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Blue/Orange
An expertly annotated edition of Joe Penhall's compelling drama: a dark, exhilarating tale of race, madness and power in the midst of a struggling National Health Service.
Birthday
The birth of their daughter should be one of the happiest days of Ed and Lisa's life. An NHS maternity ward and their somewhat unusual circumstances make for an unsettling and satisfyingly comic sequence of events that tests their relationship to the core, and raises intrinsic questions about the nature of birth and renewal, fear and isolation. Subverting the received gender roles to darkly comic and disturbing effect, the play charts Ed and Lisa's personally fraught experience at the behest of an NHS labour ward. Penhall expertly weaves an acutely funny and emotionally charged sequence of events: he pitches wryly observed gender perceptions of a quite literal life and death situation against an indictment of the NHS system. The beautifully observed writing is at once vicious and searingly tender. Birthday achieves an intensely comic counterpoint to teh visceral domestic drama sutured to bigger issues of aspiration, sacrifice, who we are, how we communicate, the triumph of tolerance, nature and ultimately love.
Penhall Plays: 1
First play collection of one of Britain's finest contemporary playwrights.
The Road
"You think I come from another world, don't you? Filled with all these strange things you've never seen...Well I do, I guess." Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. Released shortly after his No Country for Old Men was turned into an Oscar-winning film, The Road's cinema version of the novel is directed by John Hillcoat, stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron and is an official selection for the 66th Venice Film Festival 2009. Joe Penhall's adaptation is a faithful, careful crafting of the book for the screen, fully evoking the atmosphere of menace and desperation. The Road is set a few years after an unexplained cataclysmic world disaster has left the earth poisoned, barren and hostile. While ash blocks out the sun and the earth no longer fosters plant or animal life, men either starve or join the maruading gangs of cannibals. The plot follows an unnamed father and son on a bleak epic across the wasteland and features a series of horrifc encounters in a merciless world starved of life and hope. This edition includes a full list of cast and crew credits.
Penhall Plays: 2
Characterized by a taut mood, a grappling with moral dilemmas, and tough, eloquent dialogue punctuated by outrageously comic moments, the plays in this volume are Blue/Orange, Dumb Show, and Wild Turkey.
Blue/orange
THE STORY: In a London psychiatric hospital, an enigmatic patient claims to be the son of an African dictator--a story that becomes unnervingly plausible. BLUE/ORANGE is an incendiary tale of race, madness and a Darwinian power struggle at the heart
Love and Understanding
THE STORY: Live-in lovers Neal and Rachel are overworked doctors. They rarely see each other, and their relationship suffers for it. Enter Neal's old good-for-nothing friend, Richie, for a surprise visit, straight from South America--or somewhere. H
Haunted Child
This chilling and unsettling play by the multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall poignantly explores the gulf between childhood and adulthood and asks disturbing questions about the lure of spiritual release in increasingly difficult times.
Pale Horse
THE STORY: PALE HORSE is the story of Charles, who, disillusioned by the sudden death of his wife, propels himself into a world of urban alienation and self-destruction in an attempt to assuage the private demons that haunt him. Along the way he en
Landscape with Weapon
"'Qualms?' Oh yeah, sure, I have 'qualms'. Everybody has qualms. But I'll overcome them." To his family's horror, Ned reveals he's the brains behind a new military technology so sophisticated, so extraordinary, it will revolutionise the nature of warfare. It's only when the Ministry of Defence demands intellectual ownership that Ned begins to question himself, resisting the might of the weapons industry with frightening consequences. Landscape with Weapon is a wry account of private anguish, public responsibility and a problem with no solution. The play premiered at the National Theatre on 20 March 2007. Joe Penhall's previous work for the National Theatre, Blue/Orange, was the winner of the Olivier Awards Best Play (2001), the Evening Standard Award Best Play (2000), and the Critics Circle Award Best Play (2000).
