Arthur Schnitzler described Reigen, his loose series of sexual sketches, as "completely unprintable," and indeed its premiere in 1921 spurred an obscenity suit. It was only when Max Ophuls made his famous film in 1950 that the work became better known as La Ronde. Now David Hare has reset these circular scenes of love and betrayal in the present day, with a cast of two actors playing a succession of characters whose sexual lives enmesh like a daisy chain. The Blue Room is a meditation on men and women, sex and social class, actors and the theater. With deft insight about the gap between the sexes, The Blue Room takes the treacherous Freudian subject of projection and desire and reinvents it in a bittersweet landscape that is both eternal and completely up-to-date.

'Girls, I think your father's dead. I knocked his knees out. I conked his head. I shot that house clown in the neck.' In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house-with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body. Triggered into thrilling motion by an act of revenge, The Bleeding Tree is rude, rhythmical and irreverently funny. Imagine a murder ballad blown up for the stage, set against a deceptively deadly Aussie backdrop, with three fierce females fighting back.

This book introduces readers to the world of children's theater by highlighting one specific model, The Oyster River Players, a small children's theater company in New Hampshire. By exploring the history and dynamics of their own theater company, authors Kelly and Walter Eggers apply broader implications, expanding their focus to include children's theaters of other kinds and in different cultural settings. Throughout the book, the Eggers show how children's theater succeeds in helping young people learn in ways that would be otherwise inaccessible. Through forays into philosophy and history, as well as personal testimonies, the authors present a coherent argument for the need for children's theaters in nearly every community.

Schnitzler described Reigen, his loose series of sexual sketches, as 'completely unprintable'. The company that first presented them was prosecuted for obscenity in 1921. It was only when Max Ophuls made his famous film in 1950 that the work became better known as La Ronde. Now David Hare has re-set these circular scenes of love and betrayal in the present day. Using as much imaginative freedom in his turn as Ophuls did fifty years ago, and with just two actors playing all of the parts, Hare has created a fascinating landscape of dream and longing which seems both eternal and bang-up-to-date.

The Tony Award–winning playwright and screenwriter delivers “a witty, contemporary reworking of Arthur Schnitzler’s nineteenth-century shocker La Ronde” (The Mail on Sunday, four stars). Arthur Schnitzler described Reigen, his loose series of sexual sketches, as “completely unprintable,” and indeed, its premiere in 1921 spurred an obscenity suit. It was only when Max Ophüls made his famous film in 1950 that the work became better known as La Ronde. Now David Hare has reset these circular scenes of love and betrayal in the present day, with a cast of two actors playing a succession of characters whose sexual lives enmesh like a daisy chain. The Blue Room is a brilliant meditation on men and women, sex and social class, actors and the theater. With deft insight about the gap between the sexes, it takes the treacherous Freudian subject of projection and desire and reinvents it in a bittersweet landscape that is both eternal and completely up to date. “[Hare’s] play slides up on one insidiously—always suggesting more than they first suggest, planting depth charges in the mind, subtly laying a minefield in the self-confidence of one’s first impressions.” —New York Post “In the jungle of this city, sex is a driving force, a commodity and a need . . . This play could almost be a vividly illustrated Freudian textbook: the erotic drive in action, amoral and ruthless. Hare’s version is, in the deepest and most essential sense, completely faithful to Schnitzler.” —The Sunday Times “Hare—buttressed by Freud and Proust—has turned sexual disappointment into something more interesting, the idea that what we are in love with is part illusion.” —The Observer

Where do you find a city's soul? Where is its pulse, its personality? When we walk across the skin of a city, do we listen for its laugh? Terri-ann White draws together an eclectic group of Perth people in this collection to share their insights on a rapidly evolving city. From an architect's perspective on heritage to a historian's ruminations on Perth's swampy origins; from a walk down streets that don't exist to Noongar place names; from the union movement to public art to criminal Perth to conversational Perth, this book encourages new encounters with the city. Perth: a guide for the curious traverses social, cultural and political spaces as the reader traverses the streets, kindling a sense of curiosity about a city by unearthing buried treasure. This is not a book of nostalgia. It doesn't posit a golden age or list a series of laments. This is a book about continuities and unfolding narratives. Perth situates the present in the past and illuminates possible futures. Perth: a guide for the curious is meant to be thumbed through in cafes, stuffed into satchels and walked around the city like a tireless companion. Perth promises to delight and inspire both visitor and local alike. *** "Thoroughly 'reader friendly' in tone, commentary, organization and presentation, 'Perth: A Guide for the Curious' is unreservedly recommended for another living in and/or anticipating visiting the ever-evolving city of Perth, Australia." -- Midwest Book Review, Wisconsin Bookwatch: August 2016, The Travel Shelf [Subject: Travel, Australia]