Carl Grose

Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays. Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department over the years, with the young performer in mind. In 2016, these plays were then performed by approximately 500 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional partner regional theatres at which the works were showcased. The anthology contains all 12 of the 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 Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt; Simon Armitage; Jackie Kay; Patrick Marber; Mark Ravenhill; Bryony Lavery & Frantic Assembly; Davey Anderson; James Graham; Katori Hall; Carl Grose; Stacey Gregg; and Lucinda Coxon.

This brilliant new collection of ten plays for young people will prove indispensable to schools, colleges and youth theatre groups. Specially commissioned by the National Theatre for the Connections Festival 2011 involving 200 schools and youth theatre groups across the UK and Ireland, each play is accompanied by production notes and exercises. The Pied Piper re-imagined, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, witches in seventeenth century Norfolk, a giant baby on the rampage, an extraordinary day in an ordinary school are just some of subjects covered in the thrilling and varied new plays created by talented writers for young actors to perform in National Theatre Connections 2011. The plays in this anthology offer a huge variety of stories and styles to ignite the imagination of young casts and creative teams. Themes are both teenage and universal - ambition, dashed hopes, fear and confidence, loyalty and betrayal. These new plays embrace a huge range for their inspiration: they plunder classics and imagine the future.

Times are tough for the family in the wood. They'd eat like kings if only they could.But hunger gnaws - famine stalks the land. Something quite wicked has the upper hand!Poor mother and father must do "what is best"... And Hansel and Gretel will be put to the test! Armed with their very last slice of bread. Will they eat to survive or ........leave a.................trail...................................home..................................................instead?Hansel & Gretel was first performed on the 4th December 2009 at Bristol Old Vic and was a co-production between Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic. Carl Grose and Kneehigh put their own unique spin on the classic fairytale.

Times are tough for the family in the woodThey'd eat like kings if only they couldBut hunger gnaws - famine stalks the landSomething quite wicked has the upper hand!Poor mother and father must do "what is best"...And Hansel and Gretel will be put to the test!Armed with their very last slice of breadWill they eat to surviveOr ........leave………………..a..........................trail...................................home..............................................instead?The school edition of Carl Grose and Kneehigh Theatre Company's acclaimed version of Hansel & Gretel, which includes notes for teachers and those studying the play for GCSE English, as written by Anthony Banks.

Kneehigh now finds itself celebrated as one of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies. This collection contains the performance texts of four of their highly acclaimed shows: Tristan & Yseult, The Bacchae, The Wooden Frock and The Red Shoes. With forewords from Emma Rice, Tom Morris, Anna Maria Murphy and Carl Grose, it offers a unique insight into Kneehigh’s approach to making theatre, revealing how ascript can emerge from a collaborative devising process.

Bringing together five plays exploring our notions of family, myth, death, truth and the ever-fluctuating nature of reality, Carl Grose: Plays One celebrates the possibilities of theatre and humanity’s desperate need to tell stories in order to survive.This collection includes Grose’s blood-splattered love letter to the theatre, Grand Guignol, plus a quartet of anarchic Cornish-set comedies: Superstition Mountain, Horse Piss For Blood, 49 Donkeys Hanged and The Kneebone Cadillac.

Kneehigh Theatre Company presents Dead Dog in a Suitcase written by Carl Grose.What the HELL is the world coming to?Based on The Beggar's Opera, John Gay's classic musical satire, Dead Dog in a suitcase (and other love songs) is busting with wit, wonder and weirdness. An extraordinary Kneehigh cast of actor-musicians shoot, hoot and shimmy their way through this twisted morality tale of our times...by turns SHOCKING, HILARIOUS, HEARTFELT and ABSURD!Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and they plan to escape to a better world – but they aren't going anywhere. Not if pickled pilchard, hair gel and concrete tycoon Les Peachum and his wife have anything to do with it. See, they aren't happy with their daughter marrying Macheath. Not one bit. Before the day is out Macheath will face the hangman's noose and much more besides. All the while, the dogs are howling, the pier is creaking, the babes are crying, the concrete is cracking and the truth won't stay hidden for much longer…This is now, this is itThe world is poor and man's a shitThe game is rigged, nothing's truerDeath's a joke and life a sewer!

Cornish conspiracy theorist Virgil Ploy is paranoid. He thinks that everyone is out to get him – that includes his mother and her new husband, Dusty. He might well be right. It’s hard to know who to trust these days. But then, living on top of a secret M.O.D. chemical weapons plant can do strange things to you. Very strange things indeed… Horse Piss For Blood is a bizarre and darkly funny new play about family, madness and Cornwall’s darkest secret… Are you ready for the truth?

National Theatre Wales and Told by an Idiot bring their critically acclaimed celebration of Gwyn Thomas – one of the most distinctive Welsh voices of the last century – and an outstanding Welsh cast to the Edinburgh Festival. Taking as its inspiration Thomas’ ink-black comic tales, The Dark Philosophers is a funny, violent and passionate depiction of a community teetering on the brink of humanity. Using Told by an Idiot’s trademark anarchic physicality and inventive storytelling, this adaptation brings out the bleak, wild humour in tales laced with sex, murder and Thomas’ devastating Valleys wit.

This show is not suitable for those with a weak or nervous disposition!

With its vivid, physical storytelling style, Cornwall's award-winning, and ground breaking theatre company interprets Shakespeare for the first time. This is a wild, giddy and elemental production. This version of "Cymbeline" was part of the RSC's "Complete Works Festival" at The Swan in September 2006, has since toured nationally, and opens at the Lyric Hammersmith in January 2007.