4,56 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: WS
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
From a story by Hans Christian Andersen
In ancient China, young emperor Wu is kept a virtual prisoner in his palace by his devious guardian, Li Si. Wu believes the world outside the Forbidden City is an evil and dangerous place. But when Xiao, a young servant girl, tells him of the most beautiful sound on earth – the song of the nightingale – it’s too much to resist. The two embark on an adventure that will take them across mountain tops and waterfalls, past chattering monkeys and magical dragons to the far reaches of his kingdom. When Wu returns with the nightingale, and starts to overturn the old palace customs, Li Si plots to restore things to the way they were before.
Featuring puppetry, music and all the colour, movement and spectacle of Chinese theatre, this joyful adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale is a feast for the senses that will delight the whole family.
Neil Duffield has written more than fifty plays and adaptations which have been staged extensively throughout Britain and abroad. In 2006, he won the Arts Council England Children's Award for Small Fry 'for work which displays excellence, inspiration and innovation in children's theatre.' Neil lives in Bolton with his wife, theatre director Eileen Murphy.
Reviews of Plays for Youth Theatres and Large Casts
“Neil Duffield is a highly successful writer of plays for children and young people, with over fifty productions under his belt, many of these commissioned by leading UK theatres and touring companies… Having worked closely with Neil during my career as a theatre director, I can vouch for his understanding of young audiences by the spellbound silences (and roars of laughter) that greet his productions.”
— David Farmer, Drama Resource
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 79
Ähnliche
Neil Duffield
Neil has worked as a full-time professional playwright for almost thirty-five years and his plays have been staged extensively in theatres throughout Britain and abroad.
Past work includes The Machine Stops (York Theatre Royal), The Ugly Duckling (Northumberland Theatre Company) The Road to Glory (The Point, Eastleigh), A Christmas Carol (Derby Theatre, Edinburgh Lyceum, Bolton Octagon); The Firebird (Dundee Rep), Dancing in my Dreams (Oxfordshire Theatre Company), The Minotaur and Leopard (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Dukes Theatre, Lancaster).
His play The Lost Warrior (commissioned by The Dukes Theatre, Lancaster) won the Arts Council England Children’s Award in 2006 ‘for work which displays excellence, inspiration and innovation in children’s theatre.’
Neil lives in Bolton with his partner Eileen Murphy and spends as much time as possible with their four young grandchildren.
First published in the UK in 2016 by Aurora Metro Publications Ltd
67 Grove Avenue, Twickenham, TW1 4HX
The Emperor and the Nightingale copyright © 2016 Neil Duffield
Cover image courtesy of Theatre by the Lake
Production: Simon Smith
With many thanks to Yvett Saliba and Matthew Rhys-Daniel.
All rights are strictly reserved.
For rights enquiries including performing rights, contact the publisher: [email protected]
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Printed in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
Ebook conversion by Swift Prosys.
ISBNs:
978-1-910798-91-1 (print)
978-1-910798-92-8 (ebook)
by Neil Duffield
based on The Nightingale
by Hans Christian Andersen
To my granddaughter,
Beatrice May Emerson
Introduction
Adapting for the Stage: A conversation about storytelling from the programme for Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake production, November 2016 – January 2017
“Basically,” said Neil Duffield, writer of The Emperor and the Nightingale, “I’m a storyteller.” He has no wish to make children jump up and shout, “He’s behind you!” Instead he wants to tell stories that have children sitting on the edge of their seats, desperate to find out what’s going to happen next.
He also wants to offer children ideas, feelings, emotions; and something to think about. But their attention still has to be grabbed. “If you don’t do that, they start shuffling about and talking to each other. They’re not a polite audience and you know immediately when they’re bored. You learn the hard way – by sitting among them.
“Nobody wants to be preached at. It’s always more important to ask questions rather than to attempt to give answers. If you can place questions in the mind of a child, then I think you’ve achieved a lot.”
Neil wrote his original adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Nightingale almost 30 years ago and it has gone through many versions since, including changes for this production at Theatre by the Lake. He admires many aspects of Andersen’s tale: “It explores the difference between the artificial and the natural, and how art and music can only truly flourish when it is freely created.
“I think it also reflects the way music, and art in general, can affect people’s lives and change the way they think and behave.”
But Andersen’s fairy tale lacked a vital element if it was to work on stage. “There’s not a lot of drama in the story and there are really only two characters – the emperor and the nightingale itself. The emperor is an adult when the story starts and an old man at the end. I had to develop more characters and inject some conflict between them.”
