Non Fiction

Three Plays by Charles Way

Charles Way

Category: Drama, Non Fiction

Number of pages: 208

ISBN: 9781854111142

Publication date: February 23, 1995

Price: £5.95

Out of stock

’Dead Man’s Hat’ explores the myths of the Old American West, with many an acknowledgement to films like Shane and High Plains Drifter. A compelling stranger arrives at a remote homestead. Seventeen year-old Anne is ready to fall under his spell. Her mother, Kate, remains suspicious but she is desperate for help against the local rancher who is after their land. Is this stranger their saviour or their downfall?
’Paradise Drive’ is the story of a family during the 1980’s, ’four strangers bound in blood’. David works for British Rail and is about to leave the Labour Party. Jennifer, his wife, seems to have lost purpose to her life. Their daughter, Sally, is upwardly mobile and marries an ad man while son John, is a struggling artist. The play moves through a series of painfully humorous family occasions towards its tragic climax.
’In The Bleak Midwinter’ is based on a medieval mystery play. Zac, the dreaming shepherd, and Miriam, his pragmatic, long-suffering wife, journey from Black Mountains border country to Bethlehem where they must register for the ’poll tax’. Along the way they are plagued by sheep-stealer Mak and his lively girlfriend, Gill, not to mention a certain Mary and Joseph.

Charles Way

Charles Way was born in Devon in 1955. He trained as an actor at Rose Bruford College in London then joined Leeds Education team for which he wrote his first professional play in 1978. He became resident writer at Theatre Centre in London and has since written over thirty plays, many especially for young people. His plays include The Flood (published by Collins), Witness (Duke Playhouse, Lancaster), She Scored For Wales and In Living Memory. Adaptations include On the Black Hill, (Made in Wales) and Ash On A Young Man’s Sleeve, (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff). Charles has also written several large-scale community projects including the opera, A Song of Streets, for the Welsh National Opera and the people of Cardiff and Bordertown for Monmouth.

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