Tim Crouch

It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections.National Theatre Connections 2022 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK's most exciting playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities.The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study.This 2022 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2022 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world’s most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: “how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?” The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre’s most prolific dramatists.

See with your Ears.Poor Effy. Sent to live with her aunt and uncle in a block that won’t allow dogs. What’s a girl to do? She smuggles her furry friend in, of course. Keeps him under a blanket. Feeds him biscuits. Ssh Toto, quiet.But it can’t last forever. Effy needs saving. And Toto is up to the task. Experienced through headphones, Toto Kerblammo! mixes live and recorded performance to deliver a tender and powerful story about listening, friendship and finding hope in the darkest of places.Tim Crouch is ‘one of the most important writers and theatre-makers in the UK’ (The Stage). His award-winning plays include An mOak Tree, The Author, Beginners, I, Malvolio and Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Unicorn Theatre, London, in October 2024.

Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Tempest... in a way you’ve never seen them before.Away from the rest of their plays, Malvolio, Cinna, Peaseblossom, Banquo, and Caliban tell their tales, each in a solo-show written for younger audiences, by acclaimed playwright Tim Crouch. No longer burdened by iambic pentameter, these five can finally speak their truth…Fusing Shakespeare with meta-theatre, multimedia, creative tasks, and philosophical playfulness, Crouch reimagines these secondary Shakespearean characters in a way that is accessible and engaging to young audiences.Featuring an introduction from Crouch that explains the origin of the five plays and their performance processes, the I, Shakespeare collection provides a fresh perspective on some of theatre’s most well-known stories, finding the parallels between the Bard’s time and present day.

Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Tempest... in a way you’ve never seen them before.Away from the rest of their plays, Malvolio, Cinna, Peaseblossom, Banquo, and Caliban tell their tales, each in a solo-show written for younger audiences, by acclaimed playwright Tim Crouch. No longer burdened by iambic pentameter, these five can finally speak their truth…Fusing Shakespeare with meta-theatre, multimedia, creative tasks, and philosophical playfulness, Crouch reimagines these secondary Shakespearean characters in a way that is accessible and engaging to young audiences.Featuring an introduction from Crouch that explains the origin of the five plays and their performance processes, the I, Shakespeare collection provides a fresh perspective on some of theatre’s most well-known stories, finding the parallels between the Bard’s time and present day.

When I say sleep, you’re free again.A man loses his daughter to a car accident. Nothing now is what it seems. It’s like he’s in a play - but he doesn’t know the words or the moves.Tim Crouch’s critically acclaimed play playfully pushes the limits of theatre: a two-hander, where one of the actors walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they’re in… until they’re in it. Shockingly moving, An Oak Tree questions how we perform … and whether we know our lines.This edition was published to coincide with the runs at Avignon Festival, France, in July 2023, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in August 2023.

Six exciting new plays by some of the best artists working in the UK today written with and for young people. Created as part of Wonder Fools' international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times which has reached over 8000 young people from 16 different countries including UK, South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden. Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre these six plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 10 to 25. These original and innovative plays are: The Day the Stampers United by Sara ShaarawiAges 12+Ms Campbell's Class Fifth Period by Leyla JosephineAges 14+And The Name for That Is?... by Robert Softley GaleAges 16+Are You A Robot? by Tim CrouchAges 10+Revolting by Bryony KimmingsAges 13+Thanks for Nothing by The PappyShow with Lewis HetheringtonAges 11+Positive Stories For Negative Times was initially created in response to the lack of physical spaces for young people to participate in creative activities due to the pandemic, and instead allowing them to come together and be inspired through making new work. The project has now grown into a programme of work that includes hundreds of participating groups across the world, a youth board who dramaturg all the commissioned plays from inception to final draft, a continuing professional development programme for group leaders and four regional Scottish youth theatre festivals taking place in summer 2023.Supported by Creative Scotland, the Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Trades House of Glasgow Commonweal Fund and Gordon Fraser Foundation. www.positivestories.scot

And that’s the moment when I leave. The moment when the jokes fail us. When I fail. I fail. This precise moment here, look, see with your ears. The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval. In his new solo work, playwright Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few. Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodating piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse. Crouch’s previous celebrated works include An Oak Tree, The Author, Adler & Gibb, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, and Beginners. This edition was published to coincide with the production at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in August 2022.

And that’s the moment when I leave.The moment when the jokes fail us. When I fail. I fail.This precise moment here, look, see with your ears.The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval.In his new solo work, playwright Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few.Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodating piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse. Crouch’s previous celebrated works include An Oak Tree, The Author, Adler & Gibb, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, and Beginners.This edition was published to coincide with the production at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in August 2022.

