Plays One

Plays three: "This third collection of Tony Harrison's theatre work contains three plays, all of which were written to be performed in specific places in the world. Poetry or Bust, performed in September 1993, is about the Airedale poet John Nicholson (1790-1843) and was devised for the former wool-combing shed at Salts Mill, Saltaire, not a hundred yards from where Nicholson drowned. The Kaisers of Carnuntum was performed on 2 June 1995 at the Roman amphitheatre of Petronell/Carnuntum in Austria and has the bloody Commodus, a Roman emperor (180-192AD) and son of the philosopher Marcus Aurelius, returning to the former Roman frontier town. The Labourers of Herakles, using a chorus of nine cement mixers, was performed on an excavated site intended for the new theatre of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece, on 23 August 1995. The leading roles in all three plays were written for Barrie Rutter"--Back cover.