The Author

by Tim Crouch

Winner of the 2010 Whiting Award for best new play. Winner of the 2010 Total Theatre Award for Innovation. Nominated in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2010.
Settle back into the warmth of the theatre. Relax as the story unfolds. For you. With you. Of you. A story of hope, violence and exploitation. Laugh with the actors, tap your feet to the music, turn to your neighbour. You’re here.
The Author tells the story of another a violent, shocking and abusive play written by a playwright called Tim Crouch and performed at the Royal Court Theatre. It charts the effect that play had on the two actors who acted in it and an audience member who watched it. The Author explores our responsibilities to what we choose to look at in the world and how we choose to act accordingly. Performed within its audience, it is a brilliantly inventive and theatrical study of what we deem acceptable in the name of Art.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Jonny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly one of the worst plays I’ve ever had the displeasure of having to read.

[Regitze Xenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am so royally confused. And seriously creeped out.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

For about as long as I’ve known her, a really good friend and I have been having a kind of ongoing conversation about Art. We’ve talked about the responsibilities of the Artist, what constitutes “Good Art” or “Bad Art,” and even when/if any particular artist has crossed the line or if there’s even a line to be crossed. Of all of the ongoing, unresolvable, conversations I’ve ever been a part of, this is my favorite. Partially because I just love art in all forms, partially because I really love this friend and she has the ability to always make me see things differently and expand my view of the world, and partially because I know in my core that there is no solid answer to the questions we’re asking. I could ask myself “What are the responsibilities of the artist?” once every year, or couple of years, and I would answer the question differently each time. Tim Crouch’s The Author is a play that is just as fascinated with these questions as I am.

Everything about this play is amazing and fascinating from a theatrical standpoint. It’s staged brilliantly and uniquely, the characters are always interesting and curious to listen to, the basic story itself is engrossing once it gets going, but the single greatest element was the questions the play raises for its viewers or readers. It forces you to take into consideration your own relationship with the Theater and with Art in general. Why do you go see plays, what do you get out of it, what does your motivation and your experience say about you? What do the plays say about the people making them: the writers and directors and actors who are involved in the process for so long? What are their responsibilities? How culpable are they in the aftermath of these journeys? What was Beckett thinking when he put a pair of lips on stage and engaged them in this logorrheic monologue? And how much blame does he have to accept for the viewer’s subsequent nightmares? Again these are questions without answers, but Crouch’s play at least sets out to ask them and is all the better for having done so. It’s enough to make you wish all works of art and entertainment were this introspective.

[Max Heimowitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

No. I did not like this.

Tim Crouch's The Author is a play I've decided that I do not want to ever see. I would not pay money to see this performed. Mark, from my theater class, wrote in his discussion post that this play's concept might work better as a theoretical essay. And I must say, I agree. The entire goal of this play (don't believe me? check out Crouch's website, where he outlines his intentions behind the creation of this production) is to ask difficult questions about audiences in relation to the performance playing out before them. But I do not, nor do I want to, ever see the show. It would be, quite honestly, a waste of my time and money. I'd much rather be entertained--and this, to me, is not entertainment. For others, it might well be. But not me.

The Author takes conventional storytelling, if there is any such thing, and plays with the very nature of the act. Spectators are brought into the theater and form the stage. Actors sit with the audience; thus there is no physical "stage." Tim Crouch plays himself, the author. The characters engage with the audience members, getting to know them. Asking them questions like, "Can I go on?" "Should I stop here?" Purporting to allow them to participate in the play. But the play goes on, and on it does.

Crouch's work is very short. The actors describe an experience putting on a horrifying piece of theater, having been forced to sit through violent videos of torture, beheading, murder, you name it. Although I do not know much about the play, it works well in dialogue with Sarah Kane's notorious play Blasted. However, whereas in Kane's play the violence is physically depicted, here it is alluded to. Described in all its graphic detail. And graphic, oh it is.

The ending, honestly, left me confused. Unsettled. It felt out of place.

The writing is leaving the writer.

[Luba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes

[Burçak Bayram · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not a conventional read for a play text. There's no action, no narrative unity, the plot is fragmented, everything is suggested not represented, the language is obscene, it's a play within a play and the author is the audience of the play. So, it's one of the best plays ever 'written'. Hope to see it in performance one day.

[Denny M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play was such a trip! I wasn’t sure at first if it would be my style, seeming like the plot would have been too muddled, but it really kept to its theme and didn’t read in a confusing play. I’ve never read something with this level of meta, and I found myself wanting more.

[laura nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

viscerally and brutally upsetting, violently graphic, and all achieved with only an audience - no stage. genuinely had me sick to my stomach afterwards. horrified by the fact that my tutors provided no trigger warning for this text as it was quite awful to read. in spite of that, a fantastic work that pushes at the boundaries of what theatre can be, what it means, and how far we will go for the sake of art.

[Nour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept. Best performed/read to a white white audience, and no one else.

[kleio☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Watching this was actually way better than reading this. shout out to oner erkan, my heart belongs to him💝💝

[Daniëlle · Rating 2 out of 5]

what the actual fuck ???
why did my teacher make me read this play and make me re-enact this??
concept of this is the only thing that makes this interesting to read

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play only truly lives in production. However: it is fascinating, funny, horrifying, and (best of all) makes you ask questions. I wish the author didn't kill himself at the end (doesn't the crime mean more if it was thrown off?) but thematically it works.

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine walking into the theatre and there are two banks of seats.
They are facing each other with only 5 feet between them.
Yes you are staring at fellow members of the audience.
What happens after that is pure magic.

[melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text works in conversation with plays like Sarah Kane's "Blasted." Crouch is asking interesting questions about audience.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

so f*cked up

[Rainhalol]

obrigado Alice pelos anos de terapia 👍👍👍👍