Crimes in Hot Countries (Playscript) - Softcover

Barker, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714540463 ISBN 13: 9780714540467

Publisher: Calder Publications Ltd, 1984

Synopsis

Howard Barker has developed his distinctive style -
fast-moving, hard-hitting, sardonic and socially incisive - over a wide
range of plays, which have been produced extensively by such companies as
the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the Oxford Playhouse.

In `Fair Slaughter', Gocher, a veteran communist and oldest living murderer
in England, lies in a prison hospital bed plotting his escape. Through his
often comic attempts to persuade the warder, Leary, to help him, Gocher's
past is revealed in a series of flashbacks starting with the British
Expeditionary Force in Russia after the Revolution. Each scene that
portrays the young Goche in the Depression, thirties' Music Halls,
factories, a burning whisky warehouse in World War II and catastrophic
fatherhood alternates with one of the old Gocher's farcical escapes and his
futile effort to rebury the hand of Trotsky's engine-driver - symbol of
this commitment - in Russian soil. In a final powerfully surreal trial on
the South Downs, the hard-line communism of Gocher's youth confronts the
humanity gained from sixty years of struggle.

`Crimes in Hot Countries' follows the fortunes of Alfred Hacker, a British
profiteer who sets up shop in a remote colonial outpost along with three
prostitutes arriving to relieve the frustration of garrisoned troops. An
attempt at rebellion by another new arrival sensing the impotence of a
senile Governor is thwarted by British Intelligence, Anzac forces and.
among others, Lawrence of Arabia. Once again, Barker's individual
imagination rewrites history with comic ease and starting authenticity.

About this title

Review

`Fair Slaughter ... a rich, subtle and complex play.'
-- Sunday Times

`constantly provocative' -- Time out

`the work of an important young dramatist that deserves to be
seen, discussed and argued about far into the night.' -- Michael Billington, Guardian

About the Author

Currently among the most controversial of British Playwrights,
Barker emerged in the early 70s as one of the Royal Court school of writers
but soon abandoned social realism, social satire and fantasy in favour of
the unique fusion of surrealism and Greek tragedy. He is a prolific writer,
with a large theatrical output complimented by many volumes of poetry as
well as essay anthologies.

Barker has broadly followed the line of theatre created by Brecht and Bond,
yet he is an individual whose style shows a different development from his
contemporaries, characterised by his vivacity and linguistic verve.
Barker's plays explore power, sexuality and human behaviour with a poetic
and compelling language that overflows with ideas, beauty, violence and
rich, dark comedy.

In his more recent work, Barker has moved further into a world of
alternative history and myth. His brand of theatre - `The Theatre of
Catastrophe' - echoes the concerns and anxieties of modern life; it is
catastrophe, either collective or individual, that looms over all of us.
The power of his writing, the fertility of his imagination, and the depth
of his dramatic invention and stage-craft make Barker, without question,
one of the major voices of the modern theatre.

There have been numerous productions of his work in the major national
theatres of Europe, Australia and North America. In Britain, aside from
productions by the Royal Court, Royal Shakespeare Company and some regional
and experimental theatres such as The Almeida in London, Barker's plays are
also toured by a specialised theatre company called 'The Wrestling School'
- a company dedicated solely to the work of Barker whose productions are
often directed by the playwright himself.

Barker is the prototypal literary figure for the new millennium - a
myth-maker of the highest order who probes the past to speculate on the
future, presenting the world in new forms and imprinting in the memory
unforgettable images and metaphors.

`There is no such thing as a minor Howard Barker play. He packs more into
the slenderest dramas than most playwrights manage in an epic.' Lyn
Gardner, The Guardian.

Edition details

• Publisher: Calder Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714540463
• ISBN 13: 9780714540467
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112