Description
With honesty, humour and occasional anger, performer Bette Bourne tells the playwright Mark Ravenhill about his brave and flamboyant life. Crafted from transcripts of a series of long, private conversations, actor Bette Bourne reminisces and replays scenes from his life from a postwar childhood,a stint as a classical actor in the late 60s, to living in a drag commune in Notting Hill and being an active member of the Gay Liberation Front. Bette then talks about his touring with the New York based Hot Peaches cabaret group and founding his own cabaret troop, Bloolips, which redefined the term gay theatre by creating their very own unique celebration of dramatic and colourful homosexuality. The piece, in three parts, marks a different series of events in Bette's life to reveal both a portrait of a pioneering, radical individual and a historical document of the struggles and achievements of gay liberation.
A programme text edition to coincide with the forthcoming international tour of the play. Mark Ravenhill is one of our most successful and important playwrights and has a strong following for all his works. Bette Bourne is a seminal figure in the gay liberation movement as well as a radical advocate of his own colourful form of drag artistry and gay theatre.
About the Author
Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play Shopping and Fucking was produced in 1996 at the Royal Court. It launched him to immediate fame and defined the stage writing of 1990s. Since then, he has continued to garner critical acclaim for controversial and plays that include Some Explicit Polaroids (Out of Joint), Mother Clap's Molly House (National Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (Paines Plough/National Theatre) and most recently Over There (Royal Court).
Reviews
'A Life in Three Acts is Mark Ravenhill's genial engagement with the life and times of actor, activist and drag queen Bette Bourne, and is a turnaround from the increasingly conceptual furrow the playwright has ploughed of late.' Andrzej Lukowski, Metro (London), 24.9.09 '[A Life in Three Acts] is based on a series of edited transcripts of conversations that have taken place...bewteen [Bette] Bourne and playwright Mark Ravenhill. If that sounds dull, it isn't - at least not to anyone with an interest in tehatre history (Bourne began his career playing at the Old Vic and alongside Ian McKellin in Edward II), working-class social history, gay rights, other people's families and sparkly frocks. By my reckoning, that covers pretty much most of the population.' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 21.8.09 'Bourne's reminiscences are rich, ripe and often wonderfully funny' : 'The mixture of anger, compassion and emotional rawness here, combined with a rigorous lack of sentimentality, strikes me as admirable' Charles Spencer, The Telegraph,10.02.10 'The result is a frank and often wildly funny script: a vivid look at Gay Lib, as well as a personal portrait of a radical actor.' Whatsonstage.com (February 2010)
Book Information
ISBN 9781408125212
Author Mark Ravenhill
Format Paperback
Page Count 64
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 60g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 4mm
A programme text edition to coincide with the forthcoming international tour of the play. Mark Ravenhill is one of our most successful and important playwrights and has a strong following for all his works. Bette Bourne is a seminal figure in the gay liberation movement as well as a radical advocate of his own colourful form of drag artistry and gay theatre.
About the Author
Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play Shopping and Fucking was produced in 1996 at the Royal Court. It launched him to immediate fame and defined the stage writing of 1990s. Since then, he has continued to garner critical acclaim for controversial and plays that include Some Explicit Polaroids (Out of Joint), Mother Clap's Molly House (National Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (Paines Plough/National Theatre) and most recently Over There (Royal Court).
Reviews
'A Life in Three Acts is Mark Ravenhill's genial engagement with the life and times of actor, activist and drag queen Bette Bourne, and is a turnaround from the increasingly conceptual furrow the playwright has ploughed of late.' Andrzej Lukowski, Metro (London), 24.9.09 '[A Life in Three Acts] is based on a series of edited transcripts of conversations that have taken place...bewteen [Bette] Bourne and playwright Mark Ravenhill. If that sounds dull, it isn't - at least not to anyone with an interest in tehatre history (Bourne began his career playing at the Old Vic and alongside Ian McKellin in Edward II), working-class social history, gay rights, other people's families and sparkly frocks. By my reckoning, that covers pretty much most of the population.' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 21.8.09 'Bourne's reminiscences are rich, ripe and often wonderfully funny' : 'The mixture of anger, compassion and emotional rawness here, combined with a rigorous lack of sentimentality, strikes me as admirable' Charles Spencer, The Telegraph,10.02.10 'The result is a frank and often wildly funny script: a vivid look at Gay Lib, as well as a personal portrait of a radical actor.' Whatsonstage.com (February 2010)
Book Information
ISBN 9781408125212
Author Mark Ravenhill
Format Paperback
Page Count 64
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 60g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 4mm
