Adrian Mitchell: 14 books

Come On Everybody brings together poems from a dozen collections published by Adrian Mitchell over five decades, from Poems (1964) to Tell Me Lies (2008). His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the ballads...

Just Adrian is a patchwork tour of a legendary playwright, poet and activist’s life in the theatre. It is a fascinating first-hand account of groundbreaking productions featuring figures like Kenneth Tynan, Peter Brook and Peter Hall as well as adventures in alternative theatre. These writings explore...

Adrian Mitchell’s triumphant musical adaptation for children of Browning’s The Pied Piper. Premiered at the Royal National Theatre and performed throughout the world.

An epic play in two acts, The Siege was commissioned by the National Playwright Commissioning Group and written especially for performance in schools. It tells the story of the Swados family, citizens of Arden, a town under siege. Working in collaboration with teenagers from schools across the UK,...

"There were likely to be deserts enough for Goliath to feel quite at home, he said. But that gave rise to a puzzle as to why we would want to go exploring there. Never mind. My task was to record what we saw." By his training as a profilist - a silhouette painter - Ethan Dibble has learned...

Includes the plays Tyger Two, Satie-Day/Night, Man Friday and In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency Four plays with music. In Tyger Two, William Blake continues his fight against fashionable fools. Satie-Day/Night celebrates Eric Satie. Man Friday offers Friday’s view of the empire-building...

Introduction by Nicholas Dromgoole. Both plays are highly charged emotional works, full of Lope de Vega’s vitality. This adaptation of Fuente Ovejuna was performed in Declan Donnellan’s directorial debut at the Royal National Theatre.

Moscow 1598. The great Tsar Ivan the Terrible has died and Boris Godunov reluctantly, humbly takes the throne. But rumours are rife that Boris has secretly murdered the rightful heir and the distant shadow of this prodigal son threatens to close in and take revenge. Pushkin wrote Boris Godunov, with...

A celebrated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of friendship and loyalty. Gerda and Kai are faithful companions until one day Kai is snatched away by the wicked Snow Queen. Gerda sets out across the frozen wastes to rescue her friend. During her treacherous journey she encounters...

Includes the plays: The Mayor of Zalamea, Life's a Dream, The Great Theatre of the World In The Mayor of Zalamea, commissioned by the Royal National Theatre, peasants’ honour clashes with military discipline. Life’s a Dream is Calderón’s most famous philosophical play. The Great Theatre...

For just over 100 years an institution for the mentally ill has stood on little Peat Island, in the lower Hawkesbury. It was decommissioned in 2010; quite empty now, it remains a locked facility just as it had always been. And eerie. The last residents were dispersed into the wider community. In this,...

It should have been a paradise, but paradise is what you lose, it is what you might have had. An elderly woman who has lived for many years on a tropical island off the Queensland coast with her beachcomber husband waits for help from the mainland. For three harrowing days, alone. He has died, his...

The Mammoth is the greatest sailing ship ever built. It is to carry Princess Alysoun from Norway to Scotland, where she is to marry King Andrew the Bold. But she falls in love with Sir Patrick Spens, the bravest captain to sail the seven seas. This is a passionate, funny, subversive celebration of a play.

This book examines the extraordinary life of George Collingridge de Tourcey, a landscape painter of the late nineteenth century, just ahead of the Australian impressionists. When he emigrated from France to Australia he grew passionate about the possibilities of his new country, and worked tirelessly...