Out In The Open

by Mr Jonathan Harvey

The brilliant new play from the writer of Beautiful Thing"What you don't know, don't hurt you"Tony's ready to live-it-large and love again. But his efforts to step back on to the scene are hampered by a secret his friends, Monica and Kevin, should have told him a long time ago.Out in the Open is a funny and caustic exploration of love and the limits of friendship set over a long, hazily hot summer weekend in London.

Directed by Kathy Burke, Out in the Open premiered at London's Hampstead Theatre in March 2001 and transferred to Birmingham Rep.

Genres: Theatre

118 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2001

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not one of those overly enamored of Beautiful Thing, the debut play that put Harvey on the map, and haven't really kept up with his career since. The impetus for reading this work, that premiered almost exactly 25 years ago, is that the actor James McAvoy spoke about it on the Graham Norton show as one of his early breakthrough roles in theatre, and it sounded intriguing.

It is widely considered Harvey's most accomplished work since B.T., and I did find it quite well-structured (it has one of the most surprising Act One curtain lines!), with plenty of hearty laughs as well as dramatic fireworks. It could stand some judicious pruning, especially in the longish first act, and would have to be done as a period piece now, especially since HIV/AIDS is not quite so incendiary a topic these days.

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