Is the search for the Self for total nobodies? Watch closely as Peter Gnit, a funny-enough but so-so specimen of humanity, makes a lifetime of bad decisions, on the search for his True Self, which is disintegrating while he searches. A rollicking and very cautionary tale about, among other things, how the opposite of love is laziness.Gnit is a faithful, unfaithful, and willfully American misreading of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, a 19th century Norwegian play which is famous for all the wrong reasons, written by Will Eno, who has never been to Norway.
‘See the ripples? You’re underneath. Your body’s under those ripples.’ Brooklyn 1986. Joe & Elli have entered a major ballroom dancing competition. They have practised hard and hope to win – but their plans are jeopardised when the unexpected arrival of a figure from their past confronts them with a profound moral dilemma. Haunting, funny and poignant, Daytona is a play with two love stories at its heart.
Daisy is sixteen. She was normal. Now she’s just an ill person with a disease no one has heard of.The hospital tells her father Peter that she must travel regularly to London for specialist treatment – but how on earth will he get time off work? There’s one person he could ask for help. Problem is, Daisy’s not going to like it…Responsible Other is a bittersweet comedy which examines the complexities of family life.
Mission Drift is a pioneering journey across the USA in pursuit of the soul of American capitalism, created in the blazing heat of a Las Vegas June. Told through atomic blasts, lizard ballet, and original music that fuses Las Vegas glitz with Western ballads and Southern blues, it features two interweaving love stories: the epic saga of an immortal teenage Dutch couple as they travel west from Amsterdam to New Amsterdam in 1624, all the way to modern-day financially devastated Las Vegas, and the intimate portrait of a cocktail waitress and a cowboy grappling with the 2008 recession and their crumbling American dreams.Over it all reigns Miss Atomic, a seductive storyteller/singer inspired by the 1950s beauty pageants celebrating the bombs tested in the Nevada desert. She is the symbol of creation and destruction, bankruptcy and bonanza, and this profoundly unique American city.
‘a one-off from the word go, and no history of English humour could overlook him.’ Tom StoppardN.F. Simpson (1919-2011) was a leading exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd, with the Royal Court classics A Resounding Tinkle (1957) and One Way Pendulum (1959) sealing his reputation as a comic master with a subtle philosophical undertow.Emerging during a revolutionary period in British theatre, Simpson rose to prominence alongside Harold Pinter, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker. His work has been embraced and performed by comedy legends including Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Beryl Reid and Dick Emery. His influence spread widely, from Peter Cook’s much loved character E.L. Wisty to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and helped spawn a generation of outstanding comic talent.This authorised collection presents the best of Simpson’s short works for audiences new and old. Featuring more than sixty pieces from across six decades, the full spectrum of an extraordinary career is brought together in one volume for the first time: monologues, sketches, criticism and poetry, written for radio, television, stage and print. It includes all of Simpson’s anarchic collaborations with Willie Rushton for Private Eye, a generous selection of previously unseen pieces from his final manuscript, as well as a critical introduction by Simpson collaborator Simon Usher.
‘…Like the albatross, we need a safe place we can be. But somewhere we’re together, my Mama and my me…’High up in a Glasgow tower block, ten-year-old Star and her mother await the outcome of their claim for asylum.As Mama’s mind fragments under the pressure of their unknown future, Star constructs a poetic and fantasticalworld of her own. Some Other Mother is a story of loss and survival, which explores the traumatising impact of theasylum system, regardless of the outcome.
London, Soho…1956. Where glamour rubs up against filth, and likes it; where the posh mix with musicians, whores and racketeers; where ‘virginity is no city trade’, and where a dashingly impecunious bachelor in need of quick cash and a good time has to live on his wits. Turning conman to fool his rich uncle, he variously becomes a lord, a high-class call girl, and – God forbid – a poor actor. But a beautiful Soho tart is also on the scam: a whore to some, a religious instructor to others, and a debutante in need of an eligible bachelor to yet more…
Growing up is the most exciting adventure of allJoin young Emil as he says goodbye to his mother, leaves his small town and sets off on a journey that will change his life. When his money is stolen on the train by a mysterious stranger, Emil thinks he’s lost everything. But as he starts tracking down the thief, he soon discovers that he’s not alone in the big city after all. For this classic tale of a boy learning to rely on himself – and on his new friends – the Olivier stage transforms into 1920s Berlin: a place full of surprises and danger, where everything moves at the speed of your imagination.
Trash Cuisine:Banned from performing in their own country, Belarus Free Theatre serve up food, music, dance and Shakespeare as they share true stories from inmates, executioners, human rights lawyers and families of the executed. This provocative and urgent play pierces the imagination with moments of the darkest humour as it challenges capital punishment in our contemporary world, where 95 countries still carry out the death penalty.Minsk 2011 (A Reply to Kathy Acker):If scars are sexy, Minsk must be the sexiest city in the world…Strip clubs, underground raves and gay pride parades pulse beneath the surface of a city, where sexuality is twisted by oppression. A love letter to a home that exiles those willing to fight for it, Minsk, 2011 celebrates and mourns a land that has lost its way.
GUTTED is a fast-paced, powerful new play by Rikki Beadle-Blair. Set in South East London, this is a story about love, family and sordid secrets told through the eyes of four brothers. When the eldest brother comes out of rehab he embarks on a truth-telling mission and triggers an unstoppable family meltdown. In an explosive 24 hours, years of denial are uncovered and life will never be the same again.