Methuen Drama Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy: No Milk for the Foxes; DenMarked; High Rise eState of Mind

About the Author Chris Ackerley is Professor of English at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Product Description This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners. The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers. Review A show with something to say, and a stylish way of saying it. --The Stage (on High Rise Estate of Mind)If there were thousands more like Murray who managed to ‘breakthrough’ from a working class background to the mainstream Arts, the landscape would be very different to what it is today. --Breaking the Fourth WallIt’s dramatic authenticity is pitch perfect. --Exeunt