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nated for the Academy Award for it. She wrote novels, plays, scripts and directed. Many of her works reflect the influence of US authors, notably John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. She did not follow the traditional narrative structure. Her work is characteristic of atmosphere, silence and ambiguity which particularly came to the fore in her novel Moderato cantabile. *folowed by suprise movie

I Thursday 1 21st September 1 17:30 1

William Golding LORD OF THE FLIES Script and direction: Peter Brook Cast: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin, Tom Gaman Production: Allen-Hodgdon, United Kingdom, 1963 Duration; 92 minutes, b/w Shown at the Cannes Festival. A group of school children whom their parents want to remove to a safe place because of the war survives a plane crash. They set out to organize a society on a deserted island. However, well-behaved and obedient children shortly lose their innocence and turn into savages. Rivalry, hatred and betrayals become a daily occurrence. When the conflict among people with innate barbarity and effect of the civilization on their mind comes to a head - the rescuers appear. At the sight of their elders, the children begin to cry. The murderers are again what they once were - helpless, innocent children. William Golding (1911-1993), British author, winner of the Nobel Prize (1983) read English literature at Oxford. Subsequently he worked briefly in the theatre as an actor and playwright. He then quit his profession and went to war. He served in the Royal Navy until 1945, After the war Golding wrote his first and the most successful novel Lord ofthe Flies (1954) considered to be one ofthe great novels of the 20th century. It is an allegory about the corruption-prone human nature. He wrote novels, essays and a theatre play. His favourite subjects are moral dilemmas and human-behaviour in extreme situations.

I Friday 1 22nd September 1 17:30 1

John Gay THE BEGGAR'S OPERA Script: Dennis Cannon Songs: Christopher Fry Directed by: Peter Brook Music: Arthur Bliss

Cast: Laurence Olivier, Dorothy Tutin, Stanley Holloway, Daphne Anderson, Mary Ciar, George Devine, Hugh Griffith, George Rose, Stuart Burge, Athene Seyler and others Producers: Laurence Olivier and Herbert Wilcox for Imperadio, United Kingdom, 1953 Duration: 94 minutes Exactly two hundred seventy-eight years ago John Rich's Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre produced The Beggar's Opera, the first British musical, with the contents of which everybody is familiar. It had incredible 63 runs, a success unheard of before and toured across England. The profits were huge. At the time the pun circulating in London was that Gay had become rich and Rich had become gay. Gay wrote his satire about highwaymen and thieves to mirror the moral degradation of the then society and, more particularly, to caricature the prime minister Sir Robert Walpole and his Whig administration. It also made fun of the prevailing fashion for Italian opera in England, Gay, like many authors after him, tried to reap more fruit from his success and wrote a sequel, Polly, but it was forbidden by the lord chamberlain, doubtless on Walpole's instructions. Like today, the ban was an excellent advertisement and the author made more than £l,OOO profit from its printed edition - a huge sum at the time. It was first staged in 1777. The Beggar's Opera was successfully transferred into the 20th century by writer Bertholt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill in 1928. Their adaptation became famous and is known as Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera). It is worth mentioning that Sjr Laurence Olivier had a triple role in this production: as a producer, protagonist and singer. John Gay (1685-1732), an important representative of English neoclassicism, wrote poetry and theatre plays. Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift were his friends. He was a very witty man and thus very popularand his well-meant jokes did not earn him any enemies. Voltaire said that he enthused over Swift, but loved Gay. Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, but now I know it The epitaph on Gay's tomb which he wrote himself.