Art Drama

Robert Altman - visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend - comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque.

England in the 14th Century. Twelve-year-old Robin’s world is turned upside down when his father, the Earl of Waringham, dies in disgrace. His inheritance lost and his family name dishonoured, the penniless Robin must begin a new life as a peasant on his own estate. He soon makes an enemy in Mortimer, the spoiled young son of the new Earl. As the years pass and the boys enter adulthood, Robin flees Waringham to seek his fortune abroad.

For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic—one of opportunities and chances. Until one choice, one moment, destroys everything. Now Lena isn't looking forward to tomorrow. Not when friend time may never be the same. Not when college applications feel all but impossible. Not when Sebastian might never forgive her for what happened. For what she let happen. With the guilt growing each day, Lena knows that her only hope is to move on. But how can she move on when her and her friends' entire existences have been redefined? How can she move on when tomorrow isn't even guaranteed?

Politics, power and the tragedy of war are played out in these sweeping histories that continue to surprise and entertain. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Prunella Scales, William Squire and Timothy West can be heard in these recordings.

Fighting a superior foe is a momentous task. There are many ways it can be done; there are many ways victories can be achieved. In war, there are no rules, there are no laws; there are only strategies and tactics. Many say what they would do in the face of tyranny; many know what they should do when the powerful become predators. A divided people can be isolated and devoured. Survival depends upon the masses forming one mind.

In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.

This production of The Lost World, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1975, and amongst the cast are Francis de Wolff, Gerald Harper, Carol Boyd and the renowned radio actor Carleton Hobbs. The story follows a 19th century expedition to enter the rumoured lair of animals thought to have died out millions of years before - a terrifying world of pterodactyls and other 'prehistoric monsters'.

One house. Two people in need. On a winter night several years before, a young runaway, Kelli, stumbled onto the porch of an oceanfront cottage. The woman who lived there, Margie, took her in and gave her the gifts of safety and security. Twelve years later, Margie dies. Kelli continues living at the cottage until the day the woman’s nephew arrives for a Christmas visit. And he intends to stay. Dylan has been on the road for many years. He calls himself a traveler, but he’s tired of always being on the move. When he arrives at his aunt’s home, he learns that she has died. Who has the ...

Can beauty survive life’s harshest realities? A mystery unfolds in this contemporary retelling of Eleanor H. Porter’s beloved literary classic JUST DAVID, the tale of ten-year-old David, a luminously gifted musician. Why would David’s father, a virtuoso violinist, have raised his prodigy son in seclusion on a mountaintop? Long-hidden secrets unravel when the father dies en route to introduce his guileless son to the people of the valley below. Radiantly naïve, David enters a small town orphaned and alone, knowing only his first name and nothing of his heritage. All David knows is ...

Sir Philip Sidney was an Elizabethan courtier, statesman, soldier, poet, and patron of scholars and poets. He was famous as the ideal gentleman of his day and a model for subsequent generations until the twentieth century replaced classical education with industrial age expedience. He represents something of what we have lost in modern self-interest. For three centuries, he was considered the most extraordinary man of the English Renaissance. But unfortunately, his legacy has faded from modern prominence. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to peer into the past and discover a singular person ...

Ben is having a difficult week. After five whole years of “drinking from Mommy’s boobies”, he suddenly has to step aside for his new baby sister, Beatrice, who may or may not be human. Mommy says he has to “support her appearance no matter how humiliating it is for us as family”, but that’s hard to do when your sister has branches for arms and legs.

Burned and Reborn In the aftermath of a catastrophic fire that transformed her face—and her fate—wildlife photographer Tayla Lyon has spent her days piecing together a life of quiet recovery, until a sinister plot reawakens her haunted past. When a tangled web of murder, betrayal, and hidden conspiracies emerges from the ashes, Tayla is forced to confront a truth that could shatter her soul. As dangerous forces attempt to exploit her personal tragedy, she finds herself hunted by memories too dark to erase. When secrets lurk beneath every charred remnant, each choice she makes inches her...

Based on Robert Greene’s story Pandosto, The Winter’s Tale play tells the story of Leontes, king of Sicilia, and his childhood friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia. In a jealous rage, Leontes mistakenly accuses Polixenes and his own his wife, Hermione, of adultery, and her newborn daughter as illegitimate, casting her into the wilderness, causing their son to die of grief and Hermione to seemingly follow suit. With his family dead or believed dead, Leontes must face the tragic consequences of his actions.

Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendence that kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between?

Young love, bawdiness and exuberance are played out in these comedies that continue to make us laugh and cheer. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Ian McKellen, Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi and Prunella Scales can be heard in these recordings.

In this Holllywood Stage presentation we find Dantes still loyal to Napoleon in exile on Elba, he carries a message from him but is intercepted and imprisoned without trial. Whilst in prison his fiancé is told he has died and is forced to marry his arch enemy, Count Mondego. Dantes rots in prison for many years but is then helped by Abbe Faria, who leaves him the treasure of Monte Cristo and assists him in escaping prison.

Will following her heart mean denying her dreams? It's not easy being the golden girl. In this Christian Medical Mystery, a gifted young neurologist, Lily Lapree, embarks upon her residency in the teaching hospital where her late father practiced. Longing to try her wings outside the insular nest, the position hadn’t exactly been Lily’s top choice, but the hometown hospital has its perks. Best of all, they’ll help mainstream her live-in sister, Raina, who has special needs. In response to Lily’s promise to keep tabs, they’ll add “Rainy” to their janitorial staff. Though ...

The Bard was so incredibly prolific that even most Shakespeare scholars would welcome the occasional refresher course, and most of the rest of us haven't even got a clue as to what a petard actually is. Fear not, the best-selling authors of Homework for Grown-Ups are here to help.

A brand-new dramatised retelling of Milton’s epic poem about the fall of man, with Milton as the narrator, adapted by one of the leading poets and thinkers of our generation: Michael Symmons Roberts. Paradise Lost was first published in 1667 and tells the story of Satan’s plot to bring about the fall of man by tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This brand-new adaptation begins in the midst of the action and follows the exploits of a hero (or antihero) taking in warfare and the supernatural and expressing the ideals and traditions of a people. Milton himself is the blind narrator, grieving the loss of his wife, whose eyesight worsens as the drama develops.

Why Shakespeare? What explains our continued fascination with his poems and plays? In Living with Shakespeare, Susannah Carson invites 40 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to reflect on why his work is still such a vital part of our culture.