Carl Grose

Kneehigh Theatre

Anna Maria Murphy

This collection contains the performance texts of four of their most recent and highly acclaimed shows. Contains various forewords which offer unique insight into Kneehigh’s approach to making theatre, revealing how a script can emerge from a collaborative devising process -- Provided by the publisher.

Tristan & Yseult; The Bacchae; The Wooden Frock; The Red Shoes

Kneehigh Anthology: Volume 1

Nell Leyshon

Douglas Maxwell

Noel Clarke

James Graham

Alia Bano

Katori Hall

Molly Davies

Sam Adamson

Helen Blakeman

This brilliant new collection of ten plays for young people will prove indispensable to schools, colleges and youth theatre groups. Specially commissioned by the National Theatre for the Connections Festival 2011 involving 200 schools and youth theatre groups across the UK and Ireland, each play is accompanied by production notes and exercises. The Pied Piper re-imagined, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, witches in seventeenth century Norfolk, a giant baby on the rampage, an extraordinary day in an ordinary school are just some of subjects covered in the thrilling and varied new plays created by talented writers for young actors to perform in National Theatre Connections 2011. The plays in this anthology offer a huge variety of stories and styles to ignite the imagination of young casts and creative teams. Themes are both teenage and universal - ambition, dashed hopes, fear and confidence, loyalty and betrayal. These new plays embrace a huge range for their inspiration: they plunder classics and imagine the future.

Plays for Young People: Frank & Ferdinand; Gap; Cloud Busting; Those Legs; Shooting Truth; Bassett; Gargantua; Children of Killers; The Beauty Manifesto; Too Fast

National Theatre Connections 2011

Times are tough for the family in the woodThey'd eat like kings if only they couldBut hunger gnaws - famine stalks the landSomething quite wicked has the upper hand!Poor mother and father must do "what is best"...And Hansel and Gretel will be put to the test!Armed with their very last slice of breadWill they eat to surviveOr ........leave....................a..........................trail...................................home..............................................instead? The school edition of Carl Grose and Kneehigh Theatre Company's acclaimed version of Hansel & Gretel, which includes notes for teachers and those studying the play for GCSE English, as written by Anthony Banks.

School Edition

Hansel and Gretel

Simon Armitage

Jackie Kay

Patrick Marber

Bryony Lavery

Stacey Gregg

Lucinda Coxon

Davey Anderson

Snoo Wilson

Mark Ravenhill

Frantic assembly

Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays. Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department over the years, with the young performer in mind. In 2016, these plays were then performed by approximately 500 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional partner regional theatres at which the works were showcased. The anthology contains all 12 of the play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups. This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt; Simon Armitage; Jackie Kay; Patrick Marber; Mark Ravenhill; Bryony Lavery & Frantic Assembly; Davey Anderson; James Graham; Katori Hall; Carl Grose; Stacey Gregg; and Lucinda Coxon.

Blackout; Eclipse; What Are They Like?; Bassett; I'm Spilling My Heart Out Here; Gargantua; Children of Killers; Take Away; It Snows; The Musicians; Citizenship; Bedbug

Connections 500

A strange new act has arrived at Trafalgar Fair's freakshow. Who is Grinpayne and how did he get his hideous smile? With the help of an old puppeteer, his pet wolf and a blind girl, Grinpayne's tale is told. When word spreads across the capital, everything changes. Desperate to know the terrible secrets of his mysterious past, Grinpayne leaves his true love behind and embarks on a journey into an even crueller world - the aristocracy. The Grinning Man is a fairy tale love story streaked with pitch-black humour, lashings of Gothic horror and swashbuckling adventure. It opened at Bristol Old Vic in 2016 to great acclaim and transferred to the West End's Trafalgar Studios in 2017 where it achieved cult status and rave reviews. "Defies theatrical convention by keeping its hand on its heart and its tongue in its cheek." - The Guardian "Blackly comic brilliance." - The Telegraph "The best British score in years" - WhatsOnStage

The Grinning Man

1903. In the back streets of Montmartre, the Theatre du Grand Guignol opens its doors to an unsuspecting public. The plays performed, rife with madness and murder, are sold out every night. A psychiatrist obsessed with the playwright’s gruesome dramas ingratiates his way into the company. But when he starts to unpick the author’s mind, the boundaries between theatre and truth begin to blur... Delighting in this lost theatrical form, Carl Grose’s demented new play works fast and loose with convention. A black comedy, a psychological thriller and an unrepentant splatterfest, Grand Guignol is a head-spinning, genre-bending phantasmagoria guaranteed to keep you guessing (and wincing) to the very last horror show...

Grand Guignol

William Shakespeare

Production by vibrant, distinctive and award-winning theatre company, Kneehigh.

Cymbeline

Kneehigh now finds itself celebrated as one of the UK's most exciting theatre companies. This collection contains the performance texts of four of their highly acclaimed shows: Tristan & Yseult, The Bacchae, The Wooden Frock and The Red Shoes. With forewords from Emma Rice, Tom Morris, Anna Maria Murphy and Carl Grose, it offers a unique insight into Kneehigh's approach to making theatre, revealing how ascript can emerge from a collaborative devising process.

Kneehigh Theatre Company presents Dead Dog in a Suitcase written by Carl Grose. What the HELL is the world coming to? Based on The Beggar's Opera, John Gay's classic musical satire, Dead Dog in a suitcase (and other love songs) is busting with wit, wonder and weirdness. An extraordinary Kneehigh cast of actor-musicians shoot, hoot and shimmy their way through this twisted morality tale of our times...by turns SHOCKING, HILARIOUS, HEARTFELT and ABSURD! Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and they plan to escape to a better world – but they aren't going anywhere. Not if pickled pilchard, hair gel and concrete tycoon Les Peachum and his wife have anything to do with it. See, they aren't happy with their daughter marrying Macheath. Not one bit. Before the day is out Macheath will face the hangman's noose and much more besides. All the while, the dogs are howling, the pier is creaking, the babes are crying, the concrete is cracking and the truth won't stay hidden for much longer... This is now, this is it The world is poor and man's a shit The game is rigged, nothing's truer Death's a joke and life a sewer!

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs)

Times are tough for the family in the wood. They'd eat like kings if only they could.But hunger gnaws - famine stalks the land. Something quite wicked has the upper hand!Poor mother and father must do "what is best"... And Hansel and Gretel will be put to the test! Armed with their very last slice of bread. Will they eat to survive or ........leave a.................trail...................................home..................................................instead? Hansel & Gretel was first performed on the 4th December 2009 at Bristol Old Vic and was a co-production between Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic. Carl Grose and Kneehigh put their own unique spin on the classic fairytale.

Carl Grose

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