Writer and illustrator Edward Carey was a member of the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at the University of Hull. His plays have been performed at the National Theatre of Romania and Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania, as well as the Young Vic Studio and the Royal Opera House Studio. His latest novel, Edith Holler, tells the macabre and gothic story of a girl trapped inside a Norwich theatre.
Now he’s giving Big Issue the benefit of his experiences by choosing his top five books set in theatres.
The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux
A monster book where the theatre is fully described from the director’s office to deep below stage. A love song to the theatre and a twisted romance, it’s deeply thrilling and alarming.
Black Snow by Mikhail Bulgakov
A backstage story of a suicidal writer whose work is taken away from him.
A furious attack on censorship and Bulgakov’s own personal revenge on the theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski, father of method acting.
An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
Set in Liverpool during the 1950s, this coming-of-age story is structured around a Christmas production of Peter Pan and is Bainbridge at her bold, brilliant best – here is a very acutely drawn picture of life backstage.
Little Dancer Aged 14: The True Story of Degas’ Masterpiece by Camille Laurens, translated by Willard Wood
The true story behind Degas’ famous sculpture is also a portrait of ‘les rats’, the downtrodden and mistreated girls who appeared as basically set dressing on the Opéra Garnier stage in Paris.
