Are you angry with policing or Polyneices? Them, we can change. He, is dead. Speak to Creon... Ask him to release Polyneices... we will bury him quietly, peacefully, together. A torn family. A hostile state. One heroic brother. One misguided son. One conflicted sister, and the second is on the run. This is a blistering retelling of Sophocles' epic story from the writer of Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams. Antigone first premiered at Regent Park's Open Air Theatre in September 2022. This revised edition was published in June 2023.
A torn family. A hostile state. One heroic brother. One misguided son. One conflicted sister, and the second is on the run. This is a blistering retelling of Sophocles' epic story from the writer of Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams. This edition was published to coincide with the production at Regent Park's Open Air Theatre in September 2022.
Barber Shop Chronicles is a generously funny, heart-warming and insightful new play set in five African cities, Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra, and in London. Inspired in part by the story of a Leeds barber, the play invites the audience into a unique environment where the banter may be barbed, but the truth always telling. The barbers of these tales are sages, role models and father figures who keep the men together and the stories alive. Inua Ellams's celebrated play was first produced by the National Theatre, Fuel and Leeds Playhouse in 2017.
Barber Shop Chronicles is a generously funny, heart-warming and insightful new play set in five African cities, Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra, and in London. Inspired in part by the story of a Leeds barber, the play invites the audience into a unique environment where the banter may be barbed, but the truth always telling. The barbers of these tales are sages, role models and father figures who keep the men together and the stories alive.
Newsroom, political platform, local hot spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Barber Shop Chronicles, which was partly inspired by verbatim recordings, is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day. It was first produced by the National Theatre, Fuel and Leeds Playhouse in 2017 and is here publishedas a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje.
Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to Nigeria in this bold new adaptation. Owerri, 1967, on the brink of the Biafran Civil War. Lolo, Nne Chukwu and Udo are grieving the loss of their father. Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos. Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos. Following his smash-hit Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams returns to the National Theatre with this heartbreaking retelling of Chekhov's classic play.
It’s a simple idea, really. 1. Wear a uniform; 2. Protect who you love, what you care about; 3. Let nothing get in your way. Someone mugged Bruce’s mum and he is not having it. The shock is still visible in her trembling fingers, rippling out across the calm waters of their lives. He grabs his hoodie, his uniform, his cape and goes out to find the culprit. Smithy wants everyone to stay inside, Uhuru wants everyone out. Tanya thinks it’s boyish fun and games until, very suddenly, it isn’t. Inua Ellams's play questions the boundaries between our right to self-defense and taking the law into our own hands. Told with five roles spanning from young people to adults, it deals with themes that young people face today: the role of boundaries and what happens when someone 'crosses the line'; fear and the use of self-defense; and examining different perspectives on a situation. Originally commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project Cape premiered at London's Unicorn Theatre in 2013 and went on to tour schools, prisons and a young offender institution. This new edition, published within Methuen Drama's Plays For Young People series features notes for teachers and exercises for students for practical use in the classroom.
Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world’s most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: “how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?” The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre’s most prolific dramatists.
Five powerful retellings of classic fairy tales, myths and folklore, written by some of the most ground-breaking UK poets and illustrated by Amandeep Singh, AKA Inkquisitive.
The Actual is a symphony of personal and political fury-sometimes probing delicately, sometimes burning with raw energy. In 55 poems that swerve and crackle with a rare music, Inua Ellams unleashes a full-throated assault on empire and its legacies of racism, injustice and toxic masculinity.
Inua Ellams’ magical retelling of the much loved story by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry turns the Little Prince into a descendant of an African race in a parallel galaxy.
The first collection of plays from Inua Ellams, one of the UK's most exciting playwrights and a poet, novelist and graphic designer. Includes The 14th Tale, Untitled, Black T-Shirt Collection and Knight Watch.
From the award-winning poet and playwright behind Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall is an epic story and a lyrical exploration of pride, power and female revenge.
The second in the ground-breaking mouthmark series, 13 Fairy Negro Tales is a vibrant pamphlet of contemporary poetry. In language scooped directly from a paintbrush, Inua Ellams announced his arrival on the poetry scene, with what has become a runaway bestseller. Written in language that has roots in Keats, hip hop rhymes and Shakespearean narrative, 13 Fairy Negro Tales has sold over 2000 copies since its release.
These are not fictions. Nor are they testimonies from some distant, brutal past, but the frighteningly common experiences of Europe's new underclass - its refugees.
The Salt Book of Younger Poets showcases a new generation of British poets born since the mid-80s. These poets have used new technologies to meet, mentor, influence and publish each other. This is a chance to encounter the poets who will dominate UK poetry in years to come.
'The mouthmark Book of Poetry' is an anthology of the individual-author titles published under the mouthmark poetry pamphlet series, comprising the work of Nick Makoha, Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jessica Horn, Truth Thomas, Denise Saul, Malika Booker, Janett Plummer and Warsan Shire. The series was conceived by flipped eye publishing's senior editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as a means to get poets from non-mainstream backgrounds - including performance - into print. It was revolutionary for two reasons; first, it was a pamphlet series developed with a specific aim (later, tall-lighthouse would launch its pilot series, and, much later, Faber would launch its New Poets Initiative); second, it was a finite series - to end after ten pamphlets. After some success with the first two pamphlets in the series, Nick Makoha's 'The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man' (2005) and Inua Ellams' '13 Fairy Negro Tales' (2005), the Arts Council of England provided funding for the next four. It took six years for the series to be completed, but its impact far exceeded expectations. Authors such as Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose (later editor of the last pamphlet in the series), Nick Makoha and Warsan Shire, have risen to international prominence; three of the pamphlets were cited by the Poetry Book Society pamphlet selectors for their quality; five of the poets have since been chosen for the ground-breaking national Complete Works development programme for UK poets of minority ethnic backgrounds; and Truth Thomas's from his pamphlet 'Party of Black' (2006) was chosen for Nikki Giovanni's 'The 100 Best African American Poems' (Sourcebooks, 2010). Crucially, the series retailed admirably as well, with over 10,000 copies sold at events - and through conventional retail channels. Now, with the release of 'The mouthmark Book of Poetry', readers can experience all nine individual poets published under the mouthmark poetry pamphlet series in this collectible volume that retains hallmarks of the iconic series, such as the distinctive brown paper-look cover with bold black designs.
Theatre in Times of Crisis ; 20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times
