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Ted Hughes

TED HUGHES

  (1930 - 1998)
Nationality:    English
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Faber and Faber Ltd  

Ted Hughes was born on 17 august 1930 in Mytholmroyd, a small mill town in West Yorkshire. His father made portable wooden buildings. the family moved to Mexborough, a coal-mining town in South Yorkshire, when Hughes was seven. His parents took over a newsagent and tobacconist shop, and eventually he went to the local grammar school. In 1948 Hughes won an Open exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Before going there, he served two years National Service in the Royal air Force. Between leaving Cambridge and becoming a teacher, he worked at various jobs, finally as a script-reader for Rank at their Pinewood Studios. In 1956 Hughes married the American poet Sylvia Plath, who died in 1963, and they had two children. He remarried in 1970. He was awarded the OBe in 1977, created Poet Laureate in December 1984 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1998. He died in October 1998. Ted Hughes's first book, the Hawk in the Rain, was published by Faber in 1957. He published poetry, fiction and prose for both adults and children, as well as acclaimed translations. He also edited a number of poetry anthologies, including (with Seamus Heaney) the Rattle Bag and the School Bag. He won many awards including First Prize in the Guinness Poetry awards in 1958, the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1974 and the Guardian's Children's Fiction award in 1985. In 1997 he won the Whitbread Book of the Year award for Tales from Ovid, and repeated this success the following year with Birthday Letters, which was also awarded both the T. S. eliot Prize and Forward Prize for Best Collection of Poetry, and named Book of the Year at the British Book awards.

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

         Alcestis         Beauty And the Beast         Blood Wedding         Coming Of the Kings         Crow         Gaudete         Oedipus         Oresteia, The         Orpheus         Phedre         Pig Organ         Sean, The Fool, The Devil And the Cats         Spring Awakening         Story Of Vasco, The         Tales From Ovid         Tigers Bones, The

Alcestis

Alcestis
the translation is tough, plain and muscular about euripide's history of alcestis, the wife who is prepared to die so that her husband admetus could live.
John Peter, Sunday Times

Notes:
Original Playwright - euripides

1st Produced:
Viaduct, Halifax     2000

Organisations:
Northern Broadsides: Halifax

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 2000   978-0571202669

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:  13            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Beauty And the Beast

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Plays For Children" published by Faber and Faber, London   -

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:
Childrens play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blood Wedding

Blood Wedding
a young couple from rival clans plans to marry, much to the distress of the bridegroom's mother whose husband and other son have previously been murdered through clan rivalry. as the wedding day draws nearer the tension mounts and after the bride meets and elopes with former lover Leonardo, who is also married, the bridegroom's mother is caught in a dilEmma of conscience, wondering whether she should cry for vengeance and bloodshed or protect the life of her remaining son. In a violent ambush Leonardo and the bridegroom are killed leaving the bridegroom's mother, the bride and Leonardo's wife united in their grief.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Federico Garcia Lorca

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1996   978-0571190065

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  11            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Coming Of the Kings

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
the Coming Of the Kings; the Tigers Bones; Beauty And the Beast; Sean, the Fool, the Devil And the Cats

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Plays For Children" published by Faber and Faber, London   -

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:
Childrens play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Crow

Synopsis:
Mythic and elemental; Ted Hughes' Crow is at once comic, bleak and beautiful, evoking a world at odds with itself. the central crow character is a scavenger, a collector, a scientist and an innocent, full of anarchic energy and violent comedy. With this irrepressible life, Hughes created a hungry chaos of feathers and dark dreams, a mythic everyman wondering how to fit into life.

Notes:
Ted Hughes (poem); Matthew Dunster (Dramaturgy)

1st Produced:
The Borough Hall At Greenwich Dance, London     21 Jun 2012

Organisations:
a Handspring Puppet Company UK production. Presented by Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF)

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:
performance

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gaudete

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
From Julia Bardsley/Phelim McDermott

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Oedipus

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Seneca. From a translation by David Anthony Turner

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Company

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1969   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Oresteia, The

Synopsis:
a trilogy of plays concerning the bloody domestic aftermath of the Trojan War

Notes:
Original Playwright - Aeschylus. Trilogy comprises : Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, eumenides

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1999   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Orpheus

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Plays For Children" published by Faber and Faber, London   -

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:
Childrens play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Phedre

Synopsis:
replaces Racine's alexandrines with lean english verse that serves to convey the passions of his protagonists

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jean Racine

1st Produced:
Albery, London     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1998   -

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pig Organ

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Collected Plays For Children" published by Faber and Faber, London   -

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:
Childrens play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sean, The Fool, The Devil And the Cats

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Hughes, Ted, the Coming Of the Kings and Other Plays,    -

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:
Fantasy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  10 + 4 Voices

Further Reference:
-

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Spring Awakening

Synopsis:
Youthful tragedy of awakening sexuality in an atmosphere of repression.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Frank Wedekind

1st Produced:
The Pit, London     1995

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Faber and Faber, London, 1995   -

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:
adaptation. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  12            Female:  2            Other:  6b 4g

Further Reference:
-

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Story Of Vasco, The

Synopsis:
a war rages. all the men in the little town of Sosso have gone to fight - except for Vasco, the timid barber. then Lieutenant September arrives on a mission to recruit the barber. Vasco is needed for 'top secret' duty. But is it really to cut the Mirador General's hair?

Notes:
Original Playwright - Georges Schehade

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  1            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Tales From Ovid

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
By Tim Supple, Simon Reade

1st Produced:
Swan, Stratford     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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tigers Bones, The

Synopsis:
From a cautionary tale about eating the wrong persons stew to a wild retelling of the nativity, these imaginative and funny stories by one of the giants of 20th century poetry take you to a timeless world of folklore, fable, mischief and mayhem.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Hughes, Ted, the Coming Of the Kings and Other Plays,    -

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:
Fable

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  8            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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