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HELEN EDMUNDSON (1964 - ) |
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Nationality: English Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: The Agency (London) Ltd represented by Julia Kreitman |
Helen Edmundson (born 1964) is a British playwright particularly well known for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage. Her original plays include Flying (National Theatre Studio), The Clearing (Bush Theatre John Whiting Award for Best New Play) and Mother Teresa is Dead (Royal Court Theatre). She has adapted works that include The Mill on the Floss, Anna Karenina, Orestes Blood and Light, Gone to Earth and War and Peace (Shared Experience), Coram Boy (National Theatre), Zorro the Musical (Garrick Theatre), Life is a Dream (Donmar Warehouse) and currently Sorjuana (RSC) and Mephisto (MJE Productions). Her film and television work includes Malombra, The Clearing, The Spire and Estella.
Plays by Helen Edmundson
Anna Karenina | ||
| 1st Produced: | Winchester: Theatre Royal | 30 Jan 1992 | ||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1848421974 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10685 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | extras | |||||
Notes: | From novel by Leo Tolstoy | |||||
| Helen Edmundson's hugely successful stage adaptation for Shared Experience Theatre Company of the classic novel by Tolstoy, which won the Time Out Award for the Outstanding Theatrical Event of 1992. Anna is beautiful and admired but empty until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself. | |||||
Further Reference: | Theatre Record Vol XII (1992) Page 0289; Theatre Record Vol XIII (1993) Page 0196; Theatre Record Vol XV (1995) Page 1461; Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 1211; Theatre Record Vol XXXI (2011) Page 0303 | |||||
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Clearing, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 22 Nov 1993 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10686 | |||
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: | Historical Play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | won the John Whiting and Time Out Theatre Awards. Peer-reviewed article published on the play, listed by the MLA international bibliography by K. Sarah-Jane Murray - http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/30162.pdf | |||||
| Shows the devastating effects of Cromwell's racial persecution on a small farming community in 17 century Ireland | |||||
Further Reference: | Theatre Record Vol XIII (1993) Page 1383; Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 0384; Theatre Record Vol XIX (1999) Page 1401Theatre Record Vol XXII (2002) Page 0524 | |||||
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Coram Boy | ||
| 1st Produced: | 02 Nov 2005 | |||||
Company: | NT | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1854598943 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #44833 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 10 | ||
Parts other: | 3 boys, doubling | |||||
Notes: | from a novel by Jamila Gavin. This play was originally written to be performed on the National Theatre's Olivier stage; however, there is no reason at all why it cannot be fully realised in smaller, simpler spaces. We did make use of the Olivier's revolv | |||||
| Set in the 18th century, Coram Boy is a tale of two cities - Gloucester and London - and a tale of two boys: Toby, saved from an African slave ship, and Aaron, the illegitimate heir to a great estate. It is also a tale of fathers and sons: slave-trader, Otis, and his son Meshak; and landowner Sir William Ashbrook and the son he disinherits. | |||||
Further Reference: | Theatre Record Vol XXV (2005) Page 1512; Theatre Record Vol XXVI (2006) Page 1477 | |||||
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Coventry Carol | ||
| 1st Produced: | 15 Feb 1995 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10687 | |||
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: | short play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | part of Bearing Fruit: short plays by five women playwrights | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | ||||||
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Flying | ||
| 1st Produced: | RNT Studio, London | 1990 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10688 | |||
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: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Gone To Earth | ||
| 1st Produced: | Gardner Arts Centre, Brighton | 25 Mar 2004 | ||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10689 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | 1 musician | |||||
Notes: | from novel by Mary Webb | |||||
| Incorporating traditional dances and folk songs, Gone to Earth tells the story of Hazel, an innocent and free-spirited 17-year old child of nature living in rural Shropshire. But when both the black-hearted squire and the idealistic minister fall in love with her she is drawn into a world of earthly passions which threatens to destroy her. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Heresy of Love, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 02 Feb 2012 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1848422391 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #126403 | |||
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: | drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 8 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| A powerful drama based on the extraordinary life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a poet, nun and major literary figure of Mexico. In a convent in seventeenth-century Mexico, Sister Juana strives to reconcile her love for God with her desire for a life of the mind. Her gift for writing plays and poems is celebrated by the Court, but her success creates alarm within the Church. Persecuted by a zealous archbishop, Sister Juana's world threatens to crumble around her as everything she holds dear is jeopardised by dangerous ambitions and illicit desires. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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In The Night, A Promise | ||
| 1st Produced: | 10 Oct 2011 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1849432276 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #133132 | |||
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: | piece | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is a response to the King James Bible book of Zephaniah | |||||
| The King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the English language. The KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken English.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. The curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. Each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. Each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. The voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. All the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush Theatre and Westminster Abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient arts of writing and spoken performance | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Ladies In The Lift | ||
| 1st Produced: | Soho Poly, London | 22 Mar 1989 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10690 | |||
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: | Musical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | ||||||
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Life Is a Dream | ||
| 1st Produced: | 13 Oct 2009 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 9781848420601 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #97049 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 7 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Pedro Calderon De La Barca | |||||
