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0-9739093-1-5
54 pp  6 x 9 in
$12.95 (Cdn) pb
April 2006

Cast Size: 28-40
Running Time: 75 Min
$30/Performance

Excerpt

"Sweet Duke of York, our Prop to lean upon,
Now thou art gone, we have no Staff, no Stay!"

About the Play
It is the mid-15th Century in England and the Royal Houses are bitterly divided. King Henry VI and the House of Lancaster hold the Crown but crime is up, French conquests are down, and the courtiers are living the high life. The House of York, fed up with Lancaster’s mismanagement, try to wrestle power away from Henry in a bid to restore good government to England, but not even an Act of Parliament can settle their regal dispute. Then, finally: a sign from God – an elliptical Sun! – and both Houses know there is only one sane way to settle their conflict…in a game of Rugby!

Upstart Crow Sports Network (UCSN) proudly brings you Shakespeare’s Rugby Wars, a clever hybrid of improvised sporting play and spectacle theatre transforming Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses tetralogy (Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 and Richard III) into a live rugby match. Chris Marlowe and Jack Falstaff provide all the play-by-play colour commentary with interviews and updates from that on-the-pitch historian/reporter Raphael Holinshed, as Team Lancaster and Team York scrum it out for the British Crown and Rugby Supremacy!

About the Authors
Chris Coculuzzi works as an educator for the Toronto District School Board and is a co-founder and member of an independent democratic school. He also works in theatre as a producer, director, actor, and playwright. He is the co-author and editor of the Shakespeare's Sports Canon series of five plays: Shakespeare's Rugby Wars, Shakespeare's World Cup, Shakespeare's Gladiator Games, Shakespeare's Comic Olympics, and Shakespeare's NHL (National History League). Other adaptations include Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and an abridged version of Cyrano de Bergerac (co-authored with Roxanne Deans). He currently resides in Toronto with his companion Kathy and their children Cabiria, Lórien, and Paisley.

Matt Toner is a regular lecturer on progressive media theory and works in video game development in Vancouver as a Lead Designer. As a playwright Matt has developed scripts through the Master Playwrights’ Workshop of New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center and Uta Hagen’s HB Studio. Matt is the co-author of four of the Shakespeare's Sports Canon series: Shakespeare's Rugby Wars, Shakespeare's World Cup, Shakespeare's Gladiator Games, and Shakespeare's NHL (National History League). Other titles include Objects in Mirror May be Closer than They Appear, Jessie Bell from Arkansas, Killing Time at the Crossroads of the World, The Pimp Hand of God, and We Unhappy Few.

Quotes
“In the great pantheon of theatre, there must be a little corner somewhere reserved for fun and silliness.” – Toronto Star

"Seriously broad, funny work...engaging entertainment presented with great spirit."
- NOW Magazine

"A great, big, silly spectacle where fun and body count is more important than the score."
- Eye Weekly