peddling

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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Description

if I was gold almighty himself, and destroyed this first attempt at life. what would my second version be . . . a dead end of endless possibility. A pedlar boy wakes up in a field somewhere in London, surrounded by the remnants of the night before. With no memory of how he has come to be there, he knows he must go back to the start in order to understand it all. His attempts to retrace events from the previous days lead him on a haunting journey where everything comes into question: his life, his world, his future. peddling is Harry Melling's remarkable debut play following a day in the life of a door-to-door salesman as he battles difficult questions and attempts to come to terms with the resulting truths. peddling received its world premiere at Hightide Festival on 10 April 2014, performed by Harry Melling, before transferring to 59E59 Theatre, NY, for a four-week run. It was revived in 2015 by HighTide at the Arcola Theatre, London.

Reviews

Takes us on a journey with a young offender door-to-door selling on a day release scheme. The hopping geography of the piece, in which the actor's feet seem to remember the dusty London streets, is a joy to watch. Leaping from place to place the boy's memories flow free, unlocking a true sense of self and eventually breaking the walls that bind him. * Daily Telegraph *
Feels like the intersection of Beckett and Albee . . . A powerful and delicately calibrated performance * New York Times (Critics' Choice) *
Harry Melling's one-man show . . . is a raw portrait of homelessness. . . . the script has a volatile poetry, reminiscent of the percussive lyricism of Kate Tempest. * Evening Standard *
Melling's gripping play . . . What's remarkable about Melling's solo play . . . is the poetic verve he brings to this bleak slive of life: we are drawn into his character's stream of consciousness through a pungent mix of street vernacular and verse, the rhythm driving the tempo and illuminating this lost boy's vivid inner life. It's a style that has echoes of several Irish writers - particularly Beckett and Mark O'Rowe . . . this is an accomplished debut and a painfully moving study of what it feels like to have had none of life's essentials. * Financial Times *
he [Melling] never lets his outcast's odyssey feel borrowed. . . . exciting, unique and memorable * The Times *
Watch out: a serious talent is on the move. * Daily Mail *

Author Bio

Harry Melling began his career at eleven-years-old appearing in the Harry Potter films playing Dudley Dursley. He subsequently went on to train at LAMDA and has since appeared in productions such as Mother Courage and her Children and Women Beware Women (both National Theatre), School For Scandal (Barbican/Holland Festival), When Did You Last See My Mother (Trafalgar Studios), I Am A Camera (Southwark Playhouse), Smack Family Robinsons (Rose Theatre Kingston), and The Hothouse (Trafalgar Studios), King Lear at Chichester Festival/BAM, playing The Fool opposite Frank Langella's King Lear. Televison credits include Joe Mistry; Garrow's Law; Merlin; Just William and Friends and Crocodiles. peddling is the first play that he's written.