| To protect the country from the horrors prophesied, Segismundo is condemned for all eternity. Banished to a secret world high in the mountains and cut off from the sun, he can only dream of a life reversed: of palaces, empires, freedom and revenge. Helen Edmundson's new version of Calderon's richly poetic, epic masterpiece explores illusion, reality, fate and destiny against the backdrop of a mythical kingdom. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Mary Shelley | ||
| 1st Produced: | Leeds: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7UP >>> | 16 Mar 2012 | ||||
Company: | West Yorkshire Playhouse, Shared Experience and Nottingham Playhouse co-production | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1848422575 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #134533 | |||
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: | biographical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Mary Shelley: daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft; lover of Shelley; author of Frankenstein. . . | |||||
| Losing her mother at the age of 11, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin finds comfort in reading the family memoir written by her philosophical father William Godwin. However his honest account of her mothers suicide attempt, extra-marital affair and the birth of their illegitimate elder daughter are regarded by society as shocking. Sharing her fathers controversially liberal outlook, Mary is herself drawn into scandal when she falls in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married writer, and elopes becoming Mary Shelley. Delving into the writers turbulent personal history, this production sheds light on the personal background of a bold young woman who came to write a novel so radical in its ideology that she changed the literary landscape forever. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Mill On The Floss, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 11 May 1994 | |||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10691 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 10 | Female | 7 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | from George Eliot | |||||
| An intensely moving dramatisation of George Eliot's feminist novel which 'not only reinvents the book, but pushes the boat of theatricality way beyond its usual moorings. . . The central concept is having three Maggies - a conceit that is thrillingly effective in performance.' Guardian | |||||
Further Reference: | Theatre Record Vol XIV (1994) Page 0578, Theatre Record Vol XV (1995) Page 0477; Theatre Record Vol XXI (2001) Page 0426 | |||||
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Mother Teresa Is Dead | ||
| 1st Produced: | 20 Jun 2002 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10692 | |||
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: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Marl arrives in a village near Madras to try and find his wife. He does not understand what has driven her to abandon her young son. Jane cannot explain why she needed to escape or how she ended up looking after children in India or what is in the bag she's been holding on to. India is hot, dusty and poor, and a long way from their comfortable life in London | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Orestes | ||
| 1st Produced: | Guildford: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Millbrook, Guildford, Surrey GU1 3UX >>> | 14 Sep 2006 | ||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #58853 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Original Playwright - Euripides | |||||
| Helen Edmundson's free version of the play, with its brooding meditation on matricide and guilt, revenge and justice. proves almost liberated to escapism's point. This Orestes is only "based" on the original, omits the chorus and several characters, while Helen of Troy's daughter, Hermione, is infantilised. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Pilate Workshop, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 14 Oct 2004 | |||||
Company: | ||||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #41375 | |||
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 | 13 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | devised by the company with Michael Boyd, Helen Edmundson, Liz Ranken, Paul Sirett and Janet Sonneberg. Inspired by Pilate, the biography of an invented man by Ann Wroe | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Swallows And Amazons | ||
| 1st Produced: | 07 Dec 2010 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1848422377 | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #124263 | |||
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: | Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 6 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | doubling | |||||
Notes: | adapted by Helen Edmundson from the book by Arthur Ransome. Music and Lyrics by Neil Hannon aka The Divine Comedy. Published in 1930, Swallows and Amazons was the first in a series of twelve books by Arthur Ransome (1884-1967). Set in 1929 in the Lake District, it tells of the school holiday exploits of the Walker and Blackett children and their sailing dinghies the Swallow and the Amazon. | |||||
| All aboard The Swallow! Follow Captain John and his able crew as they set sail to Wildcat Island on an exotic adventure to encounter savages, capture dastardly pirates and defeat mortal enemies. A new musical for the whole family written especially for Bristol Old Vic, Swallows and Amazons is a story of an idyllic era, of endless summer evenings and the beauty of youthful imagination. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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War And Peace | ||
| 1st Produced: | 25 Jun 1996 | |||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #10693 | |||
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: | 255 min adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 13 | Female | 9 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | From novel by Leo Tolstoy | |||||
Synopsis: | The ghosts of 1805 swirl into view and the present gives way to the past with a dramatic fluency | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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War And Peace | ||
| 1st Produced: | UK Tour | 14 Apr 2008 | ||||
Company: | Shared Experience | |||||
| 1st Published: | ISBN/ASIN: | - | ||||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #83889 | |||
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: | two-part version Adaptation | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 10 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | doubling | |||||
Notes: | From novel by Leo Tolstoy | |||||
| One of the longest novels in Western literature, Tolstoy's War and Peace intertwines its epic account of Napoleon's invasion of Russia with the tale of three aristocratic families. Painted on a vast canvas of locations, characters and experiences, Helen Edmundson's stirring adaptation is an intricate saga of families, love and friendship against a backdrop of war. | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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Zorro: The Musical | ||
| 1st Produced: | Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne | 04 Mar 2008 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | ocr-ada | |||
| Music: | Original cast recording: ADA 2008 | doollee no | #88069 | |||
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: | Musical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | large cast | |||||
Notes: | Book and lyrics Stephen Clark, music by the Gypsy Kings, original story by Stephen Clark and Helen Edmundson, music adaptations by John Cameron | |||||
| retelling of the story of the caped and masked crusader and his fight for justice in early 19th century California | |||||
Further Reference: | ||||||
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