Martin Crimp Plays 3

Cruel and Tender 'A mordantly knowing modernisation of Sophocles's Trachiniae... . The approach here manages to be at once lethally level and capable of surges of anguished feeling... Highly recommended.' Independent Fewer Emergencies 'A triptych of vicious modern fairy tales that brings the nightmare right back and stabs you through the soul.' Guardian The City 'Although this is the most disquieting play in London, there is a curious exhilaration about both the performance and Crimp's confrontation with our perpetual unease.' Guardian Definitely the Bahamas 'A summation of a life lived vicariously, at the margins of other lives, between suffocating suburban walls; and the play is as unflinching as it is unnerving.' The Times Play House ' Play House concerns the volatility and vulnerability of love, as a young couple, Simon and Katrina set up home... Unusually for Crimp, the play both begins and ends with moving declarations of love. Suddenly this usually chilly dramatist seems unexpectedly blessed with a warm heart.' Daily Telegraph In the Republic of Happiness 'Crimp goes so far as to call it "an entertainment in three parts," and it rocks along like a dystopian vaudeville... The actors are imprisoned and liberated at once, their strange between-worlds condition a source of joy, intemperateness and above all a care for our diversion... My favourite play of the year.' What's on Stage

From pornography and ethnic violence, to terrorism and unprotected sex, this work presents an array of nameless characters that attempt to invent the story to encapsulate our time. It has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Sex, work, pregnancy, parents, weird neighbours, cleaning the fridge and dancing: Play House tells - in thirteen fleeting scenes - the story of a young couple's attempts to set up home.In Definitely the Bahamas, Frank and Milly relish the visits of Michael, their charming and successful only child. But what exactly is his relationship to the young student living in their house?Martin Crimp's Definitely the Bahamas was first staged at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 1987. It was revived there with Play House, a new play, in March 2012.

- What're you doing here Robert? - Well to be frank with you, I've really no idea. I thought I would just suddenly appear, so I did. I suddenly appeared. A family Christmas is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Uncle Bob. Who is he? Why has he come? Why does his wife stay out in the car? And what is the meaning of his long and outrageous message? All we can be sure of is that the world will never be the same again. A provocative roll-call of contemporary obsessions, In the Republic of Happiness premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in December 2012.

Go on then: lock the doors and see what happens. Show me how much power you really have.When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other breaks through the surface of contemporary debate to explore the messy, often violent nature of desire and the fluid, complicated roles that men and women play.Using Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela as a provocation, six characters act out a dangerous game of sexual domination and resistance.When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other premiered at the National Theatre, London, in January 2019.

This book covers playwright Martin Crimp’s recent work showing how it captures the nuances in our interpersonal contemporary experience. Examining the bold and exciting body of writing by Crimp, the book delves into his depiction of intersections between narratives, as well as between private and public, through an honest look at power structures and shifts, marriages and relationships, sexuality, and desire. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in Drama, Theatre and Performance, English Literature, and Opera Studies.

The latest collection of plays confirms Martin Crimp's reputation as one of the most original and exciting talents writing for the theatre today.

This book reads Martin Crimp’s The Treatment (1993), Attempts on her Life (1997), The Country (2000), Face to the Wall (2002), Cruel and Tender (2004) and his adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull (2006) in the context of contemporary, late capitalist societies of control or of ‘spectacle’, and explores how female collapse in particular works as a form of denunciation of the violence of globalized, technological neo-liberalism. The book contends that Crimp is a post-Holocaust writer, whose dramaturgy is pervaded by the ethical and aesthetic debates that the Holocaust has generated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Its main claim is that, by interpellating spectators through the defamiliarized language of collapse and testimony, Crimp invites spectators to contribute to detecting the seeds of ‘barbarism’ as they may detect them in their context, thus warning them about the introduction of violence in supposedly civilized relationships and thereby also contributing to overcoming the contemporary ethical impasse. The book finally argues that female characters who pass on their testimony are shown to the audience in the ‘process of becoming’ ethical bodies – namely, they are emerge as ethical out of the perceived necessity to integrate both the Other as essential parts of their beings, thus recovering an innate, Baumian sense of responsibility towards the Other.