Tim Crouch — библиография

The story of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar told through the eyes of a jiggling fool, a lowly poet having bad dreams, a man who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time… with the wrong name… while history thunders past. Forming part of Tim Crouch’s series of solo shows inspired by Shakespeare’s lesser characters, I, Cinna is written for ages 11+ and engages a young audience to think and write, to consider the relationship between words and actions, art and politics, self and society.

‘Since your daughter’s death I’ve not been much of a hypnotist.’ A man loses his daughter to a car. Nothing now is what it is. It’s like he’s in a play – but he doesn’t know the words or the moves. The man who was driving the car is a stage hypnotist. Since the accident, he’s lost the power of suggestion. His act’s a disaster. For him, everything now is exactly what it is. For the first time since the accident, these two men meet. They meet when the Father volunteers for the Hypnotist’s act. And, this time, he really doesn’t know the words or the moves… An Oak Tree is a remarkable play for two actors. The Father, however, is played by a different actor – male or female – at each performance. They walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they’re in…until they’re in it. This is a breath-taking projection of a performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to their subject, from an audience to the stage. An Oak Tree is a bold and absurdly comic play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind. Winner of a Village Voice Obie for its autumn 2006 Off-Broadway run.

‘The patients like to look at the paintings. It helps them to feel better about their illnesses.’The grateful recipient of a heart transplant travels 4000 miles to thank the widow of the donor and to present her with a very special gift. But much more than a life has been lost. Written and performed in art galleries, ENGLAND tells a compelling story for our times – a disturbing tale of transactions and translations, of culture and commerce, of one thing being placed inside another without thought for the consequences. Presented by two guides, it is a tour to the end of the world. ENGLAND was first performed at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in August 2007.'Tim Crouch, Britain’s best mannered theatrical subversive, is at it again. ENGLAND cunningly lures the audience into examining the unspoken advantages of its position in the world and the way in which courtesy and cultural refinement can be a convenient cover for exploitation. This is a compact piece, but once again Crouch has shown that small-scale originality can provoke large-scale conversations.' LA Times

Winner of the 2010 Whiting Award for best new play.Winner of the 2010 Total Theatre Award for Innovation.Nominated in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2010.Settle back into the warmth of the theatre. Relax as the story unfolds. For you. With you. Of you. A story of hope, violence and exploitation. Laugh with the actors, tap your feet to the music, turn to your neighbour. You’re here. The Author tells the story of another play: a violent, shocking and abusive play written by a playwright called Tim Crouch and performed at the Royal Court Theatre. It charts the effect that play had on the two actors who acted in it and an audience member who watched it. The Author explores our responsibilities to what we choose to look at in the world and how we choose to act accordingly. Performed within its audience, it is a brilliantly inventive and theatrical study of what we deem acceptable in the name of Art.‘A bold, brave, playful piece, a devastating riff on ways of seeing and turning a blind eye to our own moral choices 4 stars… a dazzling theatrical experience that lets nobody off the hook’ – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian ‘At once sharply satirical and coolly thought-provoking. 4 stars’ – Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph ‘The Author is by turns funny, twee, exciting, unnerving and dull, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.’ The Times ‘The writing is subtly brilliant, the sense of moral responsibility and exploration even greater. And because of its unusual form, it doesn’t let the audience off the hook either.’ The Scotsman

A collection of self contained one-man shows which brilliantly re-imagine four of Shakespeare's well known plays through the eyes of the bit parts. I, Malvolio re-imagines [/i]Twelfth Night[/i] from the point of view of Shakespeare's pent-up notoriously wronged steward. A story of lost dignity, prudery, practical, jokes and bullying that draws us deep into the madness of Shakespeare's classic comedy. I, Banquo : A blood-shot, story-telling journey into the heart of Shakespeare's Macbeth , told through the eyes of his murdered best friend. Classic theatre and modern story-telling combined, accompanied by a heavy-metal-guitar-playing thirteen-year-old Fleance, a severed head and 32 litres of blood. I, Caliban : Events on Prospero's island as viewed by Caliban, a puppy-headed monster alone on the island at the end of The Tempest , alone with his memories, his magic tricks and one last bottle of wine. I, Caliban is a sweet and sorry tale about injustice, inebriation and missing your mum. I, Peaseblossom : The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream as re-lived through the fevered nightmares of Shakespeare's most neglected fairy. Funny, heart-breaking and ever-so-slightly crazed, I Peaseblossom is a gloriously anarchic dream of a dream , perfect for children and adults alike.“This brilliant collection of re-imagined stories is a perfect introduction to Shakespeare for students of all ages. They are funny, fresh, intriguing and poignant, and use a supreme storyteller’s skill to bring us into the worlds of some of Shakespeare’s best-loved characters and plays. A must for all teachers who want to excite and inspire their students about Shakespeare’s work and the possibilities of theatre.” – Jacqui O’Hanlon,Director of Education, Royal Shakespeare Company

‘The four Tim Crouch plays contained in this volume make up one of the most important bodies of English-language playwriting to have emerged so far in the twenty-first century. Of course, we’re less than a dozen years into it, so the statement is still a little on the cautious side, but I can think of no other contemporary playwright who has asked such a compelling set of questions about theatrical form, narrative content, and spectatorial engagement.’ – Stephen Bottoms, University of Leeds Includes the plays The Author , England , An Oak Tree and My Arm . My Arm ‘…he is actually exploring on stage the nature of art and performance itself, taking risks in the process… At these moments, Crouch is armed and dangerous.’ – Guardian An Oak Tree ‘Pirandello for a modern audience and better. It’s philosophy in action, playful and seriously thought-provoking.’ – Independent on Sunday ENGLAND ‘…created with rigorous, poetic economy… ENGLAND belongs to that wonderful genre of thoughtful plays that could be discussed for hours without exhausting its ideas.’ – New York Times The Author ‘This is not audience participation; it is the audience at once being the theatre and interrogating it.’ – Financial Times

“You’d like that, would you, your most private, pinkest, tenderest –
small bird, small bird, small fragile – stolen from you, slammed down onto the slab, the block, poked at and paraded.” The children swing their legs on the chairs. The student delivers the presentation. The older woman stands with the gun. The young couple arrives at the house. The house is returning to nature. A movie is being made. The truth is being plundered. But the house is still lived in and the spirit to resist is strong. Adler & Gibb tells the story of a raid – on a house, a life, a reality and a legacy. The play takes Tim Crouch’s fascination with form and marries it to a thrilling story of misappropriation. Janet Adler and Margaret Gibb were conceptual artists working in New York at the end of the last century. They were described by art critic Dave Hickey as the ‘most ferociously uncompromising voice of their generation’. With Adler’s death in 2004, however, the compromise began.