Neil’s emperor Wu is a child and he transforms Andersen’s kitchen maid into Xiao, a feisty girl who leads Wu on a quest to find the nightingale. On the way, Wu learns about a world of which he knows nothing; it’s a story in part about growing up, becoming wiser.
“Wu has been told that he has all this power, can do anything he wants. But when he gets into the real world, his power evaporates and is worth nothing. It hasn’t taught him how to dance, to juggle, to do handstands – to have fun.”
Wu’s value system is turned on its head and his eyes are opened by a child who has no power at all. And that’s something to think about.
So this play for children has more ideas than most, and serious ideas at that. Much of Neil’s work has been for children and young people but he writes for adults too. His latest play, The Machine Stops, an adaptation of an E.M. Forster short story was staged at York Theatre Royal in the summer. But when we met, playwriting was on hold as he was helping to look after his three young grandchildren for two days each week. And of course he was telling them, and reading them, lots of good stories.
David Ward
Literary Consultant
Theatre by the Lake
November 2016
New production by Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
November 2016 – January 2017
Creatives
Director
Ian Forrest
Designer
Martin Johns
Composer and Musical Director
Richard Atkinson
Lighting Designer
Andrew J. Lindsay
Puppetry Director
Jimmy Grimes
Movement Director
Bronya Deutsch
Sound Designer
Maura Guthrie
Cast
Father / Dragon King /
Patrick Bridgman
Monkey 2 / Chorus 5
Xiao / Chorus 4
Sally Cheng
Nightingale / Chorus 7
Amy Gardyne
Peasant Woman / Servant 1 /
Frances Marshall
Chorus 1
Chorus 8 / Servant 3 /
Ed Parry
Monkey 3
Li-Si / Chorus 3
Joel Sams
Wu / Chorus 2
Martin Sarreal
Tiger King / Clockmaker / Monkey 1 / Servant 2 / Chorus 6
Silas Wyatt-Barke
THE EMPEROR AND THE NIGHTINGALE
by Neil Duffield
Based on The Nightingale
by Hans Christian Andersen
First produced by The Dukes Theatre, Lancaster, December 2002.
Rewritten for Theatre by the Lake, 2016.
The play is a fantasy, set in ancient China. Music, set and costumes should all give a feel of this.
Wherever possible music is live, played by the actors.
The play is written for eight actor/musicians. With larger casts, chorus parts may be reallocated.
Characters and suggested doubling:
Chorus 1 / Peasant woman / Servant 1 (female).
Chorus 2 / The Emperor Wu (male).
Chorus 3 / Li Si (male).
Chorus 4 / Xiao (female).
Chorus 5 / Dragon King / Father / Ambassador / Monkey 2 (male).
Chorus 6 / Tiger King / Clockmaker / Monkey 1 / Servant 2 (male or female).
Chorus 7 / The Nightingale (female).
Chorus 8 / Servant 3 (male or female).
Acrobat, Street vendor, Juggler – from the Chorus.
ACT 1
Music. Shadowy light. Spotlight fades up on Chorus 1.
She sings softly and gently.
Listen
Will you listen
Will you listen to me
Rest of chorus gradually appear and join in.
Listen
Will you listen
Will you listen to my story
A tale of magic, a tale of mystery
A tale of beauty, a tale of jealousy
The emperor and the nightingale
Music gradually swells and picks up tempo. Lights fade up to full.
Listen
Will you listen
Will you listen to me
Listen
Will you listen
Will you listen to my story
A tale of magic, a tale of mystery
A tale of beauty, a tale of jealousy
The emperor and the nightingale
Song and music end.
Imagine a land so vast that no-one can say where it begins or where it ends.
A land so old that its beginnings are lost in the mists and tides of time.
The name of this land is China.
The people of China are ruled by two kings.
The Tiger King.
And the Dragon King.
The Tiger King is a warrior.
Daring and fearless.
Famed throughout China.
A few moments of hard clashing music in which we see the Tiger King in martial arts type action.
Yet the Dragon King is even more famed.
In his kingdom can be found the finest and most beautiful creations of all mankind.
Chorus reveal some of them.
Silk paintings –
of white-topped mountains, teeming waterfalls and lakes so blue you’d think the sky had fallen into them.
Books
their pages soaked in dreams.
And music
as joyful as the song of the nightingale.
The Dragon King produces a flute and begins to play. Chorus gather enthusiastically around him.
Travellers journey from every corner of the earth.
To look, to read, to listen.
And to enjoy the treasures of the dragon kingdom.
The Tiger King clearly doesn’t like the music or the attention from the visitors.
But the Tiger King is jealous.
He asks his head mandarin for advice.
The name of the head mandarin is Li Si.
(Becomes the character)
