Parlour Song

Genre: Comedy
Opened 26 March 2009
Written: by Jez Butterworth
Directed: Ian Rickson
Cast: Amanda Drew (Joy), Andrew Lincoln (Dale), Toby Jones (Ned)
Synopsis: Ned and Joy are a married couple. He is a demolition expert, she is a housewife. They live in a house that adjoins neighbour Dale and seventy eight other houses just like theirs. Occasionally they enjoy a game of scrabble. But Ned has a recurring dream and a recurring problem; things keep disappearing. Parlour Song is a comedy that explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become, in a world where all is not what is seems.

What the popular press had to say.....
CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Creepy yet often blissfully funny new play...Ian Rickson directs an almost flawless production of a play that combines the comic, the erotic and the downright disconcerting with superb panache." NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "Butterworth's hints of violence, misery and longing remain, like the play itself, superficial and skin-deep." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "Ian Rickson's beautifully precise production and Jeremy Herbert's transparent design also evoke a world in which diurnal routine is always in danger of descending into chaos." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "It's the sharpest, funniest piece he's [Jez Butterworth] written since his precocious debut, at 26, with the gangster comedy, Mojo, in 1995." ALEKS SIERZ for THE STAGE says, "Deeply moody, emotionally intense and superbly written account of the worm in the bud of contemporary suburbia." ROBERT GORE-LANGTON for THE DAILY MAIL says, "Well acted as it certainly is, it never hatches into a pitch-black comic belter."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
The Times
Daily Telegraph

Production photos by Simon Annand