''Juicy Fruits'' is a one-act comedy by

Leo Butler Leo Butler (born 1974 in Sheffield) is a British playwright. His plays have been staged, among others, by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida Theatre. His plays have been published by Bloomsbury A & C Black. His 2001 ...

that was produced by touring theatre company

Paines Plough Paines Plough is a touring theatre company founded in 1974 by writer David Pownall and director John Adams. The company specialises exclusively in commissioning and producing new plays and helping playwrights develop their craft. Over the past f ...

in 2011. The cast featured Denise Hoey and Clare Waugh and it was directed by George Perrin, touring nationally to Oran Mor in

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Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary pla ...

in Edinburgh,

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, and

Belgrade Theatre The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building. Background Coventry was the fastest growing city in ...

in Coventry. The main part of the play takes place in a coffeeshop where two old University friends, Nina and Lorna, are reunited after many years. The action then jumps to the Borneo jungle at the play's climax.

Reviews

Joyce McMillan of ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' described ''Juicy Fruits'' as an exploration of "the ambivalent experience of motherhood", ending with "an almost surreal meditation on the relationship between western humanity and the planet we have ravaged". Mark Fisher of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it "fine as a silly study of eccentricity, but unconvincing when it offers a psychological explanation for Nina's behaviour". Nathan Shreeve of ''The Public Review'' considered it " illiantly witty, acerbic and dark. Butler’s script is superb, flashing from brilliant humour, to heart wrenching emotional breakdown", with the character of Nina delivering some "truly stunning (and shocking) lines of dialogue". He praised the work for prompting "a question I was not expecting to be asking at the end of a seemingly light-hearted piece".

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Juicy Fruits Plays by Leo Butler 2011 plays