Dying City

Synopsis

When one man goes to war he leaves the city, his wife and brother. A year later only the wife and brother remain. Christopher Shinn's play asks what happens when people and events apparently thousands of miles away affect the heart and soul of a city.

Our Review:

17 May 2006

As Simon Stephens’s Motortown completes its run on the main stage of the Royal Court, the fall out from the Iraq war continues in the Theatre Upstairs with this subtle, insinuating, beautifully written new play by the American playwright Christopher Shinn.

Whereas Stephens’ play depicts the brutalisation of a returning British squaddie in Essex, creating a psychological continuum from Basra to Barking, Dying City is a nocturnal Manhattan post mortem for an American officer who has shot himself in despair in Iraq.

The seven short scenes (running time, ninety minutes) switch between January 2004, on the eve of Craig’s departure, and July 2005, the anniversary of his death. Craig’s wife/widow Kelly (Sian Brooke), a psychotherapist, is packing up her books to the endless television background accompaniment of Law and Order and Jon Stewart. She’s moving out to start over in Ann Arbor.

She is visited by Craig’s ide...

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Latest User Review

81.131.46.153) - 27 May 2006:

Terrific evening of theatre, a very powerful and moving piece indeed. Both actors superb, Andrew Scott is such a class act, spell binding....

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