A Mirror - by Sam Holcroft (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"With great pleasure Layla & Joel Invite you to celebrate their marriage.

Dress code is smart casual. Doors at 7.30 p.m., followed by the exchange of vows. And at the signal, the entertainment will begin.

(This performance is being staged without a license from the Ministry. We recognize the risk that each and every one of you is taking by attending and we salute your courage.)"

A Mirror is an elusive, explosive play by Sam Holcroft, interrogating censorship, authorship and free speech. It premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2023, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and with a cast including Jonny Lee Miller, Tanya Reynolds and Micheal Ward.

Review Quotes

"A beautifully crafted, mind-bending piece of work."--Evening Standard

"A Pirandellian wedding drama that achieves a series of satisfying surprises... delights in the theatrical trickery of dual identities and false realities to throw a final surprise punch."--Guardian

"Bold, inventive and original... a journey of discovery, a hall of mirrors, that takes us into a series of intricate boxes, of plays within plays, where nothing is quite as it seems... I loved it."--WhatsOnStage

"Intriguing, twisty, metatheatrical... an achievement: like nothing else you'll see on London's stages."--Independent

"Brilliantly mischievous... The joy of Holcroft's play is that it's subversive on so many levels... incendiary and mordantly funny... a triumph."--Time Out

"Dark and elusive... electrifying."--The Stage

About the Author

Sam Holcroft is a playwright, winner of the Windham Campbell Prize for Literature.

Her plays include: A Mirror (Almeida Theatre, London, 2023); Rules for Living (National Theatre, London, 2015); The Wardrobe for National Theatre Connections; Edgar & Annabel, part of the Double Feature season in the Paintframe at the National Theatre; Dancing Bears, part of the Charged season for Clean Break at Soho Theatre and Latitude Festival; While You Lie at the Traverse, Edinburgh; Pink, part of the Women, Power and Politics season at the Tricycle; Vanya, adapted from Chekhov, at The Gate; and Cockroach, co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse (nominated for Best New Play 2008, by the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland and shortlisted for the John Whiting Award, 2009).

In 2013, she wrote The House Taken Over, a libretto for opera, adapted from Cortázar, for the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Académie Européenne de Musique. She received the Tom Erhardt Award in 2009, was the Pearson Writer-in-Residence at the Traverse Theatre, 2009-10, and the Writer-in-Residence at the National Theatre Studio from 2013-14. In 2014, she received a Windham Campbell Prize for Literature in the drama category.