Posh

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Description

In an oak-panelled room in a rural Oxford gastropub, ten young undergraduates with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule - and on getting totally "chatueaued". Members of The Riot Club, an elite student dining society, the fraternity starts to fray when they discover they're a guinea-fowl short and the prostitute they've hired is suddenly banished. An apparent spoof on Oxford's notorious Bullingdon Club, whose past members include Boris Johnson, George Osborne and David Cameron, Posh is a satirical play about power, politics and privilege, and how these elements interact within British institutions. The play is published here as a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Henry Bell. Posh premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2010 and two years later opened in the West End. It was nominated for Best New Play at both the Evening Standard Awards and for the Theatregoers' Choice Awards. It was subsequently made into a film called The Riot Club (2014), starring Sam Claflin, Max Irons and Douglas Booth.

Reviews

While Wade's play reminds us that many of the upper-class continue to enjoy the sound of broken glass, its success lies in harpooning the way power operates through a succession of nods and winks in our supposedly open, egalitarian society. -- Michael Billington * Guardian *
What an outstanding talent ... Her feel for character is exceptionally keen and she also writes excellent gags. * Spectator *
Nearly a decade on from its blistering Royal Court premiere and subsequent West End transfer, Laura Wade's incisive dissection of the entitled upper classes in their Oxford University playground feels as relevant and disquieting as ever ... As a piece of political theatre, the message is blunt to the point of brutal. These people with their expectation to rule; their conviction that money can buy them out of any problem, and their inherent, blind faith in their own superiority are pretty despicable characters and we trust them with the future of the nation at our own peril ... Perhaps it should even be compulsory viewing for members of the government. -- Michael Davies * Whatsonstage *

Author Bio

Laura Wade is an Olivier-award winning playwright and screenwriter. Her play Home, I'm Darling premiered at Theatr Clwyd in 2018 before playing at the National Theatre and won the award for Best New Comedy at the 2019 Oliviers. In 2018 she adapted Jane Austens unfinished novel The Watsons for the stage for Chichester Festival Theatre. In 2015 she adapted Sarah Waterss Tipping the Velvet for the stage and it premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith before transferring to the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh. Her screenplay The Riot Club, an adaptation of her 2010 stage play Posh, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and opened in cinemas on September 2014. Posh opened in the West End at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in 2012 after its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in April 2010. Henry Bell is Senior Lecturer in Performance at University of the West of Scotland, UK. Prior to academia, he worked as a professional theatre director and applied theatre practitioner.