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John Constable

JOHN CONSTABLE  (1952 - )

 Nationality:    British
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    United Agents  represented by Nicki Stoddart

John Constable aka John Crow. John Constable is a playwright, poet and performer. He is the author of the Southwark Mysteries, an epic cycle of poems and Mystery Plays, performed in Shakespeare's Globe, Southwark Cathedral and at many festivals. the Southwark Mysteries and a collection of his Sha-Manic Plays are both published by Oberon Books. John's plays include Black Mas, Tulip Futures and the stage adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast (David Glass ensemble at the Lyric, Hammersmith, and British Council world tours). His solo shows include I Was an alien Sex God and Raingods Become Me. John also directs community Dramas, holds storytelling workshops and leads unusual guided walks. as the shaman John Crow, he conducts rituals, initiations and workshops  including his Shamanic Playhouse - teaching ways to access the vision world and transform perceptions of reality. John Crow's channelled songs and poems are available on CDs. email: mysteries@boltblue.com websites: http://www.southwarkmysteries.co.uk and http://www.crossbones.org.uk

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below is a list of John Constable's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Black Mas         Complete Casanova, The         Dead Man's Handle         False Hairpiece, The         Gormenghast         Halloween of Crossbones 3, The         I Was An Alien Sex God         Iceman         Mosquito Coast         Raingods Become Me         Southwark Mysteries, The         Spare         Tulip Futures

Black Mas

Synopsis:
Carnival in TriNIDAd. a white-singer and her lover-manager take refuge from the "bacchanal" in the seedy Hotel Thread. they soon find them mixed up in a deadly game between the hotelier, masquerading as anancy the Spider, and a rich white man who arrives dressed as Death.

Notes:
Magical realist Drama

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Foco Novo Theatre Company

1st Published:
in "Shamanic Plays", Oberon Books, London, 1997   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  1 non speaking can BF doubled

Further Reference:
-

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Complete Casanova, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Warehouse Theatre Croydon, London    1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dead Man's Handle

Synopsis:
a man in a coma on a life-support machine is visited by his distraught lover. In the course of their (imagined?) interaction, he comes to embrace his own death.

Notes:
Commissioned by Soho theatre Company for its 'Body Politic' season of short plays.

1st Produced:
Soho Theatre Company, London    1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Shamanic Plays", Oberon Books, London, 1997   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Short Play One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  1 non speaking can BF doubled

Further Reference:
-

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False Hairpiece, The

Synopsis:
a mother conspires with her responsible son to cheat his manic depressive elder brother out of an inheritance. When the latter returns, determined to heal old wounds, his good intentions wreak havoc in a family sunk deep in denial.

Notes:
Black comedy, A contemporary reinvention of the Jacob And esau story.

1st Produced:
Spring Arts and Heritage Centre, Havant    13 Mar 1997

Organisations:
Proteus TC

1st Published:
in "Shamanic Plays", Oberon Books, London, 1997   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  also suitable for cast of 4

Further Reference:
-

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Gormenghast

Synopsis:
a rites of passage tale, set in a world bound by iron laws and dead rituals. the story of Steerpike, the renegade kitchen-boy who seduces and murders his way up the social ladder. and of Titus Groan, heir to Gormenghast, who comes to embody the change that threatens its very existence.

Notes:
Gothic meloDrama, Adapted from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
David Glass ensemble

1st Published:

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Stage adaptation Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  irst performed by a cast of 8 with some doubling. the Fnsemble also formed a Chorus, the "Voice" of Gormenghast.

Further Reference:
-

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Halloween of Crossbones 3, The

Synopsis:
Drama about medieval prostitutes whose bones were unearthed when Crossbones Graveyard was dug up for the Jubilee Line Extension.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Drome, London    31 Oct 2000

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Was An Alien Sex God

Synopsis:
an undercover police officer obsessed with David Bowie embarks on a mind-blowing journey through the 1970s. a cautionary tale of drug-abuse.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Edinburgh Fringe (director: Di Sherlock)    1995

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Iceman

Synopsis:
a big money drug deal. at least one of the dealers is an undercover cop. He sacrifices his identity, his moral authority and ultimately his sanity in a drug-fuelled bid to crack his own case.

Notes:
a black farce About the War On Drugs

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Brute Farce

1st Published:
in "Shamanic Plays", Oberon Books, London, 1997   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mosquito Coast

Synopsis:
an obsessive American inventor takes his family on a journey up-river into the dark and dangerous Honduran jungle. a dark parable of one man's megalomania.

Notes:
physical theatre Adaptation of the novel by Paul theroux

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  some doubling of minor characters required

Further Reference:
-

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Raingods Become Me

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Solo Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Southwark Mysteries, The

Synopsis:
Judgement Day. Satan returns to Bankside to reclaim the lost souls of the Southwark Liberty. But what the hell is Jesus up to? The world premiere of The Mystery Plays from John constable's new Southwark Cycle, commissioned for the millennium. Rooted in the history of London's Outlaw Borough, these plays juxtapose Christian and pagan Mystery traditions with South London folklore and colloquial irreverence, challenging dogma with an inclusive vision of humanity. The Southwark Mysteries were allegedly revealed to John Crow, trickster familiar of the Southwark poet and playwright John Constable, by The Goose - the spirit of a medieval Bankside whore. In Constable's apocalyptic vision, John Crow encounters The Goose at Crossbones, the whores graveyard unearthed during work on the Jubilee Line Extension. She initiates him into a secret history spanning 2000 years, a healing vision of the Spirit in the flesh, the Sacred in the profane, Eternity in time.

Notes:
a contemporary urban cycle of Mystery Plays, loosely based on the medieval Mysteries.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the Southwark Mysteries, Oberon Books, London, 1999   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Cycle of interlinked short plays Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  first performed with a core cast of 12, supplemented by a 50-strong community cast.

Further Reference:
-

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Spare

Synopsis:
John Constables new solo play is a paranormal comedy inspired by the life and work of Austin Osman Spare. The play is set in the artists studio at the Elephant and Castle, on the night it was bombed during the 1941 blitz. We see Spare growing old in poverty and obscurity, yet fiercely committed to his artistic and mystical vision. In the course of the night, Spares greatest act of chaos magic unleashes unpredictable consequences. He battles with the spectre of Adolf Hitler and other entities, on his journey to a consummation beyond all, nothing, and neither neither.This play conceived as an act of magic, performed by the author, is both an homage to AOS and a playful exploration of Constables own esotEric work to set us free from ourselves.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
paranormal comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tulip Futures

Synopsis:
Set in seventeenth-century Holland, against a back-drop of 'Tulipmania'. a tulip-grower and his wife are sitting for a portrait by Frans Hals. During the sittings, their comfortable world is turned upside down by the sudden boom in tulip prices, and the madness it unleashes

Notes:
Based on A story from the margins of history.

1st Produced:
Soho Theatre Company (director: abigail Morris)    1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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