Tin Soldier and Other Plays for Children

Greig Noel

Description

A collection of three enchanting plays adapted from popular fairy tales and suitable for family audiences: Tin Soldier (adapted from The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen), A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel), Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood).Acclaimed playwright Noel Greig, has recreated these well-known tales for the stage with wit and imagination. All three plays have been performed throughout the UK by Tangere Arts, winning aTime Out Critics' Choice Award.Teachers, youth theatres and amateur groups working with young performers will use this collection time and again for productions, drama classes and workshops - whether for one performer or many.Suitable for children aged 7+The simple form and language of the plays belie their theatrical and psychological sophistication.Tin Soldier' a powerful poetic drama, an epic fable for our times.' **** IndependentA Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel)' Delicious moments... fashioned into a rhyming feast.' ****Time OutHood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood)' a first-rate piece of storytelling that will make children squeal with terrified delight and parents shiver with recognition. ' **** Guardian

Informations

• Publié par: Distributed By PublishDrive
• Date de parution: 09 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781906582227
• Langue: English

Extrait

Tin Soldier
and other plays
for children
by
Noël Greig

AURORA METRO PRESS
Introduction
David Johnston
I first met Noël Greig in 1986. I was director ofLondon’s Theatre Centre, the country’s largest and oldest children’sprofessional touring theatre company, and we were looking for new writerswho would be able to deliver the kind of sophisticated, political youngpeople’s theatre that we had become famous for and wanted to developfurther. We found Noël Greig. He went on to write many plays for TheatreCentre, long after I had moved on. He also became crucial as the companydramaturg, and an inspiration for many young writers, several of whom havesince become very well known indeed.
Noël was a great wordsmith whose writing displayed adeep understanding of the human condition. He wrote over fifty plays, forboth children and adults, many of which were performed internationally.Although only around a dozen of these plays have been published, when youread his work, his compassion springs off the page and the poetic languagecan take your breath away.
We are therefore immensely pleased to be publishing thistrilogy of his plays for children in a single collection. Hood in theWood , A Tasty Tale – the true story of Hansel and Gretel and Tin Soldier were all produced by Tangere Arts between 2005 and2008.
I had first commissioned Hood in the Wood in 1993for Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout to be performed by four actors playingthe roles of Little Red, her mother, grandmother, the wolf and anarrator/percussionist. It toured to Nottinghamshire schools with greatsuccess, performing to 7 to 11 year olds.
In 2003, when Ava Hunt and myself started the TangereArts project with a commitment to small-scale, minimalist theatre forchildren and communities in the East Midlands, it seemed a natural piece tore-visit. I had always suspected that the inner strengths of the writing in Hood in the Wood might best be revealed through a one-personperformance, and having an excellent performer such as Gary Lagden in theteam, who had previously worked with Noël on several other projects, itseemed a natural project to propose.
Noël took to the project immediately, and in summer2005 we rapidly produced a workshop version for local schools, which provedsuccessful. However, we felt it would benefit from live music so when LewisGibson became available, we brought him in to the production. He not onlyplayed his own excellent violin accompaniment but also added a range ofunusual instruments, creating amazing sounds that took the show to anotherlevel. The music and the musician not only created a soundtrack for thepoetry of Noël’s words and Gary’s highly physical performance style,but became fully interwoven into the story and the production.
Originally, we had planned simply to tour the piecearound regional schools and then to move on to our next project. However,Noël’s illness obliged us to bring the play down to London for a smallshowcase for himself and friends. Remarkably, the success of this led to afour week run at London’s Unicorn Theatre, an invitation to the annual Take Off international festival, national touring to theatres, artscentres and village halls as well as two residencies at Manchester’s RoyalExchange studio for their Christmas programme.
Gary Lagden as the Wolf in Hood in the Wood (photo: University of Derby)
Hood in the Wood is an extraordinary piece,probably Noël’s best in this genre. It tells the story very much from thepoint of view of Little Red, as a ‘rites of passage’ feminist fable with atruly scary wolf, and a very bloody climax. Hood takes on and destroys thewolf with no woodcutters in sight, obliterating him brutally, only pausingto wrap his pelt around herself and move forward into womanhood. It isloved by one and all.
Gary Lagden and Lewis Gibson in A Tasty Tale (photo: Chris Webb)
The beauty of Noël’s writing is that it allows theaudience to make their own interpretations, and find parallels withinthemselves and the world around them. His writing is never didactic orprescriptive but rather it is lyrical, touching, visceral and sometimesdownright scary. In particular, the sequence where Hood first meets the wolfand ends up riding on the wolf’s back is certainly memorable.
