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Plays 1: Normal / Penetrator / Year of the Family / The Night Before Christmas / The Censor
Anthony Neilson's plays collected in one volume Includes the Normal "a tight, powerful, three-hander...achieved with a sense of discipline and thematic energy" (Guardian), Penetrator "This is one of the blackest, funniest and most shocking comedy dramas you will ever see" (Sunday Times), Year of the Family "His writing is as tight and courageous as ever...highly recommended for those who like to think" (What's On), The Night Before Christmas "is a smutty, dangerously funny but ultimately warm-hearted cri de coeur against the Christmas Industry" (Stage); The Censor "is a profound and tragic vision of humanity at its bare forked basics" (Evening Standard).
306 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 1998
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About the author
Anthony Neilson
28 books4 followersAnthony Neilson (born 1967) is a Scottish playwright and director. He is known for his collabo rative way of writing and workshopping his plays. Much of his work is characterised by the exploration of sex and violence.
Neilson has been cited as a key figure of In-yer-face theatre, a term used to characterise new plays with a confrontational style and sensibility that emerged in British theatre during the 1990s. He has been credited with coining the phrase "in-your-face theatre" but has rejected the label and instead describes his work as “'experiential' theatre”.
Neilson has been cited as a key figure of In-yer-face theatre, a term used to characterise new plays with a confrontational style and sensibility that emerged in British theatre during the 1990s. He has been credited with coining the phrase "in-your-face theatre" but has rejected the label and instead describes his work as “'experiential' theatre”.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 1, 2025
that christmas play was so fucking stupid why is it in this collection with penetrator lmao
loved normal loved penetrator loved the year of the family
did not love the night before christmas
the censor was okkkkk
loved normal loved penetrator loved the year of the family
did not love the night before christmas
the censor was okkkkk
August 3, 2021
ReRead 3 August 2021
Wow, how opinions change in a couple of years. (Or, ya know, rereading a text and finding issues the second time round.)
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Not a dud in the bunch!
In college I took a class on In-Yer-Face theatre: a term referring to a collection of British and American playwrights who, in the 1990s, were writing plays with similar elements and themes. Primarily, their work was marked by excessive violence and sex, meant to shock audiences out of their passive watching in order to better engage with the material. The "movement" was a label applied in retrospect by a theatrical historian and many of the playwrights who were a part of In-Yer-Face never met or knew of one another. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that these playwrights were also focused on crafting provocative theatre, and few, I find, are more provocatively distinct than Anthony Neilson.
I recently reviewed a collection of Mark Ravenhill's plays, and though I liked them--loved them, even--little of the provocative stuff stuck with me. I remember the set-ups, the individual characters and themes of each play, but as far as I can recollect, the sexual or violent or sexually violent set-pieces do not stick out in my mind in an "wow, that was something" way.
The same definitely cannot be said for Neilson. Within each of his plays, he sets up each act of provocation to be distinct and memorable, from the Expressionistic turns of Normal to the "dance" of Penetrator. I may not remember characters' names from these pieces, but each one sticks out in my mind as separate and distinct from the other plays in this collection. The Ravenhill collection all bled together: which is not bad, as such bleeding contributes to a greater understanding of Ravenhill as an artist. But Neilson's work? I appreciated reading these plays as both a greater understanding of Neilson as a writer and plays unto themselves. Not to say that Ravenhill and other In-Yer-Face writers don't have that, but with Neilson, I feel it more.
I remember when I first read Neilson in college, I thought his stuff was a little gimmicky. I loved Normal because I'm into German Expressionism, but The Night Before Christmas just felt hokey. And it still does, a little, but reading it as an older adult, I get some of the things I don't get before. And that can be said for all these works. Reading them in college, I was focused primarily on staging, on what the audience would be seeing and what would be most impactful and visually stunning. Now, I'm more hip to the ideas, appreciating these plays as written works, and not just performed ones.
No definitive ranking for the plays in this collection, though it should be clear I love Normal quite a bit. Penetrator and The Censor are up there too, but I also like Year of the Family and even The Night Before Christmas a lot. Honestly, as I said at the beginning, not a dud in the bunch. Varying levels of obviousness, if anything, but otherwise, good. Great! Check them out!
Wow, how opinions change in a couple of years. (Or, ya know, rereading a text and finding issues the second time round.)
---
Not a dud in the bunch!
In college I took a class on In-Yer-Face theatre: a term referring to a collection of British and American playwrights who, in the 1990s, were writing plays with similar elements and themes. Primarily, their work was marked by excessive violence and sex, meant to shock audiences out of their passive watching in order to better engage with the material. The "movement" was a label applied in retrospect by a theatrical historian and many of the playwrights who were a part of In-Yer-Face never met or knew of one another. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that these playwrights were also focused on crafting provocative theatre, and few, I find, are more provocatively distinct than Anthony Neilson.
I recently reviewed a collection of Mark Ravenhill's plays, and though I liked them--loved them, even--little of the provocative stuff stuck with me. I remember the set-ups, the individual characters and themes of each play, but as far as I can recollect, the sexual or violent or sexually violent set-pieces do not stick out in my mind in an "wow, that was something" way.
The same definitely cannot be said for Neilson. Within each of his plays, he sets up each act of provocation to be distinct and memorable, from the Expressionistic turns of Normal to the "dance" of Penetrator. I may not remember characters' names from these pieces, but each one sticks out in my mind as separate and distinct from the other plays in this collection. The Ravenhill collection all bled together: which is not bad, as such bleeding contributes to a greater understanding of Ravenhill as an artist. But Neilson's work? I appreciated reading these plays as both a greater understanding of Neilson as a writer and plays unto themselves. Not to say that Ravenhill and other In-Yer-Face writers don't have that, but with Neilson, I feel it more.
I remember when I first read Neilson in college, I thought his stuff was a little gimmicky. I loved Normal because I'm into German Expressionism, but The Night Before Christmas just felt hokey. And it still does, a little, but reading it as an older adult, I get some of the things I don't get before. And that can be said for all these works. Reading them in college, I was focused primarily on staging, on what the audience would be seeing and what would be most impactful and visually stunning. Now, I'm more hip to the ideas, appreciating these plays as written works, and not just performed ones.
No definitive ranking for the plays in this collection, though it should be clear I love Normal quite a bit. Penetrator and The Censor are up there too, but I also like Year of the Family and even The Night Before Christmas a lot. Honestly, as I said at the beginning, not a dud in the bunch. Varying levels of obviousness, if anything, but otherwise, good. Great! Check them out!
February 19, 2011
Read the Penetrator, cor
September 7, 2011
Added for 'Year of the Family', seen as a Redstich production.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews