Podcast: Attempting to Unravel Just Who Says The Next Line
Attempts on her Life, Hen and Chicken Theatre
Sam Smithson and Cameron Wilson discuss Attempts On Her Life
Our latest guest includes the return of Sam Smithson, who last year was telling us all about his show Taking A Love Pill At the End of the World.
This time around Sam is joined by Cameron Wilson, who together make up Not Quite Ready Productions. They are in full preparation to bring a fresh production of Martin Crimp’s Attempts On Her Life to Hen and Chicken Theatre this June. The play, first performed in 1997 at Royal Court Theatre, consists of seventeen seemingly unrelated scenes in which groups of people provide contradictory descriptions of an absent protagonist, a woman who is discussed as a terrorist, the daughter of grieving parents, an artist, and even a new car.
The playtext doesn’t assign lines to any specific character, meaning that there’s a lot to unravel even before you reach rehersals. It also means a lot to unpick as we chat to Sam and Cameron to work out just why they wanted to take on what looks a highly ambitious piece of work, why they decided this time to work on an existing play and not new writing, and why it’s a tough old world trying to be a writer!
Attempts on Her Life plays at Hen and Chickens Theatre from 10 to 14 June. Further information and bookings can be found here.
Attempts on her Life
Hen and Chickens Theatre
10 – 14 June
Attempts to describe her?
Attempts to destroy her?
Or attempts to destroy herself?
Is Anne the object of violence?
Or its terrifying practitioner?
A woman with various identities links 17 theatrical scenarios: she is the heroine of a film in one, a victim of civil war in another, an international terrorist, a porn star, and the subject of a conversation among friends. She is the living embodiment of Crimp’s underlying declaration that coherent identity in the modern world is little more than myth.
Not Quite Ready Productions presents a revival of Martin Crimp’s radical play Attempts on her Life, which will challenge audiences with its bold experiments in form and content.
Further information and bookings available here.
