Parker Plays: 1: Spokesong; Catchpenny Twist; Nightshade; Pratt's Fall

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"Stewart Parker was a playwright whose sense of history and elegance of wit and feeling were unusual in the British Theatre" (Observer) This volume includes four plays: Spokesong 'A dazzling play that combines warmth of sentiment with great emotional strength and intellectual playfulness a gorgeously rich play' (New York Post); Catchpenny Twist: 'The most appealing thing about Parker's work is the ease with which he blends lunatic humour with a gritty sense of reality. He's done it before in Spokesong and he does it again in this hard, ribald and hilarious little play' (Sunday Times); Nightshade: 'A rare delight A mixture of experiment, inventiveness, wit, sheer theatricality, obscure motifs and elements that are deeply moving It is a highly complex play; there is no story that is told in sequence, no meaning that can be easily grasped. But as theatre it is superb' (Hibernia); Pratt's Fall: 'A delicate, unusual and rather beautiful vehicle a fascinating and delightful entertainment Parker's chosen approach is to tackle serious themes - often related to the experience of his native Northern Ireland - through a kind of lyrical comedy, deceptively lightweight, fast-moving, and slightly surreal' (Sunday Standard)

Reviews

Stewart Parker was a playwright whose sense of history and elegance of wit and feeling were unusual in the British Theatre. Observer"
"Stewart Parker was a playwright whose sense of history and elegance of wit and feeling were unusual in the British Theatre." --Observer

Author Bio

Stewart Parker was born in Belfast in 1941. During the early sixties at Queen's University he was active in a group of young writers which included Seamus Heaney and Bernard Mac Laverty. His first stage play Spokesong (1975) won him the 1976 Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award and his TV drama I'm a Dreamer, Montreal (1979) won the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize. His stage plays include Catchpenny Twist (1977), Nightshade (1980), Pratt's Fall (1983), Northern Star (1984), Heavenly Bodies (1986) and Pentecost (1987), which won the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award. He died in London in 1988. The Stewart Parker Trust Awards, established in his memory, are awarded each year to encourage new Irish writing for the theatre.