Theatre

How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found

NOW BOOKING at Southwark Playhouse! How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found What makes you who you are, Charlie? A name? An address? A random collection of experiences, a few memories? You are who you can prove you are. You are what people think. And that’s the easiest thing in the world to change. When a young executive reaches breaking point and decides to disappear, he pays a visit to a master of the craft in a seafront fortune teller’s in Southend. Haunted by visitations from a pathologist who swears he is already lying flat out on her slab, he begins to re-live the nightmarish final hours that see his body retrieved from the Thames, stripped of everything that made him who he was. With echoes of Camus and Kafka, this extraordinary new play follows one man’s desperate attempts to buck the system, and asks what really makes us who we are in the 21st century. HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND was the surprise winner of the 2006 Arts Council John Whiting Award for New Theatre Writing, after being rejected by nearly every theatre in London. It was subsequently commissioned by Sam West for Sheffield Crucible in 2007, and has since been produced around the world. It will have its London premiere at Southwark Playhouse in October 2008, directed by Ellie Jones, who directed the first sell-out run in Sheffield in 2007. "Just occasionally you find a piece of new writing that restores your confidence in the future of theatre ... an exciting, exhilarating, extremely funny and deeply distressing parable of contemporary consumerism. This is as good as theatre gets." The Stage "A brilliant metaphysical tragedy about the search for happiness ... ingenious, Lorca-like ... an unsettling dangerous play ... makes you wonder how much other gold dust falls between the gaps of British theatre." The Guardian "An intriguing, disquieting piece of work. It unfolds in a series of scenes handled with scalpel-like precision. The dialogue is assured, often very funny, occasionally poignant. Kennedy's is a voice of which we'll be hearing a lot more." The Independent "Before it was even produced the play won the John Whiting Award for New Writing, and both its deft characterisation and the assault on the subject of identity show it a worthy winner. The work remains fascinating from moment to moment." The Times "The sort of thrilling new work that completely restores your faith in theatre" Sheffield Star  Click here to read script sample Click here to buy a copy of the play from Nick Hern Books Click here to read Guardian feature by Fin Kennedy about the difficulties of getting unusual work commissioned