Playing for Time: Stories of Lost Children, Ghosts and the Endangered Present in Contemporary Theatre

186 Pages·2007·0.648 MB·English

by  Geraldine Cousin

Playing for time
This page intentionally left blank
Playing for time
Stories of lost children, ghosts and
the endangered present in
contemporary theatre
Geraldine Cousin
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave
Copyright © Geraldine Cousin 2007
The right of Geraldine Cousin to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published byManchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK
andRoom 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed exclusively in the USA by
Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010, USA
Distributed exclusively in Canada by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia,
2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data applied for
ISBN978 0 7190 6197 4 hardback
EISBN 978 1 8477 9168 9
First published 2007
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 0710 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
Printed in Great Britain
by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn
For my nephews and nieces, and with gratitude to
Joan, Julia and especially to Kate
This page intentionally left blank
But who shall return us the children?
(Rudyard Kipling, The Children)
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface page xi
1 The collapsing house 1
2 Past present: dramatisations of ‘return’ 9
3 Enter the revenant 28
4 Nunc Instantis: Arcadia andCopenhagen 55
5 Stories of lost futures 73
6 The Skriker’s progeny 93
7 Blood sacrifice 120
8 Daughters’ tales 136
9 Coram Boy: a final story 161
Bibliography 166
Index 169