Search results for ""author simon stephens""

First collection from the 2004 Pearson Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens Plays: 1 brings together four of the early plays from the winner of the 2002 Pearson Best New Play Award. Since Bluebird in 1998, Stephens has gained recognition for humane plays that display a sharp observation and compassionate response to the lives of ordinary people in urban locations. Bluebird: Cabbie Jimmy overhears the weird, wonderful and violent tales of his passengers he confronts his past and his estranged wife. 'A rough gem of a play' - The Times Christmas: One night in an East end pub, four men confront their past and brace themselves for an uncertain future. 'Beautifully crafted' - What's On Herons: The disturbing story of one teenager on a violent estate in London, which saw Stephens nominated for an Olivier Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2001. Port: One woman's struggle to cope with and finally escape her life in Stockport. (Winner of Pearson Award for Best New Play.) 'A brilliant writer of immense imagination with an acute observation of people's foibles' - Independent

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Spanning some 350 years, the Thomson Collection of historic ship models contains examples of exquisite workmanship and some of the masterpieces of the genre. Pride of the collection are the rare British dockyard models made to scale for affluent 18th-century clients closely associated with the Navy. A large number of models– made from wood and bone, with rigging of human hair– were made by some of the 120,000 French and other prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. The diverse collection also includes tugs, dredgers, trawlers, cargo vessels, passenger steamers, private yachts, corvettes, battleships, cruisers, torpedo boat destroyers and two aircraft carriers. The author (curator at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich) considers the rich history and the artistry of model shipbuilding. New photography captures the incredible workmanship – the carving, casting, gilding and stitching – that such model-making demands.

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'Everything human beings do finishes up bad in the end. Everything good human beings ever make is built on something monstrous. Nothing lasts. We certainly won't...' Based on his experience as a teacher, Stephens describes his play as 'The History Boys on crack'. It explores the underlying tensions and potential violence in a group of affluent, articulate seventeen year old students. Contemporary and unnerving, with elements of The Catcher in the Rye, Punk Rock follows the story of seven sixth-formers as they face up to the pressures of teenage life, while preparing for their mock A-level exams and trying to get into Oxbridge. They are a group of educated, intelligent and aspirational young people but step-by-step, the dislocation, disjunction and latent violence simmering under the surface of prosperity is revealed.

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"Stephens writes dramas set in uncaring, uncompromising worlds, whose characters speak in a language at once naturalistic and yet artificially pared-down and whose uncertain attempts to assert their own identities sometimes lead to gratuitous and brutal acts of violence." - Financial Times A fifth collection of plays by one of Britain's most prolific contemporary playwrights, Simon Stephens, charting his work from 2011-2016, ranging from London's Royal Court Theatre, Manchester's Royal Exchange and Broadway. Wastwater (2011) "Metaphoric, allusive, and thoroughly disturbing in its evocation of suspicion and uncertainty, Wastwater is a thought-provoking play whose quiet intensity stays with you for days — its effect is like that of a ugly stone dropped into a pool, which results in constant ripples of dirty water lapping at your subconscious" (Aleks Sierz) Birdland (2014) "Mega-fame and limitless cash can turn a man into a monster, and Simon Stephens's new play excellently evokes its hero's spiritually shrunken world" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Blindsided (2014) “the dialogue has a rare quality of moment-by-moment intensity" (Telegraph) Song From Far Away (2015) "a meditative monologue – a searching study of impotently self-aware emotional insufficiency" (Independent) Heisenberg (2016) "Mr. Stephens ... is an uncannily subtle dramatist who never wears his depths on the surface ... he probes clichés until they fall apart, before reassembling them into solid but transformed shapes, reminding us why such clichés have become enduring elements of our collective mythology." (Ben Brantley, New York Times)

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I have kind of become invisible. Nobody looks at me. Not like they used to. You reach an age. Like my age and people stop looking at you. They stop checking you out. In Greenwich Village a generation or so ago, the city is alive. Joni Mitchell sings, friends and lovers come and go, and the regulars change at the White Horse Tavern. As 50 years pass, one woman’s life is revealed in all its complexity, mystery and possibility in this enthralling world premiere about mothers and daughters, beginnings and endings in New York City. Simon Stephens’s new play, commissioned by MTC, premiered off-Broadway in November 2021 starring Blair Brown, Edie Falco and Marin Ireland.

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I came to New York when I was seventeen. I had all these ideas about how my life was gonna turn out. When I think about those ideas now, I don’t know if I should laugh or shit. In a back street in the West Village, Jacob Towney tries to save the restaurant that has been his home for longer than he can remember and release his daughter to the life he dreams she can have. His place is a home for the odd ghosts of the village. It is out of place and out of time and running out of luck. This edition was published to coincide with the off-Broadway premiere at New York’s Atlantic Theater, in February 2023.