In 2007, A Tasty Tale , based on the story ofHansel and Gretel, went into East Midlands schools, and was followed byresidencies at the Unicorn and Royal Exchange for Christmas.
However, whether we were over-ambitious, or perhapsbecause we went from the writing to the finished production too rapidlywithout proper reflection, the process wasn’t easy.
Noël had written a very different type of script,equally as poetic and interesting as Hood in the Wood but it involveda great deal of movement backwards and forwards in time and space. It had acast of 8 to 10 characters and a narrator who was not a major protagonistuntil the end of the traditional story.
Gary Lagden and Lewis Gibson in A Tasty Tale (photo: Rebecca Taylor-Wright)
As we were also creating the music and soundscape at thesame time as developing the acting and character work it was a complexundertaking. Although the production was hugely enjoyed by young and oldalike in schools and theatre spaces, it never felt really satisfying forthose of us who created it.
The following year Noël’s illness returned and hemade the decision to write one last play for us with Lewis Gibson directingand developing the musical element as an integral element. The play was tobe a new adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, TheSteadfast Tin Soldier .
Tin Soldier , like the two plays that preceded it,is essentially written as a short epic poem. The play attempts to stay trueto the original, while exploring some of the hidden meanings in newsometimes provocative, frequently funny and entertaining, but alwaystruthful ways.
The original Hans Christian Andersen tale is certainlyone of his lesser known and darker pieces. The story revolves around anunwanted one-legged tin toy who spends his time staring silently at a lovelypaper dancer who seems to fulfil his every need – in his mind at least.When he falls out of the nursery window, he is carried on a series ofexciting and frightening adventures.
Initially, abused by street urchins then menaced by agiant rat, he gets lost in a storm, swallowed by a giant fish and caught byfisherman. Finally, the tin soldier is returned to the nursery as part of ameal of cooked fish, whereupon he is carelessly thrown into a blazing fireby an unthinking child, and perishes. His only consolation is that the paperdancer joins him in a mutual consummation – or should it be conflagration?Yet steadfast he remains throughout: steadfast, silent and brave.
Noël was very clear in his belief that the story hadenormous significance for Andersen and spoke greatly about the hiddenmeanings as expressed simply in that short story. For Noël, Andersen’slatent homosexuality and his difficulties in forming relationships with bothmen and women were key to the reading of this piece. He felt strongly thatAndersen was trying to tell his readers something about himself and thedangers of unrequited love, the pain of being ‘steadfast and true’ andthe seeming pointlessness of life, love and longing, all leading to adangerous rollercoaster of a journey with the hope for salvation oftendashed in the flames of disappointment.
It is certainly beautifully written, very moving andrather sad, especially relevant to the world today. The ability of ourconsumer society to throw away objects of great value and to reject peopleand their creations in a superficial and careless way, cannot have been farfrom Noël’s mind as he wrote his final play.
The parting words of the playwright as the Tin Soldierfades into oblivion with his beloved dancer are: “And there we must takeleave of them”.
Noël finished the play late in 2008, but sadly he diedbefore we could secure funding to produce it.
As I write now in September 2010, Tin Soldier isabout to go into production at the Unicorn Theatre in London while both Hood in the Wood and A Tasty Tale show signs of having alonger life. Plans to tour the plays to Ireland, the Far East and NorthAmerica are a real possibility.
All three plays have offered a fascinating, andfrequently challenging journey for myself and the Tangere team. We hope youenjoy reading them, performing them and watching them too.
Please note: This is an abbreviated version of alonger piece describing David Johnston’s working relationship with NoëlGreig over 23 years. To see the full article, please go to www.tangere-arts.co.uk
Tin Soldier
Adapted from The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen
A Tangere Arts and Unicorn Theatre co-productionopened on October 26th, 2010. Featuring Gary Lagden, Chris Preece and NickHaward, directed by Lewis Gibson, with music composed by Lewis Gibson.
NARRATOR
Prologue.
There’s a room
And it’s lit By the flickering flames Of the logs on the fire In the grate
There’s a box And a boy And a birthday And a crate of new toys for the boy Trumpets and drums Games and paints Books and battleships And a castle
What a lot!
But the box What’s in the box?
Soldiers! Tin soldiers!
A Fierce Song of Soldiers.
Twenty-five soldiers All made of tin On their tin shoulders
Tin guns!
Rifles at the ready boys Steady boys
Right!
Tiny tin hearts All beating as one Ready to fight When the battle’s begun
What fun!
An Unfinished Soldier.
But one tin soldier He’s not finished He’s not complete
He’s got two tin arms And his rifle is ready In his two tin hands
But He stands to attention On his one tin leg!
A Cruel Song of Soldiers.
So sing a hurrah boys We’re toys that are made from tin We’ve got two arms two legs and two feet But we don’t want him!
Out of the box with him!
He’s not one of us boys He’s not right he doesn’t fit in When it comes to a fight he wouldn’t Know how where to begin!
Out of the box with him!
The Wild World of th