Leaves of Glass (Modern Plays)

Product Information

Leaves of Glass plays at Park Theatre until 3 June. Bookings and further information can be found here. Leaves of Glass will run at Park Theatre, London from 11 May – 3 June. It will then play at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford (15 – 17 June) and Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre (10 – 16 July). Set in the round, you are instantly, almost voyeuristically placed in whichever room the characters are in, strengthening the sense of investment you have in the truth and the outcome. With just a staple of four benches as the set, and additional purposeful props smoothly brought in when needed for a location change, the starkness deliberately pulls your focus to the phenomenal acting and storytelling. Everything that is there is there for a reason and not simply to dress the set, whether it be a hanging lamp, a piece of art, a remote control, or a baby monitor. The thought that has gone into minute detail is breath taking, and this extends to every creative element. Lighting will mess with your mind, taking you from a plunging darkness to feeling almost naked and vulnerable in the sudden and glaring strip lights. A particularly gut-wrenching scene is played out via candlelight, offering up yet another story telling filter where just like the characters, you are forced to listen, because you don’t have easily accessible visual clues. Costumes are designed to lead us into snap judgements. Barry first appears with impeccable detail, chunks of vomit on his top, and later with holes in his t-shirt and jeans with an unwashed grime in them. Even the make up on his wrists shows of his struggle with self-harming. In contrast, Steven wears a crisp white shirt, expensive and trendy trousers, smooth, tailored, immaculate, with not a hair out of place. We think we have seen the truth based solely on their appearances before we have even bothered to listen. Steven (Ben Whishaw) runs a successful business in east London. He is sharp and dapper, but his cheek muscles are so tight you fear they might ping like overstretched elastic bands. You wonder how he ever managed to get his wife Debbie (Maxine Peake) pregnant, because when he holds her, he does it at a distance and pats her like a dog. He cannot meet the eye of his younger brother, Barry (Trystan Gravelle), who is falling apart, and when he visits his widowed mum Liz (Ruth Sheen), there are spectres in the room along with the cosy tinkle of tea cups.

Prices may change, subject to demand.To access the best prices at the earliest opportunity, consider becoming aPark Keeper. Leaves of Glass is the sixth adult stage play by Philip Ridley. It premiered at the Soho Theatre in London, England, on 3 May 2007. [1] Ridley, Philip (16 May 2007). "PLAYWRIGHT PHILIP RIDLEY TALKS TO ALEKS SIERZ". TheatreVoice (Interview: Audio). Interviewed by Aleks Sierz . Retrieved 23 July 2022. Leaves of Glass is a stellar production, showcasing some real talent in a gem of a theatre. The themes had the potential to get messy and confusing, however, I found them to be portrayed well and with conviction.

About This Show

This is a smart creative team ( Kit Hinchcliffe– set and costume, Alex Lewer– lighting, Sam Glossop– sound) who understand how our minds can sadly work. Sounds are filtered in with such discretion that whilst you may notice the barking dog or the telephone ring, you may be forgiven for feeling rather than hearing the building hum of tension, the power of silence, and the gloomy external weather. The major theme throughout the production is memory, how what we remember can differ from the truth, and how sometimes we choose to remember things differently as it’s less painful; the show begs the question – can we trust our memories? And whose narrative do we, the audience, trust? Leaves of Glass is a vivid, unsettling drama that brilliantly captures the essence of domestic life, bristling with conflict, tension, and uneasy revelations. Penned by acclaimed playwright Philip Ridley and under the masterful direction of Max Harrison, this play is a formidable examination of family bonds, personal frailty, and the profound implications of the past that bleed into the present. During the course of the play, we see their interactions with each other and their two significant others, Steven’s wife, Debbie (Katie Buchholz) and their mother (Kacey Ainsworth), as a series of snapshots of their lives. Time passes in short bursts, each one charged with unspoken secrets. Both Katie Buchholz and Kacey Ainsworth play their parts with unspoken depth conveyed in glances and body language which makes the audience wonder what they actually know. Devastating drama that blows up like a bomb; the play about memory you will never forget’London Pub Theatres

After this and the tour, what other projects are you currently involved in that you can share with us? the initial draft perhaps was sort of more real-time, one location. [...] I love doing that, I mean, I think that's what theatre does best and... It always amazes me that people are surprised that I should be drawn to that kind of form of telling a play because that's one of the things that theatre does so well, is real-time. Where else can you experience that? Certainly not in film now. But then what happened was that I really got into this idea of — which is what the play has ended up doing — of sort of like coming into scenes at very jagged angles. [In the play] you get kind of like layers of these scenes, like kind of little pieces of broken glass that come in. The scenes begin when they are already up and moving; the action is already happening and they don't kind of finish on a kind of particular comforting way; there is no kind of dying fall at the end. You're just in and out of these scenes almost like cinematic cuts. [...] And I quite liked that kind of oblique way of telling of what is, in a way, a very oblique story. I thought that was part of the theatrical experience for me of this kind of [...] circular descent that [the character of] Steve is on of memory and morality." [7] Notable productions [ edit ] Steven has always tried to be a good person. He works hard. He looks after his family.But, suddenly, everyone starts accusing him of things. His wife accuses him of being unfaithful. His mother accuses him of being coercive. And his brother, Barry, accuses him of... what exactly?How does it feel to revive such a gripping and disorienting narrative, especially for an audience of today? The play concerns the silence which has prevailed over a traumatic incident from their childhood, which for years they have been unwilling to talk about and come to terms with.

Liz, the boys’ mother ( Kacey Ainsworth) and Debbie (Katie Buchholz), Steven’s wife, have their own interpretation of events too of course. Whilst playing supporting roles they nonetheless add to the fluidity of accuracy and expectation. The absence of a father is marked but it takes some time and several accounts for the audience to surmise what has happened. Our Rating LEAVES OF GLASS OS ONE OF THE MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND BELIEVABLE SHOWS YOU WILL EVER SEE - TRULY OUTSTANDING! Ridley’s script spends far too much time setting up the story, it takes too long for the audience to connect to the characters, which for the first half feel one-dimensional. Quite a lot of time passes before we realise there’s anything under the surface of them. For this reason, the suspense and drama built plateaus in the middle, as nothing much has occurred, I can see that having an interval may have caused audience members to not return. Max Harrison’s production is weighty and intense, there are minimal moments of light peppered throughout, and this at times means the play is excruciating to watch – not in a bad way – the tension is simply enough to place you on the edge of your seat and disable your ability to exhale. To have the climax of the play, occur in complete darkness, except for a candelabra, surrounds the audience in heavy darkness, which makes the scene atmospheric, Harrison makes us sit in the drama of this scene for a while, creating a truly remarkable moment within the play.The play is about two brothers, Steven and Barry. Steven is the head of a successful graffiti removal company and Barry, his younger brother, works for him as he is struggling to get income and recognition from being an artist.