure, a depressed Anglican Archbishop who takes an overdose of sleeping tablets to kill his pain, a priest who acknowledges that he is the father of three children, and a professional dominatrix who uses her psychological skills to good effect. The action oscillates between Lambeth Palace, the Vatican, Rome, Salisbury and Palermo.

The Mission

Vivienne Franzmann

Alison Carr

Hattie Naylor

Mojisola Adebayo

Chris Bush

John Donnelly

Frances Poet

Silva Semerciyan

Chris Thompson

National Theatre Connections is an annual festival which brings new plays for young people to schools and youth theatres across the UK and Ireland. Commissioning exciting work from leading playwrights, the festival exposes actors aged 13-19 to the world of professional theatre-making, giving them full control of a theatrical production - from costume and set design to stage management and marketing campaigns. NT Connections have published over 150 original plays and regularly works with 500 theatre companies and 10,000 young people each year. This anthology brings together 9 new plays by some of the UK's most prolific and current writers and artists alongside notes on each of the texts exploring performance for schools and youth groups. Wind / Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola Adebayo This is a play about the British Isles, its past and its present. Set in a senior common room, in a prominent university, a group of 1st year undergraduates are troubled, not by the weight of their workload, but by a 'noisy' ghost. So they do what any group self-respecting and intelligent university students would do in such a situation – they get out the Ouija Board to confront their spiritual irritant and lay them to rest – only to be confronted by the full weight of Britain's colonial past – in all its gory glory. Fusing naturalism, with physical theatre, spoken-word, absurdism, poetry and direct address – this is event-theatre that whips along with the grace, pace and hypnotic magnetism of a hurricane. Tuesday by Alison Carr Tuesday is light, playful and nuanced in tone. And a little bit sci-fi. The play centres on an ordinary Tuesday that suddenly turns very weird indeed when a tear rips across the sky over the school yard. The play touches on themes of friendship, sibling love, family, identity, grief, bullying, loneliness and responsibility. And in the process we might just learn something about ourselves as well as some astronomical theories of the multiverse! A series of public apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories) by John Donnelly This satirical play is heightened in its naturalism, in its seriousness, in its parody and piercing in its interrogation of how our attempts to define ourselves in public are shaped by the fear of saying the wrong thing. Presented quite literally as a series of public apologies this play is spacious, flexible and welcoming of inventive and imaginative interpretation as each iteration spirals inevitably to its absurdist core. This is a play on words, on convention, on manners, on institutions, on order, online and on point. THE IT by Vivienne Franzmann THE IT is a play about a teenage girl who has something growing inside her. She doesn't know what it is, but she knows it's not a baby. It expands in her body. It starts in her stomach, but quickly outgrows that, until eventually ittakes over the entirety of her insides. It has claws. She feels them. Presented in the style of a direct to camera documentary, this is a darkly comic state of the nation play exploring adolescent mental health and the rage within, written very specifically for today. The Marxist in Heaven by Hattie Naylor The Marxist in Heaven is a play that does exactly what its title page says it's going to do. The eponymous protagonist 'wakes up' in paradise and once they get over the shock of this fundamental contradiction of everything they believe in.....they get straight back to work....and continue their lifelong struggle for equality and fairness for all....even in death. Funny, playful, provocative, pertinent and jam-packed with discourse, disputes, deities and disco dancing by the bucketful, this upbeat buoyant allegory shines its holy light on globalization and asks the salient questions – who are we and what are we doing to ourselves?.....and what conditioner do you use on your hair? Look Up by Andrew Muir Look Up plunges us into a world free from adult intervention, supervision and protection. It's about seeking the truth for yourself and finding the space to find and be yourself. Nine young people are creating new rules for what they hope will be a new and brighter future full of hope in a world in which they can trust again. Each one of them is unique, original and defiantly individual, break into an abandoned building and set about claiming the space, because that is what they do. They have rituals, they have rules, together they are a tribe, they have faith in themselves....and nothing and no one else. They are the future, unless the real world catches up with them and then all they can hope for is that they don't crash and burn like the adults they ran away from in the first place. Crusaders by Frances Poet A group of teens gather to take their French exam but none of them will step into the exam hall. Because Kyle has had a vision and he'll use anything, even miracles, to ensure his classmates accompany him. Together they have just seven days to save themselves, save the world and be the future. And Kyle is not the only one who has had the dream. All across the globe, from Azerbaijan to Zambia, children are dreaming and urging their peers to follow them to the promised land. Who will follow? Who will lead? Who will make it? Witches Can't Be Burned by Silva Semerciyan St. Paul's have won the schools Playfest competition, three years in a row, by selecting recognised classics from the canon and producing them at an exceptionally high level, it's a tried and trusted formula. With straight A's student and drama freak, Anuka cast as Abigail Williams in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the school seem to be well on course for another triumph, which would be a record. However, as rehearsals gain momentum, Anuka has an epiphany. An experience resulting in her asking searching questions surrounding the text, the depiction and perception of female characters, the meaning of loyalty, and the values and traditions underpinning the very foundations of the school. Thus, the scene is set for a confrontation of epic proportions as Anuka seeks to break with tradition, before tradition breaks her and all young women like her and reality begins to take on the ominous hue of Miller's fictionalized Salem. Dungeness by Chris Thompson . In a remote part of the UK, where nothing ever happens, a group of teenagers share a safe house for LGBT+ young people. While their shared home welcomes difference, it can be tricky for self-appointed group leader Birdie to keep the peace. The group must decide how they want to commemorate an attack that happened to LGBT+ people, in a country far away. How do you take to the streets and protest if you're not ready to tell the world who you are? If you're invisible, does your voice still count? A play about love, commemoration and protest.

Plays for Young People

National Theatre Connections 2020

The highlights and hard times of 15 years on tour with rock's ultimate icon, Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan and the Never Ending Tour

The Razor's Edge

What Dylan fans call 'The Never Ending Tour' celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 7th 2013. Its time span already represents almost half of Dylan's entire career and totals over 2,500 shows. Highly respected Dylan expert Andrew Muir documents the ups and downs of this unprecedented trek. Muir analyses and assesses Dylan's performances over the years, with special focus on many memorable shows. One More Night traces what it all means both in terms of Dylan's artistic career and in the lives of the dedicated Dylan followers who collect recordings of every show and regularly cross the globe to catch up with the latest leg. Muir also includes the funny and affecting story of his own unforgettable meeting with Dylan. One More Night is part rock criticism, part cultural analysis, part scrutiny of fandom and paints a telling portrait of the Never Ending Tour and its importance in Dylan's career.

Andrew Muir

Books

Your next favorite book is out there