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Forced Entertainment

FORCED ENTERTAINMENT

  (1984 - )
Nationality:    British
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

We are a group of six artists based in Sheffield, UK. We make performances as well as projects in other media and contexts. the Guardian newspaper has called us "Britain's most brilliANT experimental Theatre company" which we like! Our work varies quite a lot - from projects that are very brash and theatrical to other works that are very minimal and text-based. In everything we do we are trying to find ways to talk about contemporary experience, and to create exciting and intimate encounters with audiences. Since we started in 1984 we have presented our projects in a lot of different places in the UK, all over mainland europe and much further afield.

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

         200% And Bloody Thirsty         And on the Thousandth         Bloody Mess         Bloody Thirsty         Coming Storm, The         Disco Relax         Emanuelle Enchanted         Exquisite Pain         First Night         Hidden J         Last Adventures, The         Let the Water. . .         Notebook, The         Possible Impossible House, The         Quizoola!         Some Confusion in. . .         Speak Bitterness         Spectacular         That Night Follows Day         Thrill Of It All, The         Tomorrows Parties         Void Story         Who Can Sing a Song         World In Pictures, The

200% And Bloody Thirsty

Synopsis:
three friends enact a hectic ritual of birth and death, observed from video screens by a pair of mock-solemn angels.
- Jim Hiley, Listner

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
ICA, London >>>    1989

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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And on the Thousandth

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

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:  -

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Bloody Mess

Synopsis:
In their latest show - carefully choreographed mayhem like an end-of-the-pier show having an existential crisis - they do all this and more. they present a theatre full of bright gaudy creatures all vying for attention under the bright lights of the stage, who, like shadows, slip into the darkness and disappear when the lights go down and are extinguished. Just as we do. along the way there is plenty of fun in a scenario where theatre meets rock concert: a woman runs around in a gorilla suit throwing popcorn, two naked men carrying cardboard silver stars contemplate beautiful silences, roadies offer unhelpful advice, the end of the world is acted out with pom-pom balls and tinsel, and a woman changes her clothes and pours water over herself like a tragic weeping Greek heroine or maybe just an abandoned rock chick. This is one long, very knowing, wonderfully playful theatrical game on the nature of illusion, narrative and laughter that never becomes tedious or remote because it is so desperately human, so full of our frailties - our individual desire always to be centre-stage, to perform for the audience. - Lyn Gardner, Guardian

Notes:
devised by the company, text by Tim etchells And the company

1st Produced:

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  10 performers

Further Reference:
-

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Bloody Thirsty

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
ICA, London >>>    1989

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Coming Storm, The

Synopsis:
the show's accumulated a jumble sale's worth of old clothes a drum kit, a piano, a base guitar and a forest of branches. What's emerging is a tangle of multiple stories which cross-cut each other to make an epic saga that is resolutely too big for the stage.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
essen, Germany    23 May 2012

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:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Disco Relax

Synopsis:
a performance art window into the psychology of Bacchanalian excess

Notes:
devised by the company, text by Tim etchells

1st Produced:
Toynbee Syudios, London e!    2000

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Emanuelle Enchanted

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Devised By Forced entertainment, Text By Tim etchells

1st Produced:
ICA, London >>>    1992

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Exquisite Pain

Synopsis:
prods at what it means to be human, disturbs with the close relationship of pleasure and pain, pokes fun at therapy culture, looks at the way we consciously and unconsciously manipulate the truth, and also understands the healing power of story telling. - Lyn Gardner, Guardian

Notes:
text by Sophie Calle

1st Produced:
Riverside, London    2005

Organisations:
Forced entertainment

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:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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First Night

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Place, London    2001

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Hidden J

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells

1st Produced:

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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Last Adventures, The

Synopsis:
We are in the rubble of a story. An array of homemade costumes summon a pageant involving giant sea monsters, a chorus of the dead or the lost, dancing trees or spirits, a parade of what might be robots. the 15 or so performers are locked in an unraveling and constantly mutating sequence of scenes, routines, dances, chases, practical tasks and moments of stillness and intimacy. Sounds swarm and storm like a war in the air. Electronic noise, location recordings, instrument samples and voices tangle in a sea of noise structured by Tarek Atoui's compositional algorithms and manipulated by live interaction with his self-built instrument of computer, sensors, faders and switches. the Last Adventures is a collaboration between British writer, artist and director Tim Etchells, the performance collective Forced Entertainment, and the Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui. A piece about memory, mixing fairy tales, science fiction, children's picture books and epic myths. the performers are part of a constantly changing sequence of scenes, dances and chases set to an improvised electronic soundscape. Before our eyes Forced Entertainment transform a strange haunted forest into a mysterious subterranean lake, or the aftermath of a terrible war. Here and there recognisable characters surface as situations and fragments of text, emerging onstage from the ruins of familiar stories, only to disappear in the very next moment. For this new production, Tarek Atoui will develop a new unique instrument made of computers, sensors, controls, and switches that reacts to the actions of the performers while at the same time being manipulated by Atoui himself.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Maschinenhalle Zweckel, Gladbeck    05 Sep 2013

Organisations:
Ruhrtriennale Festival

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Let the Water. . .

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

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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Notebook, The

Synopsis:
Forced Entertainments performance tells the story of twin brothers evacuated to the Hungarian countryside during World War II, to stay at their impoverished grandmothers farm. The unnamed narrators are social outsiders, surviving in and understanding the world by a harsh private code. Though strange and dysfunctional, the brothers are slowly revealed as struggling moralists, trying to live by consistent principles in a Central Europe crumbling into vice, cruelty and opportunism.