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Winner of Best Play Revival at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2024 Can you imagine if it was possible to completely change the way you live your life? To look at your life and ask yourself what you would do if it died. If your old life died. It ended. And then take what’s left of your real life and live it properly. How can I do that, Michael? Where do I start? Chekhov’s classic tale of love, art, sex, and attempted murder in a fresh adaptation by Simon Stephens, written to be performed by a solo actor. Comedic and tragic, Chekhov’s examination of our shared humanity – our hopes, dreams, regrets – is thrust into sharp focus in Vanya. This fresh adaptation explores the kaleidoscope of human emotions, harnessing the power of the intimate bond between actor and audience to delve deeper into the human psyche. This edition was published to coincide with the West End premiere starring Andrew Scott in September 2023.

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"Noel Coward's glittering gem" - The Times Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, recently divorced from one another after a five-year marriage, coincidentally arrive at the same French hotel... where they are both honeymooning with their respective new spouses. Jarred by this encounter, Elyot and Amanda realise that they still very much horrified and fascinated by the other. Frequently performed and revived in the West End, Private Lives is comedy of manners that remains one of Coward's most popular plays. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Simon Stephens.

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My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507. Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down. Simon Stephens's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling, award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time offers a richly theatrical exploration of this touching and bleakly humorous tale. This edition contains some strong language and may not be suitable for all school curricula. Other editions are available.

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The wind gathers, rising up suddenly. Two men on a fragile boat, a trip to sea – a few drinks, a bite to eat – when one of them decides to push on to the open ocean. Suddenly there they are: among the distant islands, the threatening fog and gathering swell of the sea, bound together on an odyssey into the unknown. Jon Fosse’s work includes novels, poetry, essays and books for children. He is one of the most produced playwrights in Europe and his plays have been translated into forty languages. Oberon Books publishes Nightsongs and The Girl on the Sofa, and his other plays in the following collections: Plays One, Plays Two, Plays Three, Plays Four and Plays Five. Plays Six is forthcoming in 2012. Oberon Books also publishes The Luminous Darkness: The Theatre of Jon Fosse by Leif Zern (translated by Ann Henning-Jocelyn).

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Written specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. In Simon Stephens's multi-award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on Mark Haddon's novel, Christopher's investigation into the death of the neighbour's dog tears his world apart and confronts him with the struggle to survive when everything feels foreign. In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text itself, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well as background information on the playwright. The Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions never lose sight of their readership, and offer students the confidence to engage with the material, explore their own interpretations, and improve their understanding of the works.

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'I think I'm a human being before anything else. I don't care what other people say. I don't care what people write in books. I need to think for myself.' Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered in 1879 in Copenhagen, the second in a series of realist plays by Ibsen, and immediately provoked controversy with its apparently feminist message and exposure of the hypocrisy of Victorian middle-class marriage. In Ibsen's play, Nora Helmer has secretly (and deceptively) borrowed a large sum of money to pay for her husband, Torvald, to recover from illness on a sabbatical in Italy. Torvald's perception of Nora is of a silly, naive spendthrift, so it is only when the truth begins to emerge, and Torvald appreciates the initiative behind his wife, that unmendable cracks appear in their marriage. This compelling new version of Ibsen's masterpiece by playwright Simon Stephens premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, on 29 June 2012. It was updated with minor changes in 2013.

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This schools' edition of Mark Haddon's multi-award-winning novel adapted for the stage of the National Theatre by Simon Stephens is perfect for Key Stages 3 and 4. Featuring the play script from the Modern Plays edition but with the language adjusted for school use*, this edition includes a wealth of classroom activities for the English and drama classrooms. Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down. This educational edition in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Building on a decade of highly effective work and publications endorsed by national organisations and supported by teachers and consultants across Britain, each book in the series: > meets the requirements at KS3 and GCSE > features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis > places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities > will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3 > will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources. Simon Stephens's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling, award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time offers a richly theatrical exploration of this touching and bleakly humorous tale. * The instances of stronger language have been tempered in this edition specifically for school use. Teachers may still wish to satisfy themselves that it is suited to the age of their pupils.

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From about the middle of the seventeenth century the Navy's administrators began to commission models of their ships that were accurately detailed and, for the first time, systematically to scale. These developed a recognised style, which included features like the unplanked lower hull with a simplified pattern of framing that emphasised the shape of the underwater body. Exquisitely crafted, these were always rare and highly prized objects-indeed, Samuel Pepys expressed a profound desire to own one-and today they are widely regarded as the acme of the ship modeller's art. Today examples form the highlights of collections across the world, valued both as art objects and as potential historical evidence on matters of ship design. However, it was only recently that researchers began to investigate the circumstances of their construction, their function, and the identities of those who made them. This book, by two curators who have worked on the world's largest collection of these models at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, summarises the current state of knowledge, outlines important discoveries, and applies this new-found understanding to many of the finest models in the collection. As befits its subject, _Navy Board Ship Models_ is visually striking, with numerous colour photographs that make it as attractive as it is informative to anyone with an interest in modelmaking or historic ships.

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