Richard Crane
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Five Reasons to See The Quest

Richard Crane was a founder member of the Brighton Combination and the Pool Theatre Edinburgh, where his first short plays were produced; he has also worked as an actor. Peter Hall engaged him as the first resident dramatist at the National Theatre and he wrote six plays during his year there.

I Am A Warehouse premiered at the Brighton Festival in 2010 and Dancing With Demons previewed at the Victoria & Albert Museum this year. The Quest was originally staged by Bradford University in 1974 and won a Fringe First award at Edinburgh.

1. The Quest is a 21st century story about a dream of good government brought down by scandal and corruption: the once and future legend retold as breaking news. 22 young actors come together in an ensemble, to challenge prevailing attitudes and present a thrilling, contemporary, thought-provoking show.

2. The Quest is sheer spectacle: biker-boys and slut-girls meet Royal Wedding couture and sports protection chic, in a musical epic that spans choral singing, war music, ballads and rock'n'roll. The detritus of the modern age and a lost generation are miraculously transformed into heroes and heroines, magicians and warriors, from the timeless age of legend.

3. The fading grandeur of Eastbourne's Floral Hall falls silent as triumph turns to tragedy and terror stalks the land. The Quest is a reminder of the fragility of kingship, and the dangers of religious and political extremism, as the Round Table is rocked between Mordred and the prose-speakers and Galahad and the seekers of the Holy Grail.

4. The Quest fulfils Bertolt Brecht's wish for a theatre that merges with sport. Spectators on banked seating watch jousting, dancing, trampolining and a pitched battle. In the run-up to the London Olympics, The Quest celebrates a new generation of young actor/athletes going for gold.

5. Almost forty years on, the awarding-winning sensation of the Edinburgh Festival returns in a time a national need, like the legend of Arthur itself.

- by Anne Morley-Priestman

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