Mouth to Mouth

Synopsis

A garden in Balham - late summer. Laura and Frank, old friends make desultory small talk over the sound of birds, lawnmowers and children playing. Unmentioned yet ever present between them is a tragedy that unfolded the previous summer, a tragedy resulting from tempestuous and hidden passions, a tragedy for which Frank feels a guilt he cannot admit to.

Our Review:

8 February 2001

Note: This review dates from February 2001 and the production's original run at the Royal Court Theatre.

There's a seam of such naked intimacy running through Kevin Elyot's work that one often feels as if eavesdropping on very private moments. The slow-burning but devastating emotional revelations in his plays (as well as physical exposure, in the case of My Night with Reg) turn the audience into voyeurs.

His latest play, Mouth to Mouth, receiving its premiere at the Royal Court (where My Night with Reg also originated), is no exception; but it is also an altogether exceptional work, revealing the author to be writing with astonishingly heartfelt grace and heartbreaking maturity about grave and personal matters: illness and loss, friendship and unrequited heartache, love and work.

These are familiar and recurring themes in his work, and he once again employs similar dramatic techniques to before, such as a highly ...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 9 April 2001:

Go see it - terrific at the Royal Court!...

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