Realism

Renowned for his pioneering, ground-breaking and imaginative new work, Anthony Neilson is one of the most prominent voices in British theatre. His plays include Penetrator, Heredity, The Lying Kind and The Censor, which won the Writers Guild and Time Out Award (all for the Royal Court). His other work includes Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong Theatre), Stitching (The Traverse, The Bush - Time Out Off West End Award) and Normal (Edinburgh Festival). His films include The Debt Collector and Deeper Still.

If Waiting for Godot is a play in which, as one critic had it, "nothing happens, twice", Realism is a play in which nothing happens, spectacularly. Anthony Neilson's comedy, previously seen at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, is a tale of inertia and of daydream - two potential ways to lose an audience for the price of one. But the result is wildly inventive, always entertaining, and ultimately rather moving too... The fireworks are fun. But Realism has an emotional undertow that makes it more than just a novelty item.