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Anna Furse

ANNA FURSE  

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Anna Furse is the artistic Director of athletes of the Heart, and is also an award-winning director and writer of over 50 productions that have toured internationally. artistic Directorships include the pioneering visual/physical theatre company Bloodgroup in the 1980s and the new writing company Paines Plough in the 1990s for whom she developed an innovative policy of international co-productions, experiments with site-specific work and interdisciplinary laboratories. Her adaptation of George Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London, created in a disused abattoir in Burgundy in 1992 with a cast of 9 professionals and 100 extras, toured the UK and to the Theatre de Gennevilliers, Paris. augustine (Big Hysteria) about the dawning of psychoanalysis received a Time Out award for Writing and Direction and productions in the UK, Denmark, The Czech Republic, Canada and the usA. Gorgeous for Theatre Centre (Theatre Centre Plays Vol 1 aurora Metro 2003) about body image disorders is currently in repertoire at the New Conservatory Theater, San Francisco. The Peach Child for The Little angel Theatre (Japan Festival and the National Children's Theatre Festival 2001) was part of a series of works addressing issues of childlessness, infertility and bioethics: Funded by awards from the Wellcome Trust, she produced a multi media theatre work Yerma's eggs in 2003 and a performance installation Glass Body: Reflecting on Becoming Transparant touring theatres and hospitals in 2006/7. In 2007 BBC radio commissioned My Glass Body for The Wire series (R3) that she also directed, starring Barbara Flynn and Jack Klaff, produced by Sweet Talk productions. In September 2007 she previewed her co-production Don Juan.Who? with Mladinsko Theatre in Ljubljana and at The Shunt Vaults, scheduled for touring the UK in 2008. anna is Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she directs the cutting edge international Ma in Performance Making.

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

 Augustine (Big Hysteria)         Cold Wars         Glassbody         Gorgeous         Peach Child, The         Strokes Of Genius         Yerma's Eggs

Augustine (Big Hysteria)

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Genre:
Play/Drama

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Cold Wars

Synopsis:
relies on sound and gesture to create a narrative. The subject is the family and the piece explores the alienation created by bloodbonds, using broken snatches of conversation, scenes of rejection and atmospheres of forced jollity to show the implicit oppression in all aspects of family life.

Notes:
devised And presented by Blood Group from An original scenario by Anna Furse

1st Produced:
ICa, London >>>    1984

Organisations:
Blood Group

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-   -

Music:
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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

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Genre:
domestic Drama Piece

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Glassbody

Synopsis:
When the x-ray was invented, late-Victorian modesty was outraged by the prospect of being able to see what lay beneath a lady's clothes. Subsequently, before its dangers were realised, the x-ray became a novelty. Public booths allowed lovers to x-ray their hands and send them to each other as love tokens. Today, imaging technologies are commonplace. Our insides have become a digital spectacle - we are glass bodies, transparent beings who can hide nothing. What does that do to our sense of self? Our ancestors could only probe the body by touch and speculate on the site of the heart, but we can actually see it beating. What does that do to our imaginations? Ultrasound, developed for military purposes, even allows us to peer into the future at our unborn babies. We clutch these images, souvenirs of new life, in the same way that the Victorians sent each other x-rays of their hands. Played out in a womb-like pod situated in the atrium of Guy's Hospital, this brief free performance produced by athletes of the Heart utilises film, music and live performance to offer reflections or the theme of becoming transparent, with particular reference to reproductive technology and IVF. It begins with a white-gowned woman lying on a hospital trolley and ends with her child on the same trolley represented by a little red matinee jacket, a tiny pair of tights and small shoes. The link is a string of pearls, the eggs that connect mother and daughter and past and future. It is an image as startling as the cry of the woman longing for a baby, who, catching sight of her unborn child in the womb, exclaims: "I've seen the future, and she's marvellous!" The piece doesn't always succeed in turning science into art (at times, you get too much information), but it's probing and intelligent, and the intimacy of the experience creates a dreamy spell that gets under your skin so that long after it has finished you have a heightened awareness of your own body.
Lyn Gardner, Guardian

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1st Produced:
Guy's Hospital, London    2007

Organisations:
athletes of the Heart

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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

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Genre:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gorgeous

Synopsis:
a Victorian girl moves through time and body shapes

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Mount Carmel School, London    1999

Organisations:
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1st Published:
in Theatre Centre Plays for Young People Volume 1, aurora Metro Press,    -

Music:
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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

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Genre:
Monologue play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Peach Child, The

Synopsis:
One day as the Old Woman washes kimonos in the river, a large peach floats by. She takes it to her husband for dinner. as he cuts into the flesh, a baby boy is born. They call him Momotaro - peach child - who brings joy to their lives. at the age of 15 the boy tells his adoptive parents that he has to leave them. It is his destiny. Over the other side of the mountain dwells the evil Ogre who is causing violence, climate change and suffering and he must be overcome. The Old Couple let him go, fearful they may never see him again. Momotaro makes his way alone, frightened by the challenge and scared of the dark. He is met and comforted by three female spirit guides, Dog, Monkey and Bird. This humorous trio promise to help him in his quest. They journey together. By careful strategy and collaboration, using each of their individual skills to the best, Momotaro and his team manage to overcome the formidable Ogre whilst he is sleeping at night. The land is rid of evil. Momotaro returns home, triumphant. 'The Peach Child' is an adaptation of a well-loved Japanese fairytale about an old childless peasant couple, a miracle birth, growing up and letting go.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Little angel Theatre, London    2001

Organisations:
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1st Published:
in New Connections 2008, Faber and Faber, London, 2008   -

Music:
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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

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Genre:
Youth audience

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Strokes Of Genius

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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

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Genre:
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Parts:
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Yerma's Eggs

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
athletes Of The Heart

1st Published:
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Music:
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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

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Genre:
Devised Piece

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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