While We're Here

by Barney Norris

“Sometimes I think my whole life has been a frightening time. I remember the crunch of the gravel under my feet walking back up the drive, and thinking my life might be over. I might have had all of my fun.”

Eddie and Carol were lovers once, but their lives went in different directions. Now they meet again in a town full of memories, and find something still burns between them.

On the country’s southern margin where the towns give way to the English Channel, both search for the centre of their lives. Will they find a way to let go of the past for the sake of their futures?

A moving new play from acclaimed touring theatre company Up In Arms in co production with the Bush Theatre and Farnham Maltings.

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 26, 2017

About the author

Barney Norris is a playwright and novelist. His work has received awards from the International Theatre Institute, the Critics' Circle, the Evening Standard, the Society of Authors and the South Bank Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Awards, among others, and been translated into eight languages. His plays include Visitors, Nightfall and an acclaimed adaptation of Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day; his novels include Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4 - Drama:
Twenty years earlier Eddie and Carol were lovers but then Eddie disappeared.
Now he's back in Havant. As they attempt to redefine their relationship they struggle against the tide of experience.
Can they let go of their fears and make land?

Carol ..... Tessa Peake-Jones
Eddie ..... Andrew French

Produced by Sally Avens

'While We're Here' was originally co-produced for the stage by Up In Arms, the Bush and Farnham Maltings"
'While We're Here' was called 'intimate and compassionate' (Time Out) 'a little gem of a play' (Financial Times) and the cast 'quietly snap your heart'. (Sunday Times).
The original cast reprise their roles in this radio version of the play.

Barney Norris is a highly acclaimed theatre writer: 'One of our most exciting young writers' The Times
'One of the very best writers that I've come across in quite a long time of working in the theatre' Nicholas Hytner
'Everything he writes about love, loss, grief, desolation, and moments of hope and illumination rings absolutely true' Michael Frayn
Barney is also a poet and novelist and has been long listed for The Booker Prize.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b6...

[Olivia Helen Brennand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing really got explained or given proper context to begin with, you had to infer a lot of it. So by the end I couldn’t really care. And then the dialogue felt either boring or fake-deep, you didn’t have enough time to really sit with the characters before the next scene began. It really felt like I was reading something where someone had no idea what play that wanted to write so wrote about nothing in particular and called it deep.

I also hate hate hate plays these modern plays that don’t set up scenes or characters, it means that without actually going to watch the play you’ll never truly understand what is meant to be going on or how it will be set. Some might say this leaves room for multiple interpretations, and can show the quiet intimacy of a moment. However, I find this a lame excuse for ‘minimalism’; as many older plays such as Ibsen or Miller utilised stage directions concerning lights, character motivations and certain sounds which have been endlessly updated and reinterpreted for well over 50 years now.

Edit: looking back, i think i’ll give it two stars.

I just did not care for this at all, nothing about it made me care, except the final two scenes. But I could never imagine watching it on stage and not yawning, but as a chemistry testing piece for a scene for two actors, or something to put in an actors portfolio - sure.