Spokesman Books

The Spokesman has received recommendations for two plays running in London this summer : A couple of experiences friends may be interested in. Rarely, we go to London for the theatre. This weekend we did. Theatres beset with financial pressures are pushed into re-interpretations of classical productions, or depend on star billings to draw an audience. And so as not to offend wealthy patrons, they stay clear of politically contentious themes. There are exceptions – Maxine Peake’s enactment of Shelley’s Peterloo protest poem “The Masque of Anarchy” – but they remain exceptions. However, we saw a couple of plays, which I at least (Joe) must confess, I went to out of interest in the issues aired, rather than in expectation of a dramatic feast. We got both. On Friday night we saw Aime Cesare’s “A Season in the Congo”, about the travails of the Congo. It provides in dramatic form, a history lesson in de-colonialism/re-colonialism. When Patrice Lumumba was elected Prime Minister the...

"Set in a Manchester working-class evening centre in the mid-1970s, the date of its writing, Comedians eschews political theory, professional ideologues and historically sourced discourse on political revolution – all the perceived hallmarks of my earlier pieces – in favour of a more or less unmediated address on a range of particular contemporary issues including class, gender, race and society in modern Britain." Trevor Griffiths writing in Theatre Plays (published in two volumes by Spokesman Books, price £15 each) An acclaimed new production of Comedians , directed by Sean Holmes, continues at the Lyric Hammersmith until 14th November 2009. Some reviews can be read via our Trevor Griffiths page. Theatre Plays One includes Comedians , The Wages of Thin , Occupations , Sam Sam , Apricots , Thermidor , The Party , The Cherrry Orchard Theatre Plays Two includes Oi for England , Real Dreams , Piano , The Gulf between Us , Thatcher’s Children , Who Shall Be Happy? , C...