Synopses & Reviews
This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism.
The plot follows a crowd of drifters and sex traders in a seedy area of London in the 1990s. Five main characters are linked loosely and intermittently and at the center of the play is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a depressing microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society.
Mark Ravenhill trained at Bristol University. His first full-length play, Shopping and F***ing, open ed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1996. It transferred to the West End in 1997 and opened on Broadway the following year. It has subsequently been produced all over the world. His other plays include Faust, Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House. This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism.
The plot follows a crowd of drifters and sex traders in a seedy area of London in the 1990s. Five main characters are linked loosely and intermittently and at the center of the play is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a depressing microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society. This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism. Connects commerce and pleasure in graphic modern terms...one of the most arresting talents...in the British theatre.”Financial Times of London
Darkly humorous play for todays twenty-somethings...a real coup de theatre.”Evening Standard "Plunges you into the world of disposability, disconnection and dysfunction, where relationships to be trusted have to be reduced to transactions; strong stuff."Independent
"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation."Time Out
Review
“Connects commerce and pleasure in graphic modern terms...one of the most arresting talents...in the British theatre.”—
Financial Times of London “Darkly humorous play for todays twenty-somethings...a real coup de theatre.”—Evening Standard "Plunges you into the world of disposability, disconnection and dysfunction, where relationships to be trusted have to be reduced to transactions; strong stuff."—Independent
"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation."—Time Out
Synopsis
The ground-breaking debut from one of the most important playwrights of the last decade, now in student edition.
Synopsis
The ground-breaking debut from one of the most important playwrights of the last decade, now in a student edition
"Shopping and Fucking is a darkly humorous play for today's twenty-somethings ? a real coup de theatre" Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
"Plunges you into the world of disposability, disconnection and dysfunction, where relationships to be trusted have to be reduced to transactions ? strong stuff" Paul Taylor, Independent
"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation" Time Out
Synopsis
This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism.
Mark Ravenhill trained at Bristol University. His first full-length play, Shopping and F***ing, open ed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1996. It transferred to the West End in 1997 and opened on Broadway the following year. It has subsequently been produced all over the world. His other plays include Faust, Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House. This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism. This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism. Connects commerce and pleasure in graphic modern terms...one of the most arresting talents...in the British theatre.”Financial Times of London
Darkly humorous play for todays twenty-somethings...a real coup de theatre.”Evening Standard "Plunges you into the world of disposability, disconnection and dysfunction, where relationships to be trusted have to be reduced to transactions; strong stuff."Independent
"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation."Time Out
Synopsis
This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism.
The plot follows a crowd of drifters and sex traders in a seedy area of London in the 1990s. Five main characters are linked loosely and intermittently and at the center of the play is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a depressing microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society.
Synopsis
Fully annotated student edition of Mark Ravenhill’s groundbreaking and uncompromising portrait of contemporary society as a place in which social bonds have been dismantled and relationships replaced by weightless, consumerist desires.
Mark Ravenhill’s first play, Shopping and F***ing, opened at the Royal Court Theatre, September 1996, transferring to the West End, and opening in New York in January 1998. It has subsequently been produced all over the world.
About the Author
Mark Ravenhill trained at Bristol University. His first full-length play, Shopping and F***ing, open ed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1996. It transferred to the West End in 1997 and opened on Broadway the following year. It has subsequently been produced all over the world. His other plays include Faust, Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House.