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Volume nine of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler and After Birthday.A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen English version by Pam Gems. Henrik Ibsen was born on 20 March 1828 in Skien in south-east Norway, the second son of Knud Ibsen, a merchant, and his wife Marichen. After his father became ruined, when Ibsen was about seven, the family moved to Venstope and lived in great poverty. Aged fifteen, Ibsen became an assistant to an apothecary. Later, he fathered an illegitimate child and went on to join the newly formed National Theatre of Sweden at Bergen, after writing his first play, Catiline, aged 21. Of his early work, most of his plays were written in verse, and were failures when they opened. Later in life, he wrote his twelve great modern prose dramas.Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen in a version by Pam Gems Literal translation from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund. Ibsen wrote GHOSTS in 1881, two years after A DOLL'S HOUSE. He said: "Ghosts had to be written. I could not let A Doll's House be my last word. After Nora, Mrs Alving had to come." Ibsen was well aware that writing a play about sexual disease would create a storm. It did. 'One of the filthiest things ever written; a repulsive pathological phenomenon which, by undermining the morality of our social order, threatens its foundation.' (Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.)Hedda Gabler - Pam Gems' version of the play by Henrik Ibsen.After Birthday - It is rare that one goes to a lunchtime and is confronted with a combination of equally high standard of writing, production and performance. Pam Gems's play, directed by Sue Parrish, achieves this rare distinction. It is a superb,powerful, disturbing presentation.. . . Carole Harrison sensitively portrays a disturbed young woman waiting to be examined by an institution doctor. The writing is naturalistic, jerky stream-of-consciousness. Slowly, a background and narrative emerges, and character develops, through disjointed but methodical revelation - exposing a horrific, convoluted series of events. - YORI KOHUT. The Stage 03/05/1979

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.

Volume three of a series plays written by Pam Gems. Go West Young Women, King Ludwig of Bavaria, Nelson and Not Joan The Musical.Go West Young Women was first performed at the Round House, Camden, London, UK, on 6- 27 June, 1974.Presented by The Women's Theatre Company, co-founded by Pam Gems.King Ludwig of Bavaria - an eccentric play about the last days of the 'mad' king of Bavaria.Nelson was first performed between the 26th October and 5th November, 2005, at The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton,UK.Not Joan the Musical - an odd-couple romance between two very different women

Volume one of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. The Incorruptible, Garibaldi Si! and The Treat.This is the post-production version of an earlier draft of the play, presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company undera different title, at the Barbican Theatre in August of 1986. THE INCORRUPTIBLE is loosely based on a dramatic manuscript, written in 1929, by Stanislawa Przybyszewska called The Danton Case.Garibaldi, in his day, was an international star. During his lifetime, photography began to be used commercially, sothat his face became familiar in Europe and beyond. He was handsome - which helped - a northern Italian, fair witha straight nose and a steady gaze.The Treat was first performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, on 10 February 1984, produced by JonathanGems, directed by Philip Davis, and designed by Stephen Meaha. A movie adaptation of THE TREAT, written and directed by Jonathan Gems, was released in 1999, presented by Cineville, starring Patrick Dempsey, Daniel Baldwin, Michael York, Alfred Molina, Julie Delpy, Georgina Cates, Pam Gidley, Vincent Perez, Yancy Butler, and Seymour Cassel as the Mayor.

Volume two of a series of four plays written by Pam Gems. Betty's Wonderful Christmas, The Socialists, Guinevere and Ethel.Betty's Wonderful Christmas was my first stage play. The setting is a small country town between the two WorldWars, when living was still harsh for many people; the Salvation Army providing the only loving support for many in real distress.The Socialists - a play set in two eras: the revolutionary Seventies, and the reactionary' Eighties. Has been compared to Dostoeyevsky's The Devils. There has never been a Guinevere like Maggie Jordan who mercilessly berates that arch-chauvinist Arthur, andbrings woman's lib to Camelot. Pam Gems's new play inventively harnesses the legend and has Guinevere pouring out her feelings of desperation and frustration at being treated as chattel by the uncomprehending Arthur, played by Sean McCarthy.Ethel - An amusing play with songs about the American singer, Ethel Merman. A musical play in two acts - Based on a true story"We had Ethel Merman on the show and, afterwards, nobody could hear for a week." JERRY LEWIS.

Volume six of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. Deborah's Daughter, Finchie's War, At The Window and Stella Campbell.DEBORAH'S DAUGHTER was first presented at the Library Theatre, Manchester, on the 3rd of March, 1994. 'Pam Gems's new play, heard on Radio 4 but having its stage premiere at the Library Theatre in Manchester, is an intricate piece of work. On the surface, it's concerned with global issues like multinational corporations messing up the developing world; its private heart is about the relationship between mothers and daughters . . . The play has a thriller-like suspense as the Westerners are caught up in a coup . . . One of the meatiest nights of theatre on offer . . . ' MICHAEL BILLINGTON. The Guardian. 06/03/1994At The Window - a tense drama about death, depression, nihilism, and love.Finchie's War - an autobiographical play for the screen about sex and death in the Women's Royal Navy Service during World War Two.Stella Campbell - On the 13th of March, 2006, Pam Gems's play, MRS PAT, opened at the York Theatre Royal, where it ran for a month. After the show closed, still haunted by Mrs Pat, she wrote a monologue entitled STELLA CAMPBELL.