Notes:
Based on the award-winning novel The Notebook (1986), by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof. Devised by Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O'Connor

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Forced Entertainment

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:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Possible Impossible House, The

Synopsis:
Combining home-made visual magic and live sound effects, this is the first work Forced Entertainment has created for young people and families. In the library of The Possible Impossible House, a doodle of a girl springs from the blank page of an algebra book. She'll take you on an adventure around labyrinthine corridors, a deserted ballroom and a cupboard under the stairs, encountering a motley crew of characters. There's a flock of rowdy birds, a talking mouse, a not-so-very-frightening ghost and an army of dancing soldiers. At the forefront of contemporary theatre over the past 30 years, the international trailblazers Forced Entertainment collaborate with visual artist Vlatka Horvat, whose collages help summon the house and figures inside.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

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 70 min

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Quizoola!

Synopsis:
Perhaps the best known of the company's durational works, Quizoola! consists of three actors smeared in clown make-up who ask and answer 2000 prepared questions for a period of 6 hours. Shifting from quiz show to interrogation to hilarious improvisation by turns, the show forms a marathon game of question and answer where the audience is free to ente r and exit as they please

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the text for Speak Bitterness is published in Certain Fragments   -

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:  3 actors

Further Reference:
-

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Some Confusion in. . .

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells

1st Produced:

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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Speak Bitterness

Synopsis:
We're guilty of homemade bombs and homemade wine. We're guilty of coldness and spite. We never laughed and we never found the time . . .. the essence of Speak Bitterness is a line of people making confessions from behind a long table. Occupying a brightly lit space, the performers take turns reading from the text that is strewn across the table. the litany of wrongdoing to which they confess ranges from the big time of forgery, murder or genocide to nasty little details, such as reading each other's diaries and refusing to take the dogs out for a walk. First presented in 1994, Speak Bitterness has subsequently been shown in both theatre and durational versions, the latter lasting up to six hours and allowing the public to arrive, depart and return at any point. an exhaustive catalogue, the text draws on the diverse cultures of confession in, for example, contemporary chat shows, churches and show trials. Dressed in suits, the performers compete to confess the most horrific, amusing or convincing things. Speaking softly, they meet the gaze of the audience (who are partly illuminated), drawing them into direct and intimate contact.

Notes:
Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the text for Speak Bitterness is published in Certain Fragments   -

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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Spectacular

Synopsis:
a lone performer takes to the stage, explaining that the show we're watching is different tonight. the atmosphere is different, his entrance was off, the lights are wrong, some scenery is missing, some performers are absent. the tone is all wrong. Perhaps the fact he is dressed as a skeleton has something to do with it

Notes:
concevied And devised by Forced entertainment; text by Tim etchells, Robin Arthur And the company

1st Produced:
PACT Zollverein, essen    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:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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That Night Follows Day

Synopsis:
about the intensity and ambivalence of parent-child relationships, as seen from the child's point of view.
- Joyce McMillan

Notes:
By Tim etchells (Forced entertainment) And Victoria

1st Produced:
Glasgow, Tramway / touring    2008

Organisations:
Flemish Theatre company Campo (Victoria)

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:  16 performers

Further Reference:
-

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Thrill Of It All, The

Synopsis:
Rehearsals for this new work throw the company and its collaborators into a territory of ragged songs, distorted voices and broken exuberant dances. It's bright under the lights, and hot, and frightening. On a bare stage a group of nine performers - deranged dancing girls and derelict comedians - offer sentimental advice and dysfunctional parables to a light piano accompaniment. a quartet of female dancers swirl, giggle, bicker and stray further and further from the point. there are stories and more questions shot through with bright, lonely and comical dances.

Notes:
Conceived And devised by the company

1st Produced:
KunstenfestivaldesArts in Brussels    07 May 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:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Tomorrows Parties

Synopsis:
Forced entertainments latest performance explores ideas and cliches of hope. Writing and collecting future scenarios as well as small narratives concerning optimism and despair, the company investigate the speculative nature of anticipation and the myriad possibilities the future holds in store. Tomorrows Parties draws on ideas of utopian and dystopian projections, the optimistic stories we tell ourselves and on the pleasures of invention that arise as the work twists and turns in performance. From these conjectures, day dreams and gripping but well-worn narratives the piece will move out in different directions to other kinds of speculations  the realistic, the personal and the evidently fantastical. Tomorrows Parties is Forced entertainment in intimate and comical mode - a playful, poignant and at times delirious look forwards to futures both possible and impossible.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Festival Belluard Bollwerk International, Fribourg    24 Jun 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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Void Story

Synopsis:
This bleak and comical modern fable follows a beleaguered pair of protagonists on a rollercoaster ride through the decimated remains of contemporary culture. Void Story is performed on stage as a radio play with the actors doing the voices' and making sound effects. Behind them a series of projected images show the storyboard for an impossible movie version of Tim etchells' unsettling text

Notes:
Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Spill Festival

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:
Physical theatre

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Who Can Sing a Song

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells

1st Produced:
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London    1999

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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World In Pictures, The

Synopsis:
Forced entertainment's last show 'Bloody Mess' began with the world's creation and ended apocalyptically. This new show, devised as ever by the company, looks at the bits in between. according to a note in the programme, it's inspired by a '60s record called 'the Triumph of Man' and the actors have some fun racing through such a huge story in just under two hours. It leaves little time for subtleties, and the narrator, Terry O'Connor, never misses a historical cliche. Hindered by showers of paper snow and whispered comments from another actor, she describes the discovery of fire (two electric heaters appear on stage), the black death (a man in a skeleton suit pushes a wheelbarrow) and the dance of peace before World War I (everybody floats around). In between, the rest of actors revel in rape and pillage and farming and fighting, dressed in animal skins, bad wigs, and viking helmets -that's if they're wearing anything at all.
Jane Edwardes, Time Out London

Notes:
Text by Tim etchells And Forced entertainment

1st Produced:

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:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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