Parlour Song (NHB Modern Plays) - Softcover

Jez Butterworth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848420269 ISBN 13: 9781848420267

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2009

Synopsis

Two couples live side by side in identical houses. On the outside Ned is a confident demolitions expert: on the inside he's a mess. He is the victim of increasingly bizarre but recurrent theft, and his marriage to Joy is running out of steam. He also suffers a recurring nightmare. Eventually he is usurped by his neighbour, and Joy deserts him - literally and metaphorically. His nightmare? He is encased in a room just like the one he lives in - Laugh-out-loud funny to start with, Jez Butterworth's new play, "Parlour Song", gets darker and more surreal as it unfolds. For fans of "Mojo" or "The Winterling", this is vintage Butterworth: a compound of comedy and menace, not unlike his mentor, Harold Pinter (who played the gangster boss in the film of "Mojo").The UK premiere is at the Almeida Theatre, Islington, in February 2009, directed by Ian Rickson, who has staged all Butterworth's plays so far. It has also been seen in New York.

About this title

Review:

A play that combines the comic, the erotic and the downright disconcerting with superb panache --Telegraph

It s a beauty. On the surface, it is a simple tale of marriage breakdown and suburban adultery but it also touches on a much deeper malaise: the way people suddenly feel disconnected from the lives they have built. And it is wickedly funny --Financial Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1848420269
• ISBN 13: 9781848420267
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96