What determines our character? Nature or nurture? Genetic inheritance or social environment? It is an age-old debate, and Alice Birch now adds to it with this startling theatrical triptych about three generations of mothers and daughters... Birch’s progress as a writer has been fascinating to watch... On the evidence so far, I would say Birch has a gift for radical experiment in the style of Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane. In her new play we are confronted by three women, Carol, Anna and Bonnie, who we learn are mother, daughter and granddaughter. They exist in three different time zones but the story of their lives is told simultaneously. As Birch herself says, the text has been scored and can be read, or viewed, horizontally... I can, in fact, think of few exact parallels to this play.

Michael Billington, The Guardian

The way conversations overlap, intersect, even chime exactly, as if words are echoing down the decades, is a compositional marvel... [any] vague misgivings pale beside the essential bravery and daring of it all: anyone who has experienced the nightmare of handed-on familial sadness, let alone the horror of suicide, will surely find in this a therapeutic-cathartic release.

Telegraph

What a fiercely uncompromising, clinically emotional two hours this is Alice Birch, darling of the film world after her stark and powerful script for <i>Lady Macbeth</i>, returns in triumph to her home ground of the theatre for an unflinching examination of three generations of women in one family... an intricately interwoven work in which three separate scenes often play out simultaneously.

Evening Standard

"Alice Birch’s new play is scored like a piece of music ... It is an extraordinary echoing text, full of pain and strange beauty. The three stories play out simultaneously on stage, the dialogue from one scene overlapping with the other two in a manner that borders on the choral ... Birch has provided a text that explores these ideas in a formally invigorating way." The StageThree generations of women. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings with it a painful legacy.A powerful, unflinching look at a family afflicted with severe depression and mental illness. Presented as a triptych of plays performed side by side, this groundbreaking play reverberates with audiences and readers. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand new introduction by Ava Davies.
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A powerful, unflinching look at a family afflicted with severe depression and mental illness.
A new edition of one of Alice Birch's most challenging and celebrated plays that premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2017
Methuen Drama’s Modern Classics series showcases landmark plays from around the world. Drawing on the Modern Plays series, which launched in 1959, Modern Classics celebrates plays from the contemporary repertoire by world-leading dramatists and presents their work in a definitive edition, alongside new introductions by leading scholars and industry professionals. With writers such as Pulitzer Prize-winners Jackie Sibblies Drury, Ayad Akhtar and David Mamet through to Lucy Prebble, Katori Hall and Caryl Churchill, Modern Classics are ideal for students and anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of the plays that form part of the modern dramatic canon.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350200777
Publisert
2021-09-23
Utgiver
Vendor
Methuen Drama
Vekt
208 gr
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
256

Forfatter

Biographical note

Alice Birch's previous work at the Royal Court includes Peckham: The Soap Opera and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (RSC). Other credits include: We Want You To Watch (National), The Lone Pine Club (Pentabus), Little Light (Orange Tree), Little on the Inside (Almeida / Clean Break), Salt (Comedie de Valence), Many Moons (Theatre 503), Flying the Nest (BBC Radio 4) and Lady Macbeth (BBC Films / BFI / Creative England). Alice was the co-winner of the 2014 George Devine Award for Revolt. She said. Revolt Again and winner of the Arts Foundation Award for Playwriting 2014.