Table of Contents

Introduction Why Is John Lennon Wearing A Skirt? (Stage2 version, large cast) Arsehammers (Stage2 version, large cast) The Year of the Monkey (Stage2 version, large cast) Hard Working Families (original version, large cast)

Promotional Information

An anthology bringing together Claire Dowie's plays for young people, which are ideal for performance with a large cast.

About the Author

Claire Dowie is a writer, performer, poet, comedian and pioneer of Stand-Up Theatre, often associated with the In-Yer-Face approach to theatre-making. After starting out on the alternative comedy circuit, she switched to stand-up comedy and writing plays. Her first major work, Adult Child/Dead Child, won a Time Out Award in 1988. Other works include Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt?, Easy Access (For the Boys), All Over Lovely, Cat and Mouse, Death and Dancing and The Year of the Monkey. She works extensively with young people.

Reviews

Claire Dowie is the supreme advocate of rebellion. She debunks conformity – or almost anything which can be defined
*Stage*

Dowie makes you laugh as she kicks you in the teeth
*Guardian*

The female counterpart to Quentin Crisp
*Evening Standard*

This collection of four plays, three of which debuted as stand-up pieces, is an attempt to involve a flexible cast of teen actors in a low-stress form of theatre. With the overriding theme of personal choice vs. societal norms, the pieces use familiar issues—expectations of males vs. females, the challenges caused by Alzheimer’s disease, emotional repression, political posturing—presented in contemporary situations to highlight how our lives are often controlled by mores that we don’t choose. The concept of creating large-cast plays for actors with minimal stage experience works well for school/community theatres, and the idea of using groups of actors to form composite characters allows for even neophyte participation … As in-class or end-of-term drama presentations, the plays will do well, hopefully inspiring middle/high school students to try their hand at writing similar pieces with personally relevant themes.
*School Library Journal*