Bathsheba Doran: The Marriage Plays: Kin; Parents Evening; The Mystery of Love and Sex
By (Author) Bathsheba Doran
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Oberon Books Ltd
2nd May 2016
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
822.92
Paperback
312
Width 130mm, Height 210mm
272g
The first collection of plays from Bathsheba Doran. Contains the plays Kin, Parents Evening and The Mystery of Love and Sex. Kin: Anna, an Ivy League poetry scholar, and Sean, an Irish personal trainer, hardly seem destined for one another. But as their web of disparate family and friends crosses great distances both psychologically and geographically an unlikely new family is forged. Bathsheba Doran's play sheds a sharp light on the changing face of kinship in the expansive landscape of the modern world. Parents Evening: Its dusk. Mother and father are in their bedroom, dressing in preparation for Parents Evening at their only daughters primary school. During this rare opportunity to check in, the couple embarks on a volatile, passionate and surprising confrontation that challenges every one of their life choices. The play is a painfully witty, perceptive exploration of the landlines of parenting in modern marriage. The Mystery of Love and Sex: Charlotte and Jonny definitely do love each other. But not that way. Or maybe that way. Theyre in college and have been close friends since they were nine. They might be in love. They might be moving in together. They might be getting married. Or they might not. Also, Charlotte wonders if she might be gay. Or maybe bisexual. As does Jonny. So why are they turning their relationship romantic
The truism that families come in all shapes and sizes is illuminated with haunting beauty in this exquisitely wrought comedy-dramaa piercing portrait of the contemporary social architecture, in which the distance between people can be widened or collapsed with disorienting ease, whether it is through the click of a keyboard, a telephone conversation or a chance encounter. Many of the characters in the play never actually meet, and yet we come away with a moving sense of how each individuals experience resonates troublingly or happilyin the lives of almost everyone else. * The New York Times *
Dorans script shows insightful nuance! * NYTheatre.com *
Wise and exquisitely crafted. * Time Out New York *
Bathsheba Doran is a British playwright living in New York City. She grew up in London and studied at Cambridge University. Doran's work has been developed by the O'Neill Playwriting Center, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club and Sundance Theatre Lab, among others. She was nominated for a 2012 Writers Guild Award for her work on Boardwalk Empire.