Tim Etchells

An extremely original, off-beat love story about a computer game that doesn’t exist. “Phenomenal. Quite scary in its originality, ingenuity and significance. Bound to become a cult book, and in serious danger of being a world-wide bestseller.” Victoria Glendenning

The Broken World

What is the relationship between performance and play? Between performance and technology? Between performance and death? Certain Fragments is an extraordinary exploration of what lies at the heart of contemporary theatre. Written by the artistic director of Forced Entertainment, acknowledged to be Britains most brilliant experimental theatre company (Guardian), Certain Fragments investigates the processes of devising performance, the role of writing in an interdisciplinary theatre, and the influence of the city on contemporary art practice. Tim Etchells unique and provocative voice shifts from intimate anecdote to critical analysis and back again. And as in his theatre-making so in his book: with Certain Fragments Etchells disrupts traditional notions of creative, academic, and intellectual work. The book is an exciting and radical fusion of story-telling and criticism. It also makes available, for the first time, four seminal Forced Entertainment texts by Etchells.

Texts and Writings on Performance

Certain Fragments

Anna Deavere Smith

Noah Birksted-Breen

Alecky Blythe

Meron Langsner

Denise Uyehara

MarÃ­a JosÃ© Contreras Lorenzini

This diverse anthology features eight contemporary plays founded in testimonies from across the world. Showcasing challenging and provocative works of theatre, the collection also provides a clear insight into the workings of the genre through author interviews, introductions from the companies and performance images which illustrate the process of creating each piece. Bystander 9/11 by Meron Langsner is an impressionistic but wholly authentic response to the catastrophe as it unfolded and in the days following. Big Head by Denise Uyehara is an interrogation of current perceptions of "the enemy now" as seen through the lens of Japanese American internment during World War II. Urban Theatre Projects' The Fence is a tale of love, belonging and healing. It is a tender work that looks at the adult lives of five family and friends who spent their childhoods in orphanages, institutions and foster homes in Australia. Come Out Eli: Christmas 2002 in Hackney, London, saw the longest siege in British history. Using interviews collected at the time and further material gathered in the aftermath, Alecky Blythe's play explores the impact of the siege on the lives of individuals and the community. The Travels: members of Forced Entertainment undertook a series of journeys during one summer, each travelling alone to locations in the UK to complete tasks determined only partially in advance. This began a mapping process and the creation of a landscape of ideas, narratives and bad dreams. On the Record by Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen circumnavigates the globe to bring true stories from six independent journalists, all linked by their determination to shed light on the truth. Created by Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz, Seven is based on personal interviews with seven women who have triumphed over huge obstacles to catalyse major changes in human rights in their home countries of Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala and Cambodia. Pajarito Nuevo la Lleva: The Sounds of the Coup by MarÃ­a JosÃ© Contreras Lorenzini focuses upon sense memories of witnesses who were children at the time of the 1974 military coup in Chile.

Bystander 9/11; Big Head; The Fence; Come Out Eli; The Travels; On the Record; Seven; Pajarito Nuevo la Lleva: The Sounds of the Coup

The Methuen Drama Anthology of Testimonial Plays

Forced Entertainment's Bloody mess defies categorisation, creating a startling and comical new logic from the collisions of disconnected characters, stories and performances.

Performance Text

Bloody Mess

Endland

Writing an on-line walk-through to a computer game of some complexity can take up a lot of time. As our narrator grapples with his player's guide, real life starts to intrude in troublesome ways. The day job, the live-in girlfriend and his best friend are all causing him headaches; but nothing can distract him from the task at hand. All of his attention is demanded by The Broken World - an engrossing adventure that sees him struggling with zombies, agents, puzzles and mysteries. As each of his worlds collides and begins to affect the other, only one thing is clear. Our hero must solve the problems of life, love and happiness - not just in The Broken World, but in the real one too. The Broken World is a dazzling new novel that fuses games with fiction in an entirely original way.

María José Contreras Lorenzini

This diverse anthology features eight contemporary plays founded in testimonies from across the world. Showcasing challenging and provocative works of theatre, the collection also provides a clear insight into the workings of the genre through author interviews, introductions from the companies and performance images which illustrate the process of creating each piece. Bystander 9/11 by Meron Langsner is an impressionistic but wholly authentic response to the catastrophe as it unfolded and in the days following. Big Head by Denise Uyehara is an interrogation of current perceptions of "the enemy now" as seen through the lens of Japanese American internment during World War II. Urban Theatre Projects' The Fence is a tale of love, belonging and healing. It is a tender work that looks at the adult lives of five family and friends who spent their childhoods in orphanages, institutions and foster homes in Australia. Come Out Eli: Christmas 2002 in Hackney, London, saw the longest siege in British history. Using interviews collected at the time and further material gathered in the aftermath, Alecky Blythe's play explores the impact of the siege on the lives of individuals and the community. The Travels: members of Forced Entertainment undertook a series of journeys during one summer, each travelling alone to locations in the UK to complete tasks determined only partially in advance. This began a mapping process and the creation of a landscape of ideas, narratives and bad dreams. On the Record by Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen circumnavigates the globe to bring true stories from six independent journalists, all linked by their determination to shed light on the truth. Created by Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz, Seven is based on personal interviews with seven women who have triumphed over huge obstacles to catalyse major changes in human rights in their home countries of Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala and Cambodia. Pajarito Nuevo la Lleva: The Sounds of the Coup by María José Contreras Lorenzini focuses upon sense memories of witnesses who were children at the time of the 1974 military coup in Chile.

Certain Fragments provides an exploration of what lies at the heart of contemporary theatre. It investigates the process of devising performance, theatre's interdisciplinary role, and the city's influence.

Contemporary Performance and Forced Entertainment

"Small Acts documents the work of fourteen performance artists who marked the personal and political resonances of the new Millennium in a series of site-specific actions" -- back cover.

The Small Acts-Performance

Lizzie Nunnery

Patrick Marber

Alistair McDowall

Suhayla El-Bushra

Anders Lustgarten

Robin French

Kellie Smith

Harriet Braun

Matthew Bulgo

Drawing together the work of 10 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology features work by some of the most exciting and established contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays collected offer young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department with the young performer in mind. The anthology contains 10 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 Suhayla El-Bushra, Anders Lustgarten, Robin French, Tim Etchells, Patrick Marber, Kellie Smith, Lizzie Nunnery, Harriet Braun and Alistair McDowall.

Tim Etchells

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