Plays 1: Spokesong / Catchpenny Twist / Nightshade / Pratt's Fall

by Stewart Parker, Lynne Parker (Introduction)

This volume includes four plays: Spokesong 'A dazzling play that combines warmth of sentiment with great emotional strength and intellectual playfulness … a gorgeously rich play' (New York Post); Catchpenny Twist: 'The most appealing thing about Parker's work is the ease with which he blends lunatic humour with a gritty sense of reality. He's done it before in Spokesong and he does it again in this hard, ribald and hilarious little play' (Sunday Times); Nightshade: 'A rare delight … A mixture of experiment, inventiveness, wit, sheer theatricality, obscure motifs and elements that are deeply moving … It is a highly complex play; there is no story that is told in sequence, no meaning that can be easily grasped. But as theatre it is superb' (Hibernia); Pratt's Fall: 'A delicate, unusual and rather beautiful vehicle … a fascinating and delightful entertainment … Parker's chosen approach is to tackle serious themes - often related to the experience of his native Northern Ireland - through a kind of lyrical comedy, deceptively lightweight, fast-moving, and slightly surreal' (Sunday Standard)

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2000