Beginning - (Modern Plays) by David Eldridge (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

You didn't fancy it then?
Fancy what?
Getting in the taxi.
No.

Every story starts somewhere.

It's the early hours of the morning and Danny's the last straggler at Laura's party. The flat's in a mess. And so are they. One more drink?

David Eldridge (Market Boy, The Knot of the Heart, In Basildon) returns to the National Theatre with a sharp and astute two-hander that takes an intimate look at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance.

This tender and funny play received its world premiere at the National's Dorfman Theatre in October 2017.

Review Quotes

"David Eldridge "has a wise parent's gift as a playwright. He loves his characters even when he doesn't like them"." --Guardian

"Eldridge has always been the most muscular of writers" --Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

"...Eldridge is timely and bang up to date..." --The Times

"...there's no denying Eldridge's ambition..." --Observer

"Eldridge combines a hugely sympathetic sensibility with rare dramatic power." --Daily Telegraph

"[Summer Begins] confirms Eldridge's impressive command of dialogue and character." --Evening Standard

"Just such a heavenly piece of writing is the latest by David Eldridge" --Daily Telegraph on Under the Blue Sky

"a brave, prodigious and rewarding experience." --The Independent on Holy Warriors

"Eldridge combines a hugely sympathetic sensibility with rare dramatic power, and one leaves this exceptional play rejoicing in his talent and impatient for his next." --Telegraph

"What Eldridge captures well is the way people's emotions and desires are rarely in perfect synch...****" --The Guardian

"...an astute and tender two-hander." --The Stage

"Though often very funny, the play is strung with emotional trip-wires - lines that send you sprawling." --Natasha Tripney, The Stage

"It's the tentative (anti) romance for 21st century London life and it is, quite simply, magnificent...never less than utterly refreshing...*****" --The Evening Standard

"David Eldridge's gorgeous new play is a wry, funny and touching meditation on loneliness, that private shame of the singleton in the era of the dating app and of fraudulent boasting on social media. Written with a real depth of insight, humour, compassion and a keen sense of the ridiculous...*****" --The Independent

About the Author

David Eldridge's theatre credits include: Market Boy (Olivier Theatre, National Theatre); Holy Warriors (Shakespeare's Globe); Miss Julie, The Lady from the Sea (Royal Exchange, Manchester); In Basildon, Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Under the Blue Sky (Royal Court & West End); Something, Someone, Somewhere (Sixty-Six Books/Bush Theatre); MAD, Serving it Up (Bush); The Knot of the Heart (Almeida), Festen (Almeida, Lyric West End & Broadway); The Stock Da'wa, Falling (Hampstead); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (with Robert Holman & Simon Stephens, Lyric Hammersmith); Babylone (Belgrade Coventry); John Gabriel Borkman, The Wild Duck, Summer Begins (Donmar Warehouse); A Week With Tony, Fighting for Breath (Finborough); Thanks Mum (Red Room); Dirty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Cabbage for, Tea, Tea, Tea! (Platform 4 Exeter).
Television credits include: Killers, Our Hidden Lives, The Scandalous Lady W (BBC).
Radio credits include: Michael and Me: Stratford, Ilford, Romford and all Stations to Shenfield; Festen; The Picture Man; Like Minded People; The Secret Grief; John Gabriel Borkman; Jenny Lomas (BBC).
Under the Blue Sky won the Time Out Live Award 2001 for Best New Play in the West End and Festen the 2005 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play. The Picture Man won the Prix Europa Best European Radio Drama 2008. Under the Blue Sky won the 2009 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play. The Knot of the Heart won the 2012 Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play.
In 2007 the University of Exeter conferred on David an Honorary Doctorate of Letters recognising his achievement as a playwright. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.