Overview

Volume eight of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. The Father, The Dance of Death, Three Sisters and Stanley's Women. The Father - Pam Gems' version of the play by August Strindberg. The Dance of Death - Pam Gems' version of the play by August Strindberg. Three Sisters - By Anton Chekhov Version by Pam Gems - Like many people, I came to Chekhov first on the page. When I saw the plays in the fifties, productions were languorous, with rounded English vowels from gentlemen actors in tweeds, with slightly funny hats. There were three sorts of women: fat servants who didn't count; chilly though, sometimes, sprightly ladies of uncertain age, who wore the paler dresses to denote the lead; and lumpy girls (sometimes they were pretty but wore their hair back and no eye makeup) who stayed out of the main acting area. Everything was very mournful and, quite often, leaves fell down from the flies, to the pluck of an uncertain guitar. There was a good deal of upstaging. I remember an Astrov who firmly detached his map of Africa from down left and rehung it upcentre before commenting on the climate. I thought it was all lovely. Then came a sea-change. Chekhov, amazingly, was funny. How did that happen? Hard to say. Sometimes, the perception of one director will do it - as when William Gaskill made people real and verminous in The Recruiting Officer, and took the 'La Sir' out of Restoration. At all events, attention was drawn to the fact that Chekhov called both Pam Gems Plays Eight 3rd.indd 198 08/04/2022 11:01 FOREWORD 199 The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard comedies, and had hoped for laughs in Three Sisters. Drooping was out, briskness and irony, and jokes, were in - and so was pace. STANLEY'S WOMEN is a screen adaptation of STANLEY, the Pam Gems play first presented at the Cottesloe by the National Theatre, in London, UK, on February 1st, 1996, starring Antony Sher, directed by John Caird. STANLEY won an Olivier Award for 'Best Play, ' and a Writer's Guild award for 'Best West End Play.' The production was subsequently transferred to The Circle In the Square Theatre in New York City.

Full Product Details

Author:   Pam Gems
Publisher:   Quota Books Limited
Imprint:   Quota Books Limited
Volume:   8
Dimensions:   Width: 12.80cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 20.80cm
Weight:   0.470kg
ISBN:  

9781739889432

ISBN 10:   1739889436
Pages:   415
Publication Date:   01 October 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

Betty's Wonderful Christmas, by Pam Gems, is offered to older children and adults. Irving Wardle. The Times. 6/1/1972 I've got to know the dark side of the moon is a song at the beginning of the play... Time Out. 17/1/1972 Pam Gems's new play inventively harnesses the legend and has Guinevere pouring out her feelings... Richard Mowe. Scottish Evening News. August 27, 1976 ...Pam Gems's play exhibits such operatic magnificence as is not to be missed. Jim Hiley. THE LISTENER 24 July 1986 As playwright Pam Gems and most women know, Hell Hath No Fury Like A Man Scorned. Ann McFerran. Time Out. October 15, 1976 The play is informative and entertaining... Suzanne Lowry. The Guardian. June 7th 1974 Feminists will love Pam Gems's 'The Treat'... KEITH NURSE. Daily Telegraph. 18/2/1982 PAM GEMS proved with Piaf that she is not the kind of dramatist to pull any punches... CHARLES SPENCER. Evening Standard 17/2/1982 Pam Gems shows considerable dramatic skill in instructing us in the principles of Gestalt Therapy... TED WHITEHEAD. The Spectator. 24/12/1977 You must do it for yourself; there are no gurus. That is the philosophy that informs the new Pam Gems play. BERNARD LEVIN. Sunday Times.11/12/1977 Pam Gems's adaptation of Ibsen's century-old masterpiece (from a literal translation) does much to restore some of the thunder and lightning of its early salvoes in the cause of women's emancipation. RICHARD KELLY. The Guardian. 12/01/1980. In this towering adaptation by Pam Gems, Nora Helmer sloughs off the wraps of respectability to become her own person. PHIL PENFOLD. The Evening Chronicle. 11/01/1980. All I can do here is praise, with all the authority I can muster... DAVID DURMAN. The Journal. 11/01/1980. It is rare that one goes to a lunchtime and is confronted with a combination of equally high standard of writing... YORI KOHUT. The Stage 03/05/1979 The play has a thriller-like suspense as the Westerners are caught up in a coup . . . MICHAEL BILLINGTON. The Guardian. 06/03/1994 One of the great voices of contemporary theatre... NICK AHAD. Yorkshire Evening Post. 17/03/2006 It should tickle most people's fancy, theatre buffs or no... BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE. The Daily Telegraph. 20/03/2006 The result, however, is much more savage than the movie. MICHAEL BILLINGTON. The Guardian. 28/08/1991 That is a complex and estimable addition to the Pam Gems roster of legendary pin-ups: Piaf, Camille and Queen Christina . . . ' MICHAEL COVENEY. Financial Times. 01/09/1991 Actually, 'adapted' is not quite the right word. JOHN PETERS. The Sunday Times. 01/09/1991 The portrait of a disenchanted middle-class career leftie yearning for a child is one of the most poignant images of our recent theatre. MICHAEL COVENEY Financial Times. 02/02/1984 It is a long time since I saw a new comedy which delighted me as much. Pam Gems's LOVING WOMEN... JOHN BARBER. The Daily Telegraph. 02/02/1984 No one can accuse Pam Gems of short-changing her audience... CHARLES SPENCER. The Evening Standard. 02/02/1984

Author Information

After marrying and having her first two children, she and her husband moved to Wandsworth in South London, where she wrote radio plays, beginning an extraordinarily prolific writing career that produced over seventy plays and adaptations. Pam Gems is, without doubt, Britain's greatest woman dramatist, with only Agatha Christie having had more West End productions. Agatha Christie had ten plays presented in the West End, at a time when the economics of West End plays weren't as prohibitive as they later became. Pam Gems had six, arguably seven, West End plays. The first was DUSA FISH STAS and VI, at the Mayfair, presented by Michael Codron, followed by PIAF, at the Piccadilly, presented by the RSC, which also later produced CAMILLE at the Comedy, and THE BLUE ANGEL at the Globe. LOVING WOMEN was presented at the Arts Theatre, and MARLENE had a successful run at the Lyric. STANLEY, which played to full houses at the National Theatre, was offered a West-End transfer by three managements, but the company turned down these offers in favour of a transfer to the Circle in the Square, off-Broadway, in New York, where it ran for six months. One thing that especially fascinates in Pam Gems' writing is the prophetic element. She perceived, well in advance, the dangers facing the pampered and decadent West, which we now see unfolding. As Victor Hugo said: 'Adversity makes men and prosperity makes monsters. ' Her approach is always positive, however. Like the Beatles' song, all you need is love.

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