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Handbag
From Victorian wet nurses to nineties sperm banks, Handbag exposes the confusions and absurdities of parenting at the end of the twentieth century.
84 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 1998
50 people want to read
About the author
Mark Ravenhill
65 books41 followersMark Ravenhill (born 7 June 1966) is an English playwright, actor and journalist.
His plays include Shopping and Fucking (first performed in 1996), Some Explicit Polaroids (1999) and Mother Clap's Molly House (2001). He made his acting debut in his monologue Product, at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He often writes for the arts section of The Guardian. He is Associate Director of London's Little Opera House at The King's Head Theatre.
His plays include Shopping and Fucking (first performed in 1996), Some Explicit Polaroids (1999) and Mother Clap's Molly House (2001). He made his acting debut in his monologue Product, at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He often writes for the arts section of The Guardian. He is Associate Director of London's Little Opera House at The King's Head Theatre.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 10, 2023
too many characters, too messy. kind of is the point to be messy, but i found it to the point of being hard to follow along. i think the central ideas i managed to get? but it wasn’t as enjoyable as his other plays.
March 15, 2019
felt like the mcdonalds of plays but i love mcdonalds
December 11, 2025
Slightly confusing with random crossing timelines. A little surreal. Interesting commentary on the crippled state of human interaction and relationships when paired with sex, drugs, and abuse trauma.
March 31, 2020
Mark Ravenhill's deconstruction of "The Importance of Being Earnest" takes on classism, sexism and homophobia with a bracing irreverence. The accident that inspires Wilde's play is counterpointed with two couples — one gay, one lesbian — whose efforts to co-parent a child are complicated by each couple's involvement with an inopportune pick up. It's not for the fainthearted, but it's well worth the effort to get past any initial squeamishness.
October 29, 2015
I read this for my acting class. I'm doing a scene from it for my final this semester. It was certainly an intense read. Definitely going to go back a re-read it a few more times to get a better understanding because I feel like there were some things I missed the first time around
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews