PRESS
RELEASE – Hardy play hits the pages
Acclaimed
Dorset playwright Peter John Cooper has been writing and directing plays for
the past 40 years. But for him writing a book is something new. With the help
of local publisher Roving Press, his hugely successful play She Opened the Door, together with notes
on the historical context and what inspired Peter to write the play, is now available
in book form, providing a fascinating insight into the troubled relationship
between Hardy and his first wife Emma.
Acclaimed
Dorset playwright Peter John Cooper has been writing and directing plays for
the past 40 years. But for him writing a book is something new. With the help
of local publisher Roving Press, his hugely successful play She Opened the Door, together with notes
on the historical context and what inspired Peter to write the play, is now
available in book form, providing a fascinating insight into the troubled
relationship between Hardy and his first wife Emma.
‘What’s unique about this book,’ says Julie Musk from Roving Press, ‘is that it combines the complete script of the play with Peter’s research, thoughts and inspiration – showing something of how a playwright’s mind works. Moreover, I loved seeing the play performed, but the intricacies and subtleties of plot are clearer on the page, as you have more time to digest them.’
Peter’s play is a fantasy set one afternoon in September 1895 when the manuscript for Jude the Obscure needs to be returned to the publisher. Emma is threatening to burn it in the garden of Max Gate and, but for the intervention of Thomas’s Mother, the Maid and ‘the Other Woman’, the book might be lost forever.
The play
is witty, poetic and occasionally shocking, with hidden references and
quotations from Hardy’s own works. Peter says, ‘I wanted to show that Hardy was
truly a man of his time, a cutting-edge, contemporary writer, who was caught up
in the feminist movement’. Peter’s attempt to understand something of the man
by looking at the women who surrounded him is both original and
ground-breaking.
Full
colour pictures of the AsOne Theatre Company performing on stage bring the play
to life. The book is being launched at Max Gate on 17 August and books will be available
direct from Roving Press (www.rovingpress.co.uk,
tel 01300 321531) and locally, priced £7.99.
END: 26 July 2012
For information contact
For information contact
Julie Musk
Roving Press
info@rovingpress.co.uk
01300 321531
www.rovingpress.co.uk
See our website for further details.
If you would like a review copy or to interview the
author, or require larger or higher-resolution images please let us know.
