Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy

No Milk for the Foxes; DenMarked; High Rise eState of Mind

Conrad Murray, David Bonnick Jr, Paul Cree, Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

160 Seiten

2022
Methuen Drama (Verlag)
978-1-350-27060-2 (ISBN)

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This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners.

The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.

Conrad Murray is an artist, performer, beatboxer and rapper from Mitcham, South West London. He is a qualified and experienced secondary school teacher, the artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy, co-artistic director of the hip hop theatre company Beats and Elements and associate artist at BAC. His shows include No Milk for the Foxes (Camden People’s Theatre 2015); DenMarked (BAC 2016); Frankenstein (BAC 2018); High Rise eState of Mind (BAC/CPT 2019). He is currently musical director and composer on Crongton Knights (Pilot Theatre), director on Pied Piper: Silent City (BAC), and composer and musical director for Mrs Noah (Headlong); he is also working with the BBC on a screen adaptation of Frankenstein to be screened on BBC4 in March 2020. He was awarded the Off West End and Total Theatre Awards for Frankenstein.

- Foreword
- Class and UK Hip Hop (essay)
- Hip hop lyricism (essay)

The Plays:

- No Milk for the Foxes by Paul Cree and Conrad Murray - Weaving hip hop lyricism with comic naturalism, this play tells the story of two security guards on zero-hours contracts working the night-shift at a washing machine components factory.

- DenMarked by Conrad Murray - This solo performance is an autobiographical story that weaves hip hop with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It narrates Conrad’s account of growing up in a violent family in South London, as an abused mixed-race child in the social care system, trying to make his way in the world and seek reconciliation with his absent father.

- High Rise e(S)tate of Mind by David Bonnik Junior, Paul Cree, Conrad Murray and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens - Inspired by JG Ballard’s novel High Rise, this is the dystopian tale of a high rise tower block in London, interwoven with the performers’ personal autobiographical stories about the housing they have lived in.
- Reflections (interviews with Beats & Elements)
- Glossary

Erscheinungsdatum	06.03.2022
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	138 x 216 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Pop / Rock
ISBN-10	1-350-27060-1 / 1350270601
ISBN-13	978-1-350-27060-2 / 9781350270602
Zustand	Neuware