Ten Plagues' and 'The Coronation of Poppea'

Description

In London Came the plague in sixteen sixty five One hundred thousand dead But I alive. London is infected. The dead fall in the streets. As the plague pits fill, the people of London struggle to maintain a society in the face of overwhelming mortality. Based on eye-witness accounts from 1665 and drawing poetic parallels with modern epidemics, Ten Plagues relates one man's journey through a city in crisis. Told entirely through a series of songs, Ten Plagues explores humanity's struggle with sickness and death and celebrates our capacity for survival. This volume also contains The Coronation of Poppea, a new version of Monteverdi's opera depicting the triumphant adultery between Poppea and Roman Emperor Nero. Tackling this tale of epic lives, Ravenhill updates Tacitus' scathing portrayal of decadence and imperial degeneracy with language which is contemporary, spare and brutally powerful. Mark Ravenhill's introduction to the two pieces explains the genesis of his writing, the history behind the operas, their themes and their poetry.

Mark Ravenhill is one of the most distinctive contemporary UK playwrights. He burst on to the theatre scene in 1996 with the huge hit Shopping and Fucking. He has continued to garner critical acclaim for plays that include Some Explicit Polaroids, Mother Clap's Molly House, and most recently Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre, Royal Court, Paines Plough, The Gate Theatre, April 2008).

A remarkable song-cycle... it's the portrait of grief beyond measure that's so affecting and which this moving hour of solitudinous lamentation, confusion and defiance brings beautifully to the fore. -- Dominic Cavendish * Telegraph * Startlingly effective... the tokens of the plague - a raised circle of marks on the body - and the tokens of love become entwined in a world in which a kiss can bring death. -- Lyn Gardner * Guardian * A potent, moving balance of formal and emotional elements ... This journey has momentum: early insouciance gives way to grotesque fascination, paranoia, absurd humour, forbearance, grizzled survivalism and a kind of ecstasy. -- Ben Walters * Time Out *