What do you think?
Rate this book
Plays 2: Flint / The Bankrupt / Afternoon at the Festival / Duck Song / The Arcata Promise / Find Me / Huggy Bear
The first volume of stage and TV plays by one of the best British TV writers
Flint premiered just before the 1970 General Election which was to replace the Labour Government of Harold Wilson. It is driven by the figure of Ossian Flint, a seventy-year old swinging vicar who believes in "crossing lines not drawing them" and espouses the romanticised Communism of Lenin and Guevara; In the BBC play The Bankrupt, Ellis Cripper, a woman aged fifty has become bankrupt through operating at "the dishonourable end of the system…capitalism"; An Afternoon at the Festival centres around a version of middle-aged man Leo Brent who is an extreme egoist and a failure in his personal relationships; Duck Song was first produced in the dying days of the failing Heath government and the characters represent a society in decline as the younger characters attempt to find a solution through feminism or psychiatry, it presents "a world to which one cannot relate, which one cannot control, which one can't understand, and which one can't manipulate"; The Arcata Promise centres around the attraction betwen an actor and an inexperienced girl and the destructive conclusion of such an attraction; Find Me returns to the theme of ideological conflict and Eastern Europe; Huggy Bear, a Yorkshire Television production that depicts Hooper, an infantile and philosophical dentist with a "failure to integrate".
Flint premiered just before the 1970 General Election which was to replace the Labour Government of Harold Wilson. It is driven by the figure of Ossian Flint, a seventy-year old swinging vicar who believes in "crossing lines not drawing them" and espouses the romanticised Communism of Lenin and Guevara; In the BBC play The Bankrupt, Ellis Cripper, a woman aged fifty has become bankrupt through operating at "the dishonourable end of the system…capitalism"; An Afternoon at the Festival centres around a version of middle-aged man Leo Brent who is an extreme egoist and a failure in his personal relationships; Duck Song was first produced in the dying days of the failing Heath government and the characters represent a society in decline as the younger characters attempt to find a solution through feminism or psychiatry, it presents "a world to which one cannot relate, which one cannot control, which one can't understand, and which one can't manipulate"; The Arcata Promise centres around the attraction betwen an actor and an inexperienced girl and the destructive conclusion of such an attraction; Find Me returns to the theme of ideological conflict and Eastern Europe; Huggy Bear, a Yorkshire Television production that depicts Hooper, an infantile and philosophical dentist with a "failure to integrate".
396 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 1994
11 people want to read
About the author
David Mercer
15 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Mercer was an English dramatist.
Mercer failed to get into grammar school and left secondary school at 14, to get a job in a hospital laboratory. When he was 17 he joined the Royal Navy, which he left at 20 to attend the Durham University where he studied science. Later he began studying art in Newcastle, and at this time he started to write short stories.
He married a Czech woman and moved to Paris. When the marriage broke up he returned to England, began to write a novel and submerged in a deep depression.
In the 1960's he became a well known theatre and television writer. When he married an Israeli woman, he moved to Israel and his fame faded away. Mercer, who had always been a heavy drinker, was planning to return to England when he died at the age of 52.
David Mercer was an English dramatist.
Mercer failed to get into grammar school and left secondary school at 14, to get a job in a hospital laboratory. When he was 17 he joined the Royal Navy, which he left at 20 to attend the Durham University where he studied science. Later he began studying art in Newcastle, and at this time he started to write short stories.
He married a Czech woman and moved to Paris. When the marriage broke up he returned to England, began to write a novel and submerged in a deep depression.
In the 1960's he became a well known theatre and television writer. When he married an Israeli woman, he moved to Israel and his fame faded away. Mercer, who had always been a heavy drinker, was planning to return to England when he died at the age of 52.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 8, 2022
"The Arcata Promise": mindblowing!!! sooo good, heart-gripping, amazing and strong creation of the characters
Displaying 1 of 1 review