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FORCED ENTERTAINMENT (1984 - ) |
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Nationality: British Email: Click here to contact Website: Click here to visit |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
We are a group of six artists based in Sheffield, UK. We make performances as well as projects in other media and contexts. The Guardian newspaper has called us "Britain's most brilliant experimental theatre company" which we like! Our work varies quite a lot - from projects that are very brash and theatrical to other works that are very minimal and text-based. In everything we do we are trying to find ways to talk about contemporary experience, and to create exciting and intimate encounters with audiences. Since we started in 1984 we have presented our projects in a lot of different places in the UK, all over mainland Europe and much further afield.
Plays by Forced Entertainment
200% And Bloody Thirsty | ||
| 1st Produced: | 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 | #12033 | |||
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 | 2 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | three friends enact a hectic ritual of birth and death, observed from video screens by a pair of mock-solemn angels. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Bloody Mess | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2004 | |||||
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 | #41249 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | 10 performers | |||||
Notes: | devised by the company, text by Tim Etchells and the company | |||||
Synopsis: | In their latest show - carefully choreographed mayhem like an end-of-the-pier show having an existential crisis - they do all this and more. They present a theatre full of bright gaudy creatures all vying for attention under the bright lights of the stage, who, like shadows, slip into the darkness and disappear when the lights go down and are extinguished. Just as we do. Along the way there is plenty of fun in a scenario where theatre meets rock concert: a woman runs around in a gorilla suit throwing popcorn, two naked men carrying cardboard silver stars contemplate beautiful silences, roadies offer unhelpful advice, the end of the world is acted out with pom-pom balls and tinsel, and a woman changes her clothes and pours water over herself like a tragic weeping Greek heroine or maybe just an abandoned rock chick. This is one long, very knowing, wonderfully playful theatrical game on the nature of illusion, narrative and laughter that never becomes tedious or remote because it is so desperately human, so full of our frailties - our individual desire always to be centre-stage, to perform for the audience. - Lyn Gardner, Guardian | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Bloody Thirsty | ||
| 1st Produced: | 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 | #12034 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Coming Storm, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Essen, Germany | 23 May 2012 | ||||
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 | #139676 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The show's accumulated a jumble sale's worth of old clothes a drum kit, a piano, a base guitar and a forest of branches. What's emerging is a tangle of multiple stories which cross-cut each other to make an epic saga that is resolutely too big for the stage. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Disco Relax | ||
| 1st Produced: | Toynbee Syudios, London E! | 2000 | ||||
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 | #59172 | |||
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 | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | devised by the company, text by Tim Etchells | |||||
Synopsis: | a performance art window into the psychology of Bacchanalian excess | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Emanuelle Enchanted | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1992 | |||||
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 | #12035 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Exquisite Pain | ||
| 1st Produced: | Riverside, London | 2005 | ||||
Company: | Forced Entertainment | |||||
| 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 | #63686 | |||
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 | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | text by Sophie Calle | |||||
Synopsis: | prods at what it means to be human, disturbs with the close relationship of pleasure and pain, pokes fun at therapy culture, looks at the way we consciously and unconsciously manipulate the truth, and also understands the healing power of story telling. - Lyn Gardner, Guardian | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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First Night | ||
| 1st Produced: | The Place, London | 2001 | ||||
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 | #12036 | |||
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 | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Quizoola! | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | The text for Speak Bitterness is published in Certain Fragments | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #95202 | |||
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: | 3 actors | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Perhaps the best known of the company's durational works, Quizoola! consists of three actors smeared in clown make-up who ask and answer 2000 prepared questions for a period of 6 hours. Shifting from quiz show to interrogation to hilarious improvisation by turns, the show forms a marathon game of question and answer where the audience is free to ente r and exit as they please | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Speak Bitterness | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | 1994 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | The text for Speak Bitterness is published in Certain Fragments | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #95203 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | We're guilty of homemade bombs and homemade wine. We're guilty of coldness and spite. We never laughed and we never found the time . . .. The essence of Speak Bitterness is a line of people making confessions from behind a long table. Occupying a brightly lit space, the performers take turns reading from the text that is strewn across the table. The litany of wrongdoing to which they confess ranges from the big time of forgery, murder or genocide to nasty little details, such as reading each other's diaries and refusing to take the dogs out for a walk. First presented in 1994, Speak Bitterness has subsequently been shown in both theatre and durational versions, the latter lasting up to six hours and allowing the public to arrive, depart and return at any point. An exhaustive catalogue, the text draws on the diverse cultures of confession in, for example, contemporary chat shows, churches and show trials. Dressed in suits, the performers compete to confess the most horrific, amusing or convincing things. Speaking softly, they meet the gaze of the audience (who are partly illuminated), drawing them into direct and intimate contact. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Spectacular | ||
| 1st Produced: | PACT Zollverein, Essen | 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: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #84229 | |||
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 | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | concevied and devised by Forced Entertainment; text by Tim Etchells, Robin Arthur and the company | |||||
Synopsis: | A lone performer takes to the stage, explaining that the show we're watching is different tonight. The atmosphere is different, his entrance was off, the lights are wrong, some scenery is missing, some performers are absent. The tone is all wrong. Perhaps the fact he is dressed as a skeleton has something to do with it | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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That Night Follows Day | ||
| 1st Produced: | Glasgow, Tramway / touring | 2008 | ||||
Company: | Flemish theatre company Campo (Victoria) | |||||
| 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 | #96785 | |||
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: | 16 performers | |||||
Notes: | By Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment) and Victoria | |||||
Synopsis: | about the intensity and ambivalence of parent-child relationships, as seen from the child's point of view. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Thrill of it All, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels | 07 May 2010 | ||||
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 | #114151 | |||
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 | 7 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Conceived and devised by the company | |||||
Synopsis: | Rehearsals for this new work throw the company and its collaborators into a territory of ragged songs, distorted voices and broken exuberant dances. It's bright under the lights, and hot, and frightening. On a bare stage a group of nine performers - deranged dancing girls and derelict comedians - offer sentimental advice and dysfunctional parables to a light piano accompaniment. A quartet of female dancers swirl, giggle, bicker and stray further and further from the point. There are stories and more questions shot through with bright, lonely and comical dances. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Void Story | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2009 | |||||
Company: | Spill Festival | |||||
| 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 | #94974 | |||
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: | Physical Theatre | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Devised By Forced Entertainment, Text By Tim Etchells | |||||
Synopsis: | This bleak and comical modern fable follows a beleaguered pair of protagonists on a rollercoaster ride through the decimated remains of contemporary culture. Void Story is performed on stage as a radio play with the actors doing the voices' and making sound effects. Behind them a series of projected images show the storyboard for an impossible movie version of Tim Etchells' unsettling text | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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World In Pictures, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 2006 | |||||
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 | #58856 | |||
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 | 6 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Text by Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment | |||||
Synopsis: | Forced Entertainment's last show 'Bloody Mess' began with the world's creation and ended apocalyptically. This new show, devised as ever by the company, looks at the bits in between. According to a note in the programme, it's inspired by a '60s record called 'The Triumph of Man' and the actors have some fun racing through such a huge story in just under two hours. It leaves little time for subtleties, and the narrator, Terry O'Connor, never misses a historical cliche. Hindered by showers of paper snow and whispered comments from another actor, she describes the discovery of fire (two electric heaters appear on stage), the black death (a man in a skeleton suit pushes a wheelbarrow) and the dance of peace before World War I (everybody floats around). In between, the rest of actors revel in rape and pillage and farming and fighting, dressed in animal skins, bad wigs, and viking helmets -that's if they're wearing anything at all. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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