Peake slices across the stage like a laser beam. She is an actor worth crossing the country to see. But the characterisation on which she has to work is slight. She is 1) an insulted woman; 2) an all-too-plausible specialist in “customer dynamics”; 3) a victim of European meltdown, desperately trying to reach the new economic beacon of Africa. In the most dynamic scene she is perched at the top of a vertiginous slope, trying not to slide down towards the outstretched arms of a drowning crowd.

How to Hold Your Breath | Theatre in London - Time Out How to Hold Your Breath | Theatre in London - Time Out

Last Updated on 26th February 2015 Maxine Peake and Peter Forbes in How To Hold Your Breath. Photo: Manuel Harlan Tom Stoppard for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Wole Soyinka for The Interpreters (shared) (1967) What starts off as a seemingly innocent one night stand, Zinnie Harris new playtakes us on a thrilling and magical journey across Europe and examines the true cost of modern day morality.Amnesty award goes to Edinburgh fringe plays Sold and The Wheel". The Guardian. Press Association. 2011-08-25 . Retrieved 2018-10-15. Everything happens on the same junk-covered set, with no sense that Dana and Jasmin are actually travelling anywhere. Coupled with Dana’s hallucinogenic visitations from both Shaeffer’s increasingly agitated Jarron and Peter Forbes’s amusingly prissy, quasi-angelic librarian and Featherstone almost seems to be interpreting ‘How To Hold Your Breath’ as taking place in its protagonist’s head. But to what end? If none of it is really happening, the geopolitical stuff loses value, as does Jasmin, whose heartbreaking, ugly late monologue about her baby is one of the play’s stand-out moments. Clearly it is at least real on some level, but Featherstone muddies it enough to sap the play’s momentum, while the relentlessly dour tone squishes the considerable sparkle in Harris’s dialogue. Professor Zinnie Harris FRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". The Royal Society of Edinburgh . Retrieved 2018-03-14.

REVIEW: How To Hold Your Breath, Royal Court Theatre

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre announce 2020 season". British Theatre. 2019-09-11 . Retrieved 2019-09-11.These are all great ideas for a play that prods intelligently at the global status quo, that questions where we’d be if white, Western male power collapsed. But are they great ideas for the same play? The trouble with Featherstone’s cold, brooding, two-hour production is that it smushes everything together to the point that the individual strands lose definition and intent. Wade, Mike (2017-07-31). "Zinnie Harris: the drama queen of the Edinburgh festival (she's got five plays on)". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 2018-10-12. However, at the heart of the play is Dana’s own journey from a quiet, normal life working in Berlin to a woman driven to extreme measures by the suffering she later endures. Despite the bizarre and increasingly unreal situations that Dana finds herself in, Maxine Peake keeps the character grounded and believable with a gritty stubbornness as she struggles for survival. In a strong performance, Christine Bottomley takes Dana’s sister from sassy best friend to a creature broken by circumstance. Peter Forbes’ ever-helpful librarian injects humour as he offers increasingly absurd self-help books such as “How to Spot Danger and Know How to Deal with It” and “How to Catch up with the Times as They Change”.

How to Hold Your Breath, Royal Court | Culture Whisper How to Hold Your Breath, Royal Court | Culture Whisper

The Scent of Roses | The Lyceum | Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh". lyceum.org.uk. 5 March 2022 . Retrieved 2023-01-15. Sloane Square’s Royal Court is London’s theatre du jour. Challenging productions, new British talent and atmosphere of radicalism ensure it’s every thespian’s first port of call, despite the well-heeled, un-groovy location. Then suddenly Europe is plunged into a massive financial crisis. The banks fail; credit cards and debit cards are useless. People lose everything; they begin to migrate south. At this point the nightmare gets even more nightmarish. By flipping the North-South divide on its head, Harris confronts us with uncomfortable questions: what if Germany became like Greece? What if we all depended on aid from Africa? What if everyone wanted to migrate south? What if? Could we survive the perilous boat journey across the Mediterranean? To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account.Maison Antoine Vitez / Centre International de la Traduction Théâtrale". Maison Antoine Vitez (in French) . Retrieved 2018-10-15. To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Now in the realms of fantasy, the play appears to become a magical Faustian fable, yet still just about rooted in reality. However, Harris steers the play in another direction where reality fractures in a journey that increasingly becomes a nightmare. Society and the economy disintegrate around them as the women’s trip turns into a desperate bid to flee as illegal immigrants to safety in Africa.