Bøker av Willy Russell

I'd fallen in love with the idea of living... because we don't do what we want to do, do we? We do what we have to do and pretend that it's what we want to do.Shirley Valentine is the joyous, life-affirming story of the woman who got lost in marriage and motherhood, the woman who wound up talking to the kitchen wall whilst cooking her husband's chips and egg. But Shirley still has a secret dream. And in her bag, an airline ticket...One day she may just leave a note, saying: 'Gone! Gone to Greece.'Willy Russell's celebrated one-woman play originally premiered in 1986 and became an instant classic, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and later being adapted into a successful film. This revised edition was published to coincide with the 2023 revival starring double Olivier Award and BAFTA winner Sheridan Smith.

A single-volume re-issue of the well-known play Educating Rita. The story centres on a working-class Liverpudlian woman's hunger for education.

A new Student Edition of Willy Russell's enduring 1983 play, Blood Brothers, offering accessible and vivid insights into the play and the context in which it was written through a C21st lens. As well as exploring the key themes, characters and dramatic devices of the play, and how they map onto our experience today, it conveys how groundbreaking Blood Brothers was at the time in representing working-class lives on stage, as well as explicitly exposing the flaws of the British class system. The commentary by Rebecca Hillman encourages students to: * consider what it must have been like to be at the very first performance of the play in a school classroom in Liverpool; * consider the significance of key phrases in the text, such as "living on the never never" and "the debt must be paid"* make comparisons between life in 1980s Britain and today - "the shrinking pound, the global slump and the price of oil";* think about what the play celebrates - friendship, family, community, neighbourhood* create their own show based on the story of Blood Brothers to engage their own community This edition offers a much-needed analysis of the play with a lens that today's students will appreciate and be inspired by.

'One way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education ... Another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmailion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending.' Sunday TimesThis new student edition includes an introduction covering the play's context; chronology; dramatic devices; critical reception; production history; and key themes such as class and identity, popular culture and education. Educating Rita portrays a working-class Liverpool woman's hunger for education. It premiered at the RSC Warehouse, London, in 1980 and won the SWET award for Best Comedy of the Year. It was subsequently made into a highly successful film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters and won the 1983 BAFTA award for Best Film.Commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, University of the Arts London.

A Student Edition of the classic play, with full introduction, commentary, notes on the text and questions for study.

Written for BBC School Radio by the author of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, this telling play visits a local radio station when its late night broadcast is interrupted by a gun toting escapee from police custody. The vandalism for which he was convicted was in reality a one man stand against the lies told by advertisers and DJs to sell products and promote a dream world.|6 men

Written specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. A well established modern classic, Willy Russell''s Blood Brothers tells the story of Mickey and Eddie, twins separated at birth who grow up to lead very opposite lives, but which constantly and inevitably intersect. In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well as background information on the playwright. The Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions never lose sight of their readership, and offer students the confidence to engage with the material, explore their own interpretations, and improve their understanding of the works.

A collection of popular Willy Russell scripts, including Our Day Out, The Boy with the Transistor Radio, Terraces and I Read the News Today. Our Day Out centres on a chaotic school trip to Wales and highlights the depressing reality that, for the students from Mrs Kay's class, a rare school trip is as much as they can expect.

Blood Brothers tells the tragic tale of twin brothers who are born into a large working-class family, and the consequences of one of them being adopted by a neighbouring middle-class family. This is the original version of the play, initially commissioned for performance by the Merseyside Young People's Theatre Company.

Superior council house dwellers Betty, Reeny, Vera and their men regard themselves as a close knit family team despite their concealed jealousies and occasional recriminations. When Betty''s daughter Sandra announces she is pregnant and intends to live unmarried with her student lover, the news explodes like an atom bomb.|4 women, 5 men

A new collection of plays from Willy Russell, one of Britain's best-loved dramatists, features the smash hits Blood Brothers, Our Day Out: The Musical and Shirley Valentine as well as the previously unpublished John, Paul, George, Ringo . . . and Bert.Blood Brothers: A Liverpudlian West Side Story, this is the story of twin brothers separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. 'One of those rare exceptions, where a show continues to pack a punch after many years on the road and in the West End' - What's On Stage, (5 stars)Our Day Out: The Musical: Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' are unleashed for a day's coach trip to Conway Castle in Wales - in an exuberant celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from school. 'One of those truly magical theatrical experiences that should very definitely not be missed' - StageShirley Valentine: The story of a put-upon mother and housewife who leaves the drudgery of cooking dinner for her husband, packs her bags and heads for the sun. 'Shirley is the star of her own monodrama, her gabbing made theatrical in a stream of stories and impersonations that are rooted in essential loneliness and reaction against domestic frustration . . . memorable and joyous' - IndependentJohn, Paul, George, Ringo . . . and Bert: Russell's first major hit, a musical about the Beatles, won the Evening Standard and London Critics' awards for Best New Musical of 1974. 'Why has no-one done it before? Perhaps only a scouser like Willy Russell could have the self-confidence to tackle Liverpool's great phenomenon . . . it's funny, incisive, well-acted and makes its points without any arty philosophising' - Time Out.Willy Russell Plays: 2 features an introduction from the playwright.

"Stags and Hens" takes place in the gents and ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, where Dave and Linda, unbeknownst to each other, hold their stag and hen partie

Told through a series of heartfelt letters to the frontman of The Smiths, this is a laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly poignant tale from a character you can't help but love.'Big-hearted, wonderfully funny and engrossing' THE MIRROR'A warm, funny, poignant story.

This Student Edition of Willy Russell's successful folk opera, the story of two Liverpudlian brothers who grow up on opposite sides of the social tracks, includes biographical notes and an introduction to the play with guidance on its interpretation.

Hairdresser Rita feels that life is passing her by. She wants an education. But does Frank have anything to teach her? Willy Russell's play gives a hilarious - and often moving - account of a young woman's determination to change her life.

A collection of four plays by Willy Russell. The plays are "Educating Rita", "Breezeblock Park", "Our Day Out" and "Stags and Hens". All the plays are concerned with working class people striving to enjoy life or improve themselve

This revised version of Willy Russell's much loved play won rave reviews when it opened in Liverpool in 2009. Slightly updated and featuring more songs, it retains all the humour and appeal of the original.This educational edition in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Building on a decade of highly effective work and publications endorsed by national organisations and supported by teachers and consultants across Britain, each book in the series: meets the new requirements at KS3 and GCSE (2010) features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3 will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources.Mrs Kay's Progress Class are off to Alton Towers - until Mr Briggs gets on board. The destination might have changed in this new version of Willy Russell's classic play, but mixing humour, lively songs and the poignancy of the original, this drama of a class day out to remember is ideal for Year 9 and above.

The "Heinemann Plays" series offers contemporary drama and classic plays in durable classroom editions. Many have large casts and an equal mix of boy and girl parts. The television play "Our Day Out" asks what can a group of back-street kids from Liverpool expect from life beyond a rare "day out"?

Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' are unleashed for a day's coach trip to Conway Castle in Wales - in an exuberant celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from school. This edition contains the music for the play.

Twin brothers are separated at birth. One is given to wealthy Mrs. Lyons and they grow up as friends in ignorance of their fraternity until the inevitable quarrel unleashes a blood-bath.