Shopping and F***ing

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Každopádne - Ravenhill je pre mňa cool dramatik (to je teraz vtip, lebo on a Sarah Kane sú priekopníkmi písania drámy, kt. sa volá cool dráma hehe) His next play, Faust Is Dead, was produced by the Actor's Touring Company and toured nationally in 1997. It was followed by Handbag in 1998, which won an Evening Standard award, and Some Explicit Polaroids, which opened at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, in November 1999. In 1998, while literary director of Paines Plough, a company started in 1974 to develop new writing, he organised 'Sleeping Around', a collaborative writing project.

It was also interesting to see the different audience reaction in a bigger theatre. When it first opened, it wasn’t as funny as when I wrote it. I think people were coming to the Royal Court with their “serious concern for social issues” head on. But as soon as we got into the West End, that changed. ­People said, “What do you feel about them laughing there and there?” and I said, “Oh no, but that’s all the places that I laughed.” Postavy majú veľkú sexuálnu slobodu, filozofia ich života sa krúti okolo sexu, lásky, drog, okolo slobody a peňazí, sú poznačené kapitalizmom a chcú stále viac a viac. I mean, are there any feelings left, you know?” asks Mark forlornly. There aren’t, really. There are needs . And the cause of all this sullen alienation? Money! Mr. Ravenhill’s message about the corrupting power of the god of consumerism amounts to the unsurprising pronouncement that money is the root of all evil. Unlike Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting , Mr. Ravenhill is a moralist. He disapproves of consumer society, warning us repeatedly in virtually every scene that everything is the art of the deal, like sex and shopping.The characters' names (Mark, Robbie and Gary) are taken from the Manchester boy band Take That, and from the singer Lulu who collaborated with them on their hit single Relight My Fire. But, right at the end, there’s a moment: Robbie has a look on his face. I’m not sure if it was the actor or the character I connected with, but suddenly I got hit by all of this empathy and compassion, feelings I hadn’t had the whole way through. I felt sad, and a little hopeful. Maybe because it turns out that I’m more sensitive than I thought, and maybe I cared about Robbie all along and maybe that means we all care a little more than we think we do. Rule number one. Never believe a junkie. Because a junkie is a cunt. And when a junkie looks you in the eyes and says ‘I love you’ that’s when you know he’s gonna fill you full of shit.” Sensing Others through Dancing Bodies as Data: Review of Sense Datum by UBIN DANCE 26th November 2023 Are all Ravenhill's plays like that? I'm still processing how I feel about it. Great concept, shabby execution. I actually appreciate how the play plays on the whole consumerist society, and how relationships are manoeuvred in a neoliberalist culture/society. It's smart enough but not mind-blowing. Surely, it can be done better. It reminds me of Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' (1998). It's a brilliant concept, but not much effort innit? And personally I'm just someone who appreciates effort is all.

Ableson is terrific as the self-involved Mark, setting a high standard as he reprises his role from San Francisco. Fortunately, under Edwards’ direction the rest of the cast has no problem meeting his level. Malkasian is a devastating Robbie, pathetic at one moment and pathological the next. Parris is just super as Lulu, the character with at least one quirky foot touching the ground. Steven Klein is an appealing Gary, and Reed’s Brian is both funny and frightening in his analysis of civilization and Disney feature films. Don't let the title put you off,this 90's play dealing with a society bent on money and sex tell a dark tale of the problems which arise for those who have little material wealth and whose relationships twist and turn. Littered with characters who survive on microwave meals,dealing in E ,telephone sex and adventures with 'rent boys' as well as coping with nasty drug dealers this play paints a very dark side of life in the 90's,but I suspect one that is known in some small detail to quite a large proportion of the population. The Brutal Presentation of Modern Society in The Play ‘Shopping and F***ing’ The brutal truth about modern society. Beginning 4 February 1998 International Tour [1] – starring Ashley Artus, Stephen Beresford, Charlie Condou, Karina Fernandez and Ian Redford.Sean Holmes, director: I thought what was really interesting about it was how prophetic the play was. There’s the element of everyone telling stories about themselves, which obviously the internet and social media allows you to do to a far greater degree, and the way it’s very hard to avoid everything becoming a transaction in a world that is a capitalist mono-system. I think that theme feels very contemporary and more in the spirit of the age than it was even twenty years ago.