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Caustic Comedies
A set of A married couple who communicate through an imaginary friend - until the friend becomes alive... An anniversary that thrown into disarray by the arrival of the husband and wife's younger selves... A futuristic society in which computer engineers are the new elite, living with surrogate wives and virtual children...This is the hardback edition.
- GenresPlaysComedyAnthologies
512 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2010
About the author
Robert Shearman
175 books230 followersRobert Shearman has worked as a writer for television, radio and the stage. He was appointed resident dramatist at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and has received several international awards for his theatrical work, including the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, the World Drama Trust Award and the Guinness Award for Ingenuity in association with the Royal National Theatre. His plays have been regularly produced by Alan Ayckbourn, and on BBC Radio by Martin Jarvis. However, he is probably best known as a writer for Doctor Who, reintroducing the Daleks for its BAFTA winning first series, in an episode nominated for a Hugo Award.
His first collection of short stories, Tiny Deaths, was published by Comma Press in 2007. It won the World Fantasy Award for best collection, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. One of the stories from it was selected by the National Library Board of Singapore as part of the annual Read! Singapore campaign. In 2008 his short story project for BBC7, The Chain Gang, won him a Sony Award, and he provided a second series for them in 2009.
He is now at work on his first novel.
His first collection of short stories, Tiny Deaths, was published by Comma Press in 2007. It won the World Fantasy Award for best collection, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. One of the stories from it was selected by the National Library Board of Singapore as part of the annual Read! Singapore campaign. In 2008 his short story project for BBC7, The Chain Gang, won him a Sony Award, and he provided a second series for them in 2009.
He is now at work on his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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April 20, 2022Will update this review with the plays as and when i finish reading them.
Easy Laughter: We're off to one hell of an opening. The joy of this play is figuring out what's going on and reading between the lines a bit, so all I'll say is its incredibly fucking dark in a very pointed, specific way that appeals to my very specifically sick sense of humour. I'll write a spoilery review which outlines my thoughts a little clearer at a later date but yeah, strong recommend. The bitterest, blackest shade of tomfoolery.
Easy Laughter: We're off to one hell of an opening. The joy of this play is figuring out what's going on and reading between the lines a bit, so all I'll say is its incredibly fucking dark in a very pointed, specific way that appeals to my very specifically sick sense of humour. I'll write a spoilery review which outlines my thoughts a little clearer at a later date but yeah, strong recommend. The bitterest, blackest shade of tomfoolery.
March 9, 2018
These were great. Hilarious, bitter, hopeful and dark with an undercurrent of frivolity running through them.
May 12, 2016
An excellent collection of modern plays by award winning short story / playwright / TV writer Robert Shearman. Probably best known for his "Doctor Who" work, this book is an excellent introduction to his original work. Several of these have been adapted for Radio Four too.
Selected by the author, most of the plays involved an unhappily married middle aged couple whose carefully constructed fantasy of a contented life is destroyed by some fantastical intervention. His leading men tend to be petty tyrants or deluded hapless souls. His main women are often harassed doormats or embittered commentators. Yet this unhappiness is the fertile ground for a lot of comedy and cleverness.
Easy Laughter - A family christmas set in a near-future (or alternative present?) where a puritan totalitarian society has created a world where men and boys have authority over women, sex is only allowed between married couples once a year, and all Jews have been killed. Everyone talks in an excessively polite formal way and fears being censored. In light of the kind of societies that parts of the Middle East and conservative Christian America are trying to create, this play has sadly only become more relevant.
White Lies - A couple invent an imaginary friend called Roger to brighten their Wednesday evenings. But the game grows out of hand when both of them start spending more and more time with 'Roger' on their own. An ingenious short play with great farce moments and a satisfying ending.
Fool to Yourself - An unhappy middle aged couple's anniversary hotel break is unexpectedly interrupted by their 20 year younger selves. Possibly my favourite of the collection, an ingenious plot that mixes time paradoxes with consistently funny situations great insight into its flawed characters. The sub-plot about the creepy hotel manager and his downtrodden wife is disturbing but is a vital part and resolved without being too pat.
Binary Dreamers - In a future ruled by The Computer, computer engineers are the new elite and provided with countless surrogate wives who work to a script. The least effective play I have to admit. Even one of the characters admits that the social model is stupid. The sub-plot about the protagonist's evolving computer children is the best part. But the cynicism about people and marriage becomes unbelievable and hectoring.
Knights in Plastic Armour - Following a group of Civil War re-enactors over a decade. One of the author's favourite themes seems to be that people who seem fresh and exciting almost inevitably grow into the very people they replace, and this is clearest example. Some odd bits of grotesque comedy sit uneasily with naturalistic humour elsewhere.
Inappropriate Behaviour - The lives of a mediocre vicar and a dissatisfied parishioner become entwined with life-changing consequences. Another ingenious and hilarious play which mines laughs from some very dark veins including child-hating, death and faith.
Shaw Cornered - George Bernard Shaw dies and finds Hell is not what he expected. Then things get worse when he is accidentally resurrected by his greatest fan fifty years later. The most fantastical play in the collection has some hilarious sequences and some witty observations about writers. Some clever bits of stagecraft too. Shakespeare's cameo is a joy.
Selected by the author, most of the plays involved an unhappily married middle aged couple whose carefully constructed fantasy of a contented life is destroyed by some fantastical intervention. His leading men tend to be petty tyrants or deluded hapless souls. His main women are often harassed doormats or embittered commentators. Yet this unhappiness is the fertile ground for a lot of comedy and cleverness.
Easy Laughter - A family christmas set in a near-future (or alternative present?) where a puritan totalitarian society has created a world where men and boys have authority over women, sex is only allowed between married couples once a year, and all Jews have been killed. Everyone talks in an excessively polite formal way and fears being censored. In light of the kind of societies that parts of the Middle East and conservative Christian America are trying to create, this play has sadly only become more relevant.
White Lies - A couple invent an imaginary friend called Roger to brighten their Wednesday evenings. But the game grows out of hand when both of them start spending more and more time with 'Roger' on their own. An ingenious short play with great farce moments and a satisfying ending.
Fool to Yourself - An unhappy middle aged couple's anniversary hotel break is unexpectedly interrupted by their 20 year younger selves. Possibly my favourite of the collection, an ingenious plot that mixes time paradoxes with consistently funny situations great insight into its flawed characters. The sub-plot about the creepy hotel manager and his downtrodden wife is disturbing but is a vital part and resolved without being too pat.
Binary Dreamers - In a future ruled by The Computer, computer engineers are the new elite and provided with countless surrogate wives who work to a script. The least effective play I have to admit. Even one of the characters admits that the social model is stupid. The sub-plot about the protagonist's evolving computer children is the best part. But the cynicism about people and marriage becomes unbelievable and hectoring.
Knights in Plastic Armour - Following a group of Civil War re-enactors over a decade. One of the author's favourite themes seems to be that people who seem fresh and exciting almost inevitably grow into the very people they replace, and this is clearest example. Some odd bits of grotesque comedy sit uneasily with naturalistic humour elsewhere.
Inappropriate Behaviour - The lives of a mediocre vicar and a dissatisfied parishioner become entwined with life-changing consequences. Another ingenious and hilarious play which mines laughs from some very dark veins including child-hating, death and faith.
Shaw Cornered - George Bernard Shaw dies and finds Hell is not what he expected. Then things get worse when he is accidentally resurrected by his greatest fan fifty years later. The most fantastical play in the collection has some hilarious sequences and some witty observations about writers. Some clever bits of stagecraft too. Shakespeare's cameo is a joy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews