Bøger af Howard Brenton

A timely play based on the true story of an imprisoned Nobel Laureate. On 3 April 2011, as he was boarding a flight to Taipei, the Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Airport. Advised merely that his travel "e;could damage state security"e;, he was escorted to a van by officials after which he disappeared for 81 days. On his release, the government claimed that his imprisonment related to tax evasion. Howard Brenton's new play is based on Ai Weiwei's account in Barnaby Martin's book Hanging Man, in which he told the story of that imprisonment - by turns surreal, hilarious, and terrifying. A portrait of the artist in extreme conditions, it is also an affirmation of the centrality of art and freedom of speech in civilised society. The play premiered at Hampstead Theatre in April 2013, in a production directed by James Macdonald. 'Moving, scary, gripping, inventive and at times laugh-out-loud funny' Telegraph 'Excellent... like a mix of Kafka and Bennett' Guardian 'Tremendously powerful' Financial Times

A gripping historical drama that dramatises a crucial moment of English history. Premiered at Hampstead Theatre in October 2012. December 1648. The Army has occupied London. Parliament votes not to put the imprisoned king on trial, so the Army moves against Westminster in the first and only military coup in English history. What follows over the next fifty-five days, as Cromwell seeks to compromise with a king who will do no such thing, is nothing less than the forging of a new nation, an entirely new world. Howard Brenton's play depicts the dangerous and dramatic days when, in a country exhausted by Civil War, a few great men attempt to think the unthinkable: to create a country without a king. 'A forgotten era of revolutionary British history is fascinatingly unlocked... electrifying.' Whatonstage.com '[A] confident and idea-packed piece... It could have been a dour history lesson. Instead it engages with the present, raising some pungent questions about the kind of democracy we have in Britain today.' Evening Standard

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorious second wife, who helped change the course of the nation's history. Premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Best New Play, Whatsonstage.com Awards Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King's bed or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne - and her ghost - are seen in a very different light in Howard Brenton's epic play. Rummaging through the dead Queen Elizabeth's possessions upon coming to the throne in 1603, King James I finds alarming evidence that Anne was a religious conspirator, in love with Henry VIII but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. She comes alive for him, a brilliant but reckless young woman confident in her sexuality, whose marriage and death transformed England for ever. 'This is no dry and dusty history lesson... a witty and engrossing impression of the times that gave birth to our first Elizabethan age, and the subsequent reformation' British Theatre Guide 'The play bursts through the constraints of costume drama'The Independent 'What an absolute delight... a beautifully-written piece of theatre that instantly draws you in into the life and times of both Anne Boleyn and King James I' Whatsonstage.com

A modern-day tale of unexpected genius and of our struggle to accommodate extraordinary talent, loosely inspired by Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure.

Full Length, Drama / 3m, 2f / Bare stage This fascinating drama, staged to acclaim in London and New York, has in its cast of characters Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and Claire Goodwin. The play is about radicalism artistic, political and more. Taking place in Italy, it concerns the characters' various ideas about radical politics and free love. Along the way, a number of serious questions are raised, not the least of which is why fervent radicals seem so often to be done in

Autumn 1940. The Battle of Britain rages. Southampton is home to Britain's only hope of victory: the Spitfire. But when the Luftwaffe drops 2,300 bombs in three devastating raids, the city goes up in flames and the Woolston Supermarine Spitfire factory is destroyed. From the ashes, a story of chaos, courage and community spirit emerges.

A play about T.E. Lawrence, once celebrated as Lawrence of Arabia, but who now wants only to be normal once more.

19-year-old Jack Twigg enlists in the London Regiment and embarks on an unimaginable journey, in this epic, hilarious and moving play that takes a sideways look at the First World War.

A vivid telling of the chaotic story of the partition that shaped the modern world.

A gripping new version of Strindberg's masterly, darkly hilarious depiction of the struggles and strains of marriage.

Follows Harold Macmillan's often haphazard rise to Prime Minister from Eton (which he hated) through an early flirtation with the priesthood to early success under Churchill and final ascent to the premiership on the back of Eden's Suez disaster, in which 'Supermac' is revealed as anything but super.

An irreverent and provocative drama questioning the basis of Christianity, by the author of The Romans in Britain.