A hilarious, real-life comedy about pensioners going in search of love - from the sublime to the downright saucy.

Maureen is a pensioner in search of passion. After 33 blind dates, 12 cruises and one broken heart, she is still determined to find Mr Right. But when best friend Margaret beats her to the altar, Maureen has her doubts - is Margaret just on the rebound and, more importantly, will she lose her pension?

Alecky Blythe's verbatim theatre play Cruising was first staged at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2006 in a co-production with Recorded Delivery, using an innovative verbatim-theatre technique. The technique consists of recording interviews with real people, editing them and replicating them on stage in all their uncanny verisimilitude. The result is both disconcertingly comic and profoundly moving, as all the individual peculiarities of the 'characters' are scrupulously reproduced.

About the Author
Alecky Blythe founded verbatim-theatre company Recorded Delivery in 2003. The company's first production, Come Out Eli, premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London, and later transferred to the BAC (winner of the Time Out Award for Best Performance on the Fringe). Other work includes: All the Right People Come Here (New Wimbledon Theatre); Strawberry Fields (The Courtyard, Hereford); Cruising (Bush Theatre, London, 2006); The Girlfriend Experience (Royal Court Theatre, London, 2008; Young Vic, London, 2009); I Only Came Here for Six Months (KVS and Les Halles, Brussels); Do We Look Like Refugees?! (National Theatre Studio / Rustaveli Theatre, Georgia, at Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2010; winner of Fringe First Award); London Road, with music composed by Adam Cork (National Theatre, London, 2011 and 2012; winner of Best Musical, Critics' Circle Awards); Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre, London, 2014) and Our Generation (National Theatre / Chichester Festival Theatre, 2022). For television she has written A Man in a Box (IWC and Channel 4); The Riots: In Their Own Words (BBC2). For film she has adapted London Road into a feature (BBC Film, BFI, National Theatre).

Reviews

'A heart-warming piece of theatre'

* Metro *

'Gloriously idiosyncratic dialogue, which even the most skilful writer would struggle to devise'

* Time Out, Critics' Choice *

'Both shocking and uncomfortable ... [Blythe] has discovered theatrical gold'

* Daily Telegraph *



Book Information
ISBN 9781854599377
Author Alecky Blythe
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books
Weight(grams) 100g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 6mm