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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton. A story of unrequited love set in 1930s London, against the backdrop of grimy streets and public houses. Patrick Hamilton, responsible for both the haunting Gaslight and the atmospheric Hangover Square, published a semi-autobiographical trilogy under the title of Twenty Thousand Streets in 1935. Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off the Euston Road, it follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives. Barman Bob (Bryan Dick), who yearns for penniless street-walker Jenny (Zoe Tapper). Bob's colleague Ella (Sally Hawkins), who is torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for her barman workmate. Executive producer Gareth Neame says: ''Patrick Hamilton was one of the truly great British novelists of the 20th Century, but his extraordinary contribution has all too often been overlooked. His famous psychological thrillers such as Rope, Gaslight and Hangover Square influenced many of the celebrated filmmakers of the last century such as Alfred Hitchcock. ''The highly autobiographical Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky doesn't involve murders or darkened streets, but instead the intensely painful subjects of unrequited love, ambition and disappointment. It observes the minutiae of ordinary life and it gives us a unique insight into the emotionally wrecked life that Hamilton himself lived.'' Gaslight: the return of the play that defined toxic masculinity. T he term “gaslighting” – psychological manipulation intended to make the victim question their sanity – has become embedded in our language. This year, accusations of gaslighting were aimed at Love Island housemates Michael and Curtis. In the Netflix series Jessica Jones, David Tennant’s character played mind-control games with his victims (intensified by the fact that he could actually control minds). Taylor Swift even declared that the US public had been gaslighted by Donald Trump’s politics. The term derives from Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gaslight, which is itself fittingly deceptive. On the surface it’s a Victorian melodrama, a real potboiler, but it is uncannily insightful and accurate in its depiction of an abusive relationship. The play was the basis for a 1940 film directed by Thorold Dickinson and for George Cukor’s 1944 film starring Ingrid Bergman. Along with his drama Rope, Gaslight made Hamilton wealthy. In the play, Jack Manningham manipulates and undermines his wife, Bella. His temper is constantly fluctuating; he dismisses and belittles her and, by turning the lights on and off, starts to make her think she is going mad. “It’s so acute in its portrayal of psychological domestic abuse and toxic masculinity, but people can lose sight of that,” says Richard Beecham, whose production of Gaslight is at Watford Palace theatre this month. “Patrick Hamilton the commercial playwright could never quite leave behind Hamilton the literary novelist,” says Beecham. “He was a complicated man and, reading his biography, it seems he had some understanding of some of the behaviours he’s writing about.” Hamilton’s tendency to become infatuated with unsuitable women seeped into his fiction. His obsession with Soho sex worker Lily Connolly made its way into Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. The protagonist of the Gorse trilogy is a predator, a superficially charming swindler who takes advantage of women. The Watford production is one of several Gaslights staged this year. There have already been revivals at Perth theatre and the Mill at Sonning; a version starring Martin Shaw is touring the UK and another Gaslight is coming to the Playground theatre in London. Beecham was inspired by Safe at Last, a Channel 4 documentary that allowed cameras behind the doors of a women’s refuge. His production has an all-female cast playing survivors of domestic abuse who are enacting Hamilton’s play as an exercise in drama therapy. To prepare, Beecham worked closely with a women’s refuge. The cast created individual backstories for the modern women they are playing and they remained in character when a care worker took them through a workshop designed for survivors of abuse. The cast are simultaneously playing the women in the refuge as well as Hamilton’s characters, so when Bella delivers an impassioned speech towards the end, it becomes “a sort of exorcism”. This approach also means that, in the context of Beecham’s production, a survivor of abuse is also taking on the role of the abuser, which makes the scene in which Jack attacks Bella more emotionally complex. The character of the police inspector Rough, who is Bella’s rescuer, can be problematic for a director today: he is another dominating male presence. In Kai Fischer’s production for Perth theatre, a woman – Meg Fraser – was cast in the role. Beecham has merged the character with the figure of the drama therapist and has “pruned the text to remove some of the lazy sexism and the patronising attitudes”. Is there not, I ask, also an issue with a man directing a cast of women in a play about emotional control and power imbalance? It’s something they’ve discussed. Watford Palace’s artistic director Brigid Larmour stipulated that if he was to direct it there would need to be an otherwise all-female creative team. Emotionally complex . Jasmine Jones and Hannah Hutch in Gaslight at the Watford Palace theatre. Photograph: The Other Richard. Imy Wyatt Corner’s forthcoming production for the Playground theatre in London will stick more closely to Hamilton’s original. Her version will retain the Victorian setting and look to horror for inspiration. She wants to “push the audience to feel uneasy – even scared”. Inevitably, lighting will play a large part in this; she cites the film Midsommar as an inspiration. Having first read the play 10 years ago, Corner was inspired to direct it because “its depiction of abusive relationships has not dated and remains alarmingly relevant”. The Crown Prosecution Service recorded 960 offences of coercive and controlling behaviour between 2017 and 2018, a three-fold increase from the previous year. Ninety-seven per cent of defendants prosecuted in these cases were male. But Corner is concerned about the prevalence of the term in the media. It has become a buzzword, she says, “but also in some ways lost any attachment to the actual gravity of this type of abuse and the sensitivity this topic can require”. “Now is a very good time to revisit the play,” she says, and “consider what – if anything – has changed.” Richard Beecham’s production of Gaslight is at Watford Palace theatre until 26 October. Imy Wyatt Corner’s production is at the Playground theatre, London, from 21 October until 10 November. Press Releases. Patrick Hamilton's classic trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky adapted for BBC FOUR. In the year of acclaimed author Patrick Hamilton 's centenary, his classic trilogy, Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky , is brought to life in a new three-part adaptation by Kevin Elyot for BBC FOUR . In a story of unrequited love set against the backdrop of the grimy streets and public houses of Thirties London, the drama stars a talented young cast including Bryan Dick (Blackpool) as Bob, Zoë Tapper (Pepys, Stage Beauty) as Jenny and Sally Hawkins (Layer Cake and BBC ONE's forthcoming Fingersmith) as Ella. Phil Davis (Vera Drake, Rose And Maloney) also features as Mr Eccles. Hamilton, responsible for both the haunting Gaslight and the atmospheric Hangover Square, published the semi-autobiographical trilogy under the title of Twenty Thousand Streets in 1935. Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off the Euston Road, it follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives: barman Bob, who yearns for penniless street-walker Jenny; his colleague Ella, torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for Bob; and Jenny, forced onto the streets through circumstances and now struggling to keep her head above water. Executive producer Gareth Neame says: "Patrick Hamilton was one of the truly great British novelists of the 20th Century, but his extraordinary contribution has all too often been overlooked. "His famous psychological thrillers such as Rope, Gaslight and Hangover Square influenced many of the celebrated filmmakers of the last century such as Alfred Hitchcock. "The highly autobiographical Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky doesn't involve murders or darkened streets, but instead the intensely painful subjects of unrequited love, ambition and disappointment. "It observes the minutiae of ordinary life and it gives us a unique insight into the emotionally wrecked life that Hamilton himself lived." Kevin Elyot, who has adapted the trilogy for the BBC, is best known for his multi-award-winning play, My Night With Reg and recently adapted Death On The Nile for television. Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky is produced by Kate Harwood (Charles II, Daniel Deronda) and directed by Simon Curtis (Man and Boy, David Copperfield). The executive producers are Gareth Neame and Richard Fell . Filming has begun on location in London and the drama will be transmitted on BBC FOUR next year. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky A London Trilogy. by Patrick Hamilton, introduction by Susanna Moore. Patrick Hamilton may be best known now for the plays Rope and Gaslight and for the classic Alfred Hitchcock and George Cukor movies they inspired, but in his heyday he was no less famous for his brooding tales of London life. Featuring a Dickensian cast of pubcrawlers, prostitutes, lowlifes, and just plain losers who are looking for love—or just an ear to bend—Hamilton’s novels are a triumph of deft characterization, offbeat humor, unlikely compassion, and raw suspense.

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