Includes the plays The Author, England, An Oak Tree and My Arm. My Arm‘...he is actually exploring on stage the nature of art and performance itself, taking risks in the process… At these moments, Crouch is armed and dangerous.’ GuardianAn Oak Tree‘Pirandello for a modern audience and better. It’s philosophy inaction, playful and seriously thought-provoking.’ Independent on SundayENGLAND‘…created with rigorous, poetic economy… ENGLAND belongs to that wonderful genre of thoughtful plays that could be discussed for hours without exhausting its ideas.’ New York TimesThe Author‘This is not audience participation; it is the audience at once being the theatre and interrogating it.’ Financial Times

'Since your daughter's death I've not been much of a hypnotist.'A man loses his daughter to a car accident. Nothing now is what it seems. It's like he's in a play - but he doesn't know the words or the moves.The man who was driving the car is a stage hypnotist. Since the accident he's lost the power of suggestion. His act's a disaster. For him, everything now is exactly what it is. For the first time since the accident, these two men meet. They meet when the Father volunteers for the Hypnotist's act. And, this time, he really doesn't know the words or the moves...An Oak Tree is a remarkable play for two actors. The Father, however, is played by a different actor - male or female - at each performance. They walk on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they're in...until they're in it. This is a breath-taking projection of a performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to their subject, from an audience to a person. An Oak Tree is a bold and absurdly comic play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind.An Oak Tree premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 2005.

“If you wanted to hold me. If you wanted to hold me. Hold me and tell me it’s okay” Skin Hunger is about the power of touch - a vital aspect of humanity that so many of us didn’t realise we needed until it was restricted. Written by Ann Akinjirin, Tim Crouch and Sonia Hughes Skin Hunger is a powerful live theatre experience which explores the fundamental role that touch plays in our lives, with refreshing humour and insight. OFFIES WINNER 2022: IDEA Performance Inspired by the plastic hug tunnels in Brazilian care homes, Dante or Die’s Artistic Directors devised a one-on-one performance exploring the role of touch in our lives. Skin Hunger gathers the writing of pioneering playwrights Ann Akinjirin, Tim Crouch & Sonia Hughes, along with reflections from the creative team, a foreword from a neuroscientist specialising in touch, and images from the original production that took place in a hidden chapel in London’s West End. "My cheek is folded into his neck. He’s speaking into my ear and I can feel his chest rising and falling against me. This hug is long, gentle, intimate and alien. Thanks to the huge sheet of plastic squeezed between us, covering us from head to toe and several feet further, it’s also completely risk-assessed." – The Guardian Dante or Die is an award-winning, independent theatre company, led by Daphna Attias & Terry O’Donovan, that has been creating new performances in unexpected places since 2006. You could experience one of their shows in your local leisure centre or café, the self-storage unit down the road, or on your mobile phone. They collaborate with local people, academics and experts to create a distinctive Dante or Die world, telling stories that grapple with knotty topics through intimate, witty and poignant experiences. @danteordie www.danteordie.com

Jesus didn’t die so we could be reborn, lady, the stars did.The writer leads his followers towards the end of this world and the start of a new one. The book he’s written predicts it all – the equations, the black hole, all the words we’ll speak till then.On this last day, at this last hour, a defector finds her voice and returns.

Beginners tells the story of three families trapped in a waterlogged holiday cottage over summer. The children are bored. The adults are down the pub. So far so normal.An extraordinary Easter Holiday show for everyone who has ever wanted to be understood.

'You’d like that, would you, your most private, pinkest, tenderest – small bird, small bird, small fragile – stolen from you, slammed down onto the slab, the block, poked at and paraded.’The children swing their legs on the chairs. The student delivers the presentation. The older woman stands with the gun. The young couple arrives at the house. The house is returning to nature. A movie is being made. The truth is being plundered. But the house is still lived in and the spirit to resist is strong.Janet Adler and Margaret Gibb were conceptual artists working in New York at the end of the last century. They were described by art critic Dave Hickey as the ‘most ferociously uncompromising voice of their generation’. With Adler’s death in 2004, however, the compromise began.Adler & Gibb tells the story of a raid – on a house, a life, a reality and a legacy. The play takes Tim Crouch’s fascination with form and marries it to a thrilling story of misappropriation.Also includes what happens to the hope at the end of the evening by Tim Crouch and Andy Smith, a facsimile of the text as used in performance.