''The Dying of Today'' is a play by British

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the 197 ...

. The play received its world premiere at London's

Arcola Theatre Arcola Theatre is an Off West End theatre in the London Borough of Hackney. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists. The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street, Dalst ...

in 2008, directed by

Gerrard McArthur Gerrard may refer to: People * Alfred Horace Gerrard (1899–1998), English sculptor * Anthony Gerrard (born 1986), English footballer * Edward Gerrard (footballer) (1900–1987), English footballer * James Joseph Gerrard, (1897–1991), American ...

and performed by George Irving and Duncan Bell.

Synopsis

The play is loosely based on

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...

' account of the destruction of the Sicilian expedition of 413BC, which saw the

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

suffering a heavy defeat. The play investigates the bringing home of such news of military defeat, and is set in a barber shop, where a survivor of the battle brings to the news to a - at first - silent barber.

Critical reception

Reviewer Dominic Cavendish of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' praised the production's performances and 'interesting ideas.' Natasha Tripney in trade publication

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

wrote that 'there is something hypnotic about these two men talking as the streets outside fill with wails of the bereaved' but also noted 'the play as a whole lacks emotional weight and feels distant, surface-skimming.'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dying of Today British plays 2008 plays