Volume four of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. Franz Into April, Pasionaria, Aunt Mary and Up In Sweden.Franz Into April was first performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art on 5 December 1977, produced by FRANK HATHERLEY, designed by SALLY GARDNER, and directed by FRANK HATHERLEY. - Pam Gems shows considerable dramatic skill in instructing us in the principles of Gestalt Therapy while, at the same time, involving us in a series of flesh-and-blood encounters. We see Franz in action as a doctor trying to get two patients to find their own solutions to their problems; and then we see him as a man irresistibly drawn to a prim English nurse, making love to her, and finally getting her to accept their relationship on a free, non-possessive basis. Patricia Franklin is very fine as the nurse - the quintessential repressed Englishwoman - while Warren Mitchell had me aching with laughter as the doctor whose philosophy happily licenses his crusading sexual appetite. For its impact and humour, it deserves a much wider audience. - TED WHITEHEAD. The Spectator. 24/12/1977Pam Gems talks to Lyn Gardner about politics, people and Pasionaria - her latest play based on the life of DoloresIbarruri, the Spanish Republican leader of the 1930s. - I was a child during the Spanish Civil War. There were pictures in the papers of women and children being bombed, people running, cities flattened. Spaniard fighting Spaniard - that most terrible tragedy - civil war. And reports of a woman - known as La Pasionaria - who was either a ferocious fiend, or a courageous defender of freedom, depending on the newspaper you read. Who was she? A Spanish figurehead, it seemed, famous for saying 'They shall not pass' and 'It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.AUNT MARY was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden, London, UK, on the 15th June, 1982. Pam Gems didn't write about herself. She wrote to escape. Much as when we go to the theatre, we also seek escape. Like many of us, she was traumatised in childhood. But she was doubly traumatised by going straight from the frying pan of childhood into the fire of the Second World War. 'Stiff upper lip.' That's what they called it. Stiff Upper Lip: the British way of dealing with trauma, which meant denial and diversion into humour. This quintessentially British trait is succinctly personified by the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.UP IN SWEDEN was first performed on the 17th of October,1975, at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, and subsequently, from the 27th of October to the 8th of November, at the King's Head Theatre, Islington, London, UK. There is a phrase, used in Xmas catalogues, about a certain type of recherché gift: "for the man who has everything." To people in the Third World, we in the West have everything. We don't starve, we have access to heat, light, education, medicine, libraries, and we are free to travel. Even in our present state of recession and rising unemployment, we are affluent. And, of all the Western countries, Sweden perhaps stands, more than any other, for the 'best' of Western enlightenment. A country where there is almost no poverty; where men are allowed paternity leave; where it seems the rational obtains. Sweden, the home of the Nobel prize - gift of the armament king.

Volume five of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. THE BLUE ANGEL, LOVING WOMEN, NATALYAand LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD.THE BLUE ANGEL was first performed on the 7th of September, 1991 at The Other Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire. The production transferred to the Globe Theatre, London, on the 20th of May, 1992. Produced by MARK FURNESS, JOHN NEWMAN and the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by TREVOR NUNN, designed by MARIA BJORNSON.LOVING WOMEN was first performed on the 31st of January, 1984, at the Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London, UK.Produced by JONATHAN GEMS and DAVID JONES, directed by PHILIP DAVIS, designed by JONATHAN GEMS.NATALYA - The real-life model for Natalya is dead. In NATALYA, the play, she is a survivor. Criminal of course.LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD was first performed on April 23rd, 1979, at the King's Head Theatre, Islington, London, UK.

Volume seven of a series of plays written by Pam Gems. The Odd Women, The Amiable Courtship of Miz Venus and Wild Bill, Darling Boy, Cedric and Louise and My Warren.The Odd Women - a play for the screen by Pam Gems adapted from the novel by George Gissing.THE AMIABLE COURTSHIP OF MIZ VENUS AND WILD BILL was first presented by Inter-Action and The Women's Theatre Group, at the Almost-Free Theatre, 9, Rupert Street, London W.1, on the 10th of April, 1974. Sometime in the early seventies, I was approached by Ed Berman, artistic director of the Almost-Free Theatre in Rupert Street, W1, to write 'two sexy pieces' for his Fun-Art Bus. The idea was to tour trendy Camden, with performances on the top deck.Darling Boy - by Pam Gems from the novel 'Chéri' by Colette - The play takes place in Paris in the private apartments of the hotel belonging to Cléa de Lonval, and in the grounds and conservatory of L'Hotel Peloux, owned by Cléa's contemporary, Charlotte Peloux. The time, the Twenties.CEDRIC & LOUISE was Pam Gems's last full-length play. She wrote it in 2010, when she was eighty-five. Printed here is the second draft, which may be unfinished as she never did less than six drafts of anything. She liked to say: "A play isn't written, it's rewritten and rewritten and rewritten and rewritten."MY WARREN was first presented on the 5th of March, 1973, by Inter-Action and the Women's Theatre Group at the Almost Free Theatre, starring JANET HENFREY, and directed by SUE PARRISH.