Plays

Synopsis

Poetry or Bust, the Kaisers of Carnuntum, the Labourers of Herakles

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 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 in the Roman amphitheatre of Petronell/Carnuntum in Austria and has the bloody Commodus, a Roman Emperor (180-192 AD) 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 volume also contains photographs, a selection of the music and an introductory essay by Michael Kustow.