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Neil Coppen

NEIL COPPEN

  (1981 - )
Nationality:    South African
facebook     email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    represented by DALRO

Neil Coppen was born on 20 June 1981. He works as a playwright, free-lance journalist, director and designer. Neil serves as artistic director for the company Think Theatre Productions and has written, directed and designed several award- winning productions under the company's bAnner. Coppen frequently collaborates with the Twist Theatre development project as a writing and directing mentor to various community Theatre groups in and around KwaZulu-Natal. Neil's work centres around a wide range of historical and cultural interests. He has won several major Theatre awards for his work, was named the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama and was granted a ISPA fellowship to New York in 2013.

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below is a list of Neil Coppen's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Abnormal Loads         Marvellous Mixtures         Suicidal Pigeons         Tin Bucket Drum         To be like this Rock         Tree Boy         Two. . .the beginning of the End

Abnormal Loads

Synopsis:
Set in a fictional battle-field town nestled in the once war ravaged valleys of Northern KwaZulu-Natal. the play is a rich amalgamation of ghost story, love drama, historical epic and dark comedy, where events, both past and present, unfold seamlessly. With a narrative that whisks audiences through two centuries of South African history, Coppen's production takes an irreverent look at how history is misconstrued and constructed to suit various individual's needs while offering a funny and touching reflection on the many complexities and contradictions of life in small town South Africa.

Notes:
Abnormal Loads was commissioned as part of Coppen's 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for theatre

1st Produced:
National Arts Festival     2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Marvellous Mixtures

Synopsis:
Watch Out!!! there's a twelve storey granny on the loose and she is heading to a theatre near you. Marvellous Mixtures loosely inspired by Roald Dahl's popular children's book George's Marvellous Medicine is relocated to a desolate Karoo farm and narrated by two local (and long suffering) farm chickens. This madcap piece of family entertainment combined Coppen's love for physical theatre, and puppetry. First performed in 1998 (with Coppen and Kasia Stempowski starring) Marvellous Mixtures played to capacity houses at festivals and theatres around the country. the 2010 reboot which featured Bryan Hiles and Daisy Spencer ran for a season at the Catalina theatre and has toured the schools and festivals throughout the country. Directed, adapted and designed by Neil Coppen.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Catalina Theatre, Wilson's Wharf     27 Mar 1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
TYA

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Suicidal Pigeons

Synopsis:
Suicidal super girl recovering from a disastrous drunken super-hero dress up party teeters on the edge of a sixth story ledge and contemplates taking the leap. Mr Invisible, a failed young actor resorts to busking on London's South Bank by mastering the art of mimicking a lifeless statue while frustrated surfer Tube Rider, mangled on acid, embarks on a hellish descent into the London underground in an attempt to find his way back home. Three Durbanites living in London, One evening, three narratives colliding in thirty-minutes of explosive street theatre.

Notes:
part of the Red eye contemporary art festival

1st Produced:
Pavement Outside Durban's City Hall     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tin Bucket Drum

Synopsis:
Standard Bank Young Artist award winner for 2011 Neil Coppen's whimsical allegory Tin Bucket Drum weaves together elements of magical realism, shadow puppetry, Kabuki theatre and live percussion. Tin Bucket Drum offers a fresh twist to the traditional conventions of African story telling. Masterfully told by Mpume Mthombeni alternating the role with Thuli Zuma and with the percussive support of Wake Mahlobo the play follows the story of Nomvula, a spirited child born with a revolutionary heart-beat into a cruel and silent dictatorship. Tin Bucket Drum in its close and minutely explored world, takes a broad swipe at age old global systems of restriction enforced for personal gain by those in power, and the way these restrictions affect the man or woman on the ground. Above all it looks, rather optimistically at the power of creativity.

Notes:
text available from agent

1st Produced:
Grahamstown Fringe     29 Jun 2007

Organisations:
the Imbewu Trust

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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To be like this Rock

Synopsis:
To Be Like This Rock was commissioned by the Twist theatre Development Project, which is supported by the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. For this collaboration Coppen teamed up with Umsindo theatre group in Umlazi to further develop a script idea which the group had been working on. the result was TO Be LIKe THIS ROCK  the harrowing story of five girls who are taken from their homes and sold into a human trafficking syndicate.

Notes:
Written by Neil Coppen in collaboration with the Umsindo theatre group. TO Be LIKe THIS ROCK won the MUSHO with a twist audience award in 2010 and a Standard Bank Ovation award at the 2011 Grahamstown festival.

1st Produced:
Twist Theatre     2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tree Boy

Synopsis:
Tree Boy is set in the period during which South Africa shifted from being a British Colony to an independent republic under the control of the National Party. Coppen's play tells a deceptively simple story: an eleven year old boy's Benjamin Sprout's mother dies, his Father Arthur is unable to cope with the loss and turns to alcohol, they move from a remote farming area to an industrial town and hope is born again through the example of the life cycle of trees. Voila! But the script is something of a banyan tree, spreading its branches into related territory and sending its many roots into the earth. In a dreamscape of shadows, reflections, light and shade, the story is told through layers of time; images are conjured, developed, reduced; deep emotions are played out and the tragi-comedy ends on a sombre note of contained anticipation of joy.

Notes:
script and design by Neil Coppen, direction by Libby Allen, musical score created and performed by Guy Buttery & Karen Van Pletsen, stop animation by Tessa Comrie, Digital SFX by IAMINAWe, lighting design by Tina le Roux and Sound design by Tristan Horton.

1st Produced:
New Stages Festival At The Playhouse     2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
multi media

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Two. . .the beginning of the End

Synopsis:
Set in the infamous elwyn Court in Point road Durban, Two. . .the beginning of the end attempts to encapsulate the ingredients that create a society of people trapped in fear and insatiable habit, it examines the psychology of men and women playing out the results of abuse, poverty of spirit and dysfunction in childhood. Specifically it looks at the disturbing circumstances of two people each driven to the edge of life by destiny weighted against their favour. This strange music is enacted a shadowy room, the street lit curtain blowing in the sea breeze, a skew picture on the wall. the haunting music with its little moments of light romance is effective in creating an atmosphere of foreboding and tension.

Notes:
Written and performed by Neil Coppen and Clare Mortimer

1st Produced:
Kwa-Suka Theatre     2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
play with music

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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