Frontline Drama 6: The French Issue: One More Wasted Year; Agnes; The Northern Fox; Mickey the Torch; A Desire to Kill...

Description

Published in conjunction with the Royal Court Theatre, this volume includes translations of five extraordinary new plays from France which were presented as part of the French Theatre Season in London during 1997 One More Wasted Year by Christophe Pellet presents two young men who inhabit a world of cafes and rented bed-sits, in their late twenties they already seem to old for a youth-obsessed world; Agnes by Catherine Anne is a play that gradually reveals the details of a father's obsession for his daughter and the way he emotionally blackmails her into satisfying his lust; The Northern Fox by Noelle Renaud contains several dramatic developments including that of the infidelities of Maxime Fuyard and the marital infidelities of Mr and Mrs Kuhn and Otto's bored and feverish bed-hopping; In Mickey The Torch by Natacha de Pontcharra Mickey works as a nightwatchman in a bleak contemporary cityscape; A Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue by Xavier Durringer is the story of working-class youth adrift and prey to the needs for sex, drink or drugs, it shows the shifting relationships between a group of friends hanging about outside a disco. The translators are Martin Crimp (One More Wasted Year); Nigel Gearing (Agnes); Annabel Arden (Mickey the Torch); A Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue (Mark Ravenhill); and Gillian Hanna (The Northern Fox)

Catherine Anne (born 1960) is a French actor, director and dramaturg. After her studies, she worked under the renowned directors Sommaire. More than twenty-five of her plays have been produced, throughout France and abroad, including Agnes, which, in a translation by Nigel Gearing was given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in London in 1997. She was Artistic Director of the Theatre de l'Est parisien from 2002 to 2011, where her time at the helm was noted for its exposure of contemporary authors and the democratisation of the theatre towards all generations of audiences. Christophe Pellet is a French dramaturg, born in Toulon, 1963. He is a graduate of the Ecole nationale superieure des metiers de l'image et du son (formerly le FEMIS). As well as One More Wasted Year (translated by Martin Crimp), which was given a full production by the Royal Court in 1997, he has also written a number of films including Le Garcon avec les cheveux dans les yeux, and Plus dure sera la chute. Nathacha de Pontcharra was born in Montelimar in 1960. A writer and artist, she lives in Paris. She has been publishing novels and poems since 1976, in various reviews: Les Nouvelles Litteraires, Parler, Exit, Le Fou parle... She is also the author of more than twenty plays and has won many prizes and bursaries. In her work, de Pontcharra explores the depths of human soul and society through characters often on the margins. She has written on many subjects, from the family (in La Trempe, Les Rates, La franchise c'est bien, Le Voisinage, Mickey-la-Torche), the world of business, (in Dancing), and adolescence (in Je m'appelle pas Sheherazade). Many of her works have been translated and produced abroad, including Annabel Arden's rendering of Mickey-the-Torch, which was given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in 1997, and published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays in 2000. Noelle Renaude (b. Paris, 1949) is a French dramaturg. She has written many plays, the majority of which have been translated into many languages and performed around the world. Plays include: Madame Ka (1999); Fiction d'hiver (1999); La Comedie de Saint-Etienne (2000); Promenades (2002); 8 (2003); Par les routes (2004 ); and Sans carte sans boussole sans equipement (2010 ). Her play Le Renard du Nord was translated by Gillian Hanna and given a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court in 1997. It is published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays (2000). Xavier Durringer (b. Paris 1963) is a French dramaturg and directo. He is the artistic director of Le Lezarde for whom he writes and directs.His Une envie de tuer..., sur le bout de la langue (translated by Mark Ravenhill as The Desire to Kill on the Tip of the Tongue) was presented at the Royal Court as a rehearsed reading in 1997. It was subsequently published by Methuen Drama in Frontline Drama 6: New French Plays (2000).