MSC: I think the play will still be seen as quite abrasive. I’ve seen a number of things recently which are soft as butter and without any political relevance but have been hailed critically. We’re approaching a cycle of self-centred plays and I think this was a corrective then and is now to that. I first heard of Mark Ravenhill through his Guardian columns. I knew him more as a cultural figure before I read his plays. Watching the Lyric’s revival, I had similar feelings to going to see their production of Edward Bond’s Saved, another controversial play that comes with its own myths attached. I mean, are there any feelings left, you know?” asks Mark forlornly. There aren’t, really. There are needs . And the cause of all this sullen alienation? Money! Mr. Ravenhill’s message about the corrupting power of the god of consumerism amounts to the unsurprising pronouncement that money is the root of all evil. Unlike Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting , Mr. Ravenhill is a moralist. He disapproves of consumer society, warning us repeatedly in virtually every scene that everything is the art of the deal, like sex and shopping.

Sean Holmes, director: I thought what was really interesting about it was how prophetic the play was. There’s the element of everyone telling stories about themselves, which obviously the internet and social media allows you to do to a far greater degree, and the way it’s very hard to avoid everything becoming a transaction in a world that is a capitalist mono-system. I think that theme feels very contemporary and more in the spirit of the age than it was even twenty years ago. Yes. Yes. I’m teaching. You’re learning. Money is civilization. And civilization is … say it . Don’t get frightened now. And civilization is …” Ve sanırım uzun zaman önce büyük öyküler vardı. Öyle büyük öykülerdi ki, tüm hayatını onlarla geçirebiliyordun. Tanrının ve Kaderin Güçlü Elleri. Aydınlanmaya yapılan yolculuk. Sosyalizm Yürüyüşü. Ama hepsi öldü ya da dünya yaşlandı, bunadı ve tüm bunları unuttu. O yüzden şimdi hepimiz kendi öykülerimizi uyduruyoruz. Küçük öyküler. Farklı şekillerde. Ama her birimizin bir tane var. Sensing Others through Dancing Bodies as Data: Review of Sense Datum by UBIN DANCE 26th November 2023On the other hand, The New York Times favors the ‘it doesn’t exist’ formula. It has prudishly renamed the play Shopping and …. Everyone does it, no one will name it! The Times doesn’t even give it an asterisk or two. Three little dots must suffice. “How was it for you, my darling?”“That was the greatest three little dots I ever had in my life!”

S odstupom času som ju však nevedela dostať z hlavy a vtedy mi došlo, že som asi zošalela, lebo v živote potrebujem viac jeho tvorby. Don't let the title put you off,this 90's play dealing with a society bent on money and sex tell a dark tale of the problems which arise for those who have little material wealth and whose relationships twist and turn. Littered with characters who survive on microwave meals,dealing in E ,telephone sex and adventures with 'rent boys' as well as coping with nasty drug dealers this play paints a very dark side of life in the 90's,but I suspect one that is known in some small detail to quite a large proportion of the population. This 20th-anniversary revival — all glorious flash, videos and music — works hard to distract us from the fact that the play is an old-fashioned flat-share drama featuring a group of friends, all of whom have been named after members of the 1990s Cool Brit boy band Take That. So there’s the idealistic stoner Robbie, the junkie Mark and the ever-enterprising Lulu. The plot shows how, in a series of rapid scenes, their attempts at self-improvement come under threat. Mark books into a clinic to cure his addiction, but is thrown out. On the streets, he finds Gary, a teenage rentboy. Meanwhile, Lulu’s attempt to get a job involves stripping off for middle-aged Brian, who tests her by giving her a bag of Ecstasy to sell. Cue dance scenes. And then some telephone sex. The story climaxes when Mark brings the damaged and self-destructive Gary home to meet Lulu and Robbie.Groundbreaking Autistic-Led Production of “A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” at A Common Thread Theatre Company in Framingham, MA 21st October 2023 A: Mark Ravenhill Pf: 1996, London Pb: 1996 G: Drama in 14 scenes S: A flat, interview room, bedsit, pub, hospital, and department store, London, 1990s C: 4m, 1f Ableson is terrific as the self-involved Mark, setting a high standard as he reprises his role from San Francisco. Fortunately, under Edwards’ direction the rest of the cast has no problem meeting his level. Malkasian is a devastating Robbie, pathetic at one moment and pathological the next. Parris is just super as Lulu, the character with at least one quirky foot touching the ground. Steven Klein is an appealing Gary, and Reed’s Brian is both funny and frightening in his analysis of civilization and Disney feature films. The acting was adequate but at times looked a little amateurish. I particularly liked the character Lulu ( Kate Ashfield), she is the flatmate of Robbie and the character Brian ( Robin Soans), a weird drug pusher.

May 2013 – The Victoria, Swindon. Directed by Peter Hynds and Sarah Lewis. Produced by TS Theatre Productions. This production starred Ella Thomas as Lulu, David Paris Malham as Robbie, Pete Hynds as Mark, David John Phillips as Gary and Howard Trigg as Brian. Playwright Mark Ravenhill was educated at Bristol University where he studied English and Drama, and worked for the Soho Poly in London. Rule number one. Never believe a junkie. Because a junkie is a cunt. And when a junkie looks you in the eyes and says ‘I love you’ that’s when you know he’s gonna fill you full of shit.” Ravenhill kritizuje krutosť systému, nastavuje zrkadlo konzumnej spoločnosti - robí presne to, čo si predstavíte v modernej literatúre, keď sa povie, že autor je rebel, anarchista a chce šokovať všetko a všetkých. Možno by som označila Ravenhilla za divadelného Palahniuka - lebo nikto iný, kto kritizuje spoločnosť s drsným humorom a jeho scenérie sú temné, chladné a až tak nepríjemne známe, mi momentálne nenapadá.

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Aspects of consumerism and sexuality rampant in popular culture recur throughout the play: drugs, shoplifting, phone sex, prostitution, anal sex and oral sex in the London department store Harvey Nichols. February 1998 – 17 March 1998 – New York Theatre Workshop. Directed by Gemma Bodinetz and Max Stafford-Clark. Torquil Campbell as Gary, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Mark, Jennifer Dundas Lowe as Lulu, Matthew Sussman as Brian and Justin Theroux as Robbie. [2] [3] [4] Intimacy at a price … Sam Spruell (Mark) and Sophie Wu (Lulu). Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian