Lovesong of the Electric Bear

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Nothing is stronger than this love, for I am nothing indeed without you, Master Awoken from his deathbed by his favourite childhood teddy bear, Turing is led by the hand through the journey of his life, from glowing academia to New York drag bars, from triumph to disgrace. Snoo Wilsons Lovesong of the Electric Bear is an epic, psychedelic and electrifying trip through the life of Alan Turing, the computer visionary and maths genius whose gifts made him the code-breaking hero of World War II, but whose homosexuality led him to betrayal and vilification by the very establishment who had depended on him for victory. Lovesong of the Electric Bear is a wonderfully imaginative, comic and moving play from one of British theatres great voices. The edition publishes to coincide with the European premiere at the Hope Theatre, London, on 24 February 2015.

Reviews

Snoo Wilson's winding surreal play about the life of oddball genius mathematician Turing . . . Wilson's play treats the story with much off-the-wall humour. Mostly it aims to give us an insight into what may have been going on in this remarkable man's head. * Time Out London *
Predictable salvos from Edward Albee and Harold Pinter are being upstaged at this summer's Potomac Theatre Project by a premiere featuring a walking, talking teddy bear ... zings energetically ... Your heart goes out to this figure as he gets bullied at school, loses an inspiring friend, taps into his own genius, becomes a crackerjack cryptologist for the English during the Second World War and begins to understand the cognitive capabilities of inanimate objects - that is, the idea of computers. * Washington Post on the US premiere *
this 2003 play by the reliably off-the-wall Snoo Wilson . . . still springs surprises. . . . It's a highly coloured fantasia . . . veering from the sentimental to the surreal. * The Times *
a genius at compressing a wide range of interests - occultism, biology, genetics, space travel and the supernatural - into bizarrely imaginative dramatic constructs. . . . Wilson breaks up the narrative with unusual and witty diversions into theories of cryptology, the homophobic witch-hunts of J Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the humanity of animals and the computer, Artificial Intelligence and the simple, delightful relationship of the mathematician and his furry friend. * What's On Stage *
Snoo Wilson had a wilder imagination than most of his more highly feted contemporaries put together. * Guardian *

Author Bio

Snoo Wilson (1948-2013) was born in Reading, studied at the University of East Anglia and was a founding director of the Portable Theatre, Brighton and London. During his career, Wilson was script editor for the Play for Today series, BBC TV, dramaturg for the RSC, director of the Scarab Theatre and also taught film scriptwriting at the National Film School. With a writing career from the 1960s, Wilson's place as an important and distinguished playwright was confirmed in his many award-winning plays both in Britain and across America.