Synopses & Reviews
Darke Plays: 1
The Dead Monkey - "Darke has something both hilarious and horrific to say about the decay of a marriage and he compels the attention while doing so." (Sunday Telegraph)
The King of Prussia - "A meaty play…seethes with life, wit and ideas. Darke give shape to a Cornish identity that feels vital and real and has nothing to do with clay pipes and clotted cream. Like Cornwall's coves, it has many unexpected depths…It also raises questions about the points where justice, conscience and the law part company" (Financial Times)
The Body - "The best moments in Nick Darke's play are extremely good - and not all good in the same way…the most obvious debt is to Brecht. There are other reminiscences of Auden and Isherwood's The Dog Beneath the Skin, of Tom Stoppard's After Magritte and of T.S Eliot's verse plays."
Tin Tang Mine - "A lament for an industry and a way of life; but this should not suggest anything sentimental. The writing is rugged and muscular; lyrical but not ornate; vigorous but not folksy…oddball, quirkily parochial and as authentic as a slice of rough bread." (The Times)
Review
"Passionately satirical and sharply observant, he is one of the most interesting of our playwrights."—Sunday Telegraph
Synopsis
"Passionately satirical and sharply observant, he is one of the most interesting of our playwrights" (Sunday Telegraph)
The Dead Monkey - "Darke has something both hilarious and horrific to say about the decay of a marriage and he compels the attention while doing so." (Sunday Telegraph)The King of Prussia - "A meaty play...seethes with life, wit and ideas. Darke give shape to a Cornish identity that feels vital and real and has nothing to do with clay pipes and clotted cream. Like Cornwall's coves, it has many unexpected depths...It also raises questions about the points where justice, conscience and the law part company" (Financial Times)The Body - "The best moments in Nick Darke's play are extremely good - and not all good in the same way...the most obvious debt is to Brecht. There are other reminiscences of Auden and Isherwood's The Dog Beneath the Skin, of Tom Stoppard's After Magritte and of T.S Eliot's verse plays."Tin Tang Mine - "A lament for an industry and a way of life; but this should not suggest anything sentimental. The writing is rugged and muscular; lyrical but not ornate; vigorous but not folksy...oddball, quirkily parochial and as authentic as a slice of rough bread." (The Times)
Synopsis
A new volume of plays by a contemporary dramatist who has suddenly come back into fashion.
Synopsis
Nick Darke: "By turns dreamily inconsequential, passionately satirical, and sharply observant, he is one of the most interesting of our playwrights."—Sunday Telegraph
The Dead Monkey: "Fiercely original and scaldingly funny."—Washington Post
The King of Prussia: "Seethes with life, wit, and ideas ... This is a rich and good-humored work that embarks on its task of navigating Cornish identity with admirable stealth and is full of wicked contemporary barbs."—Financial Times
The Body: "Of nukes and nuts down in the West ... goes with a swing."—The Times
Ting Tang Mine: "A lament for an industry and a way of life; but this should not suggest anything sentimental. The writing is rugged and muscular; lyrical but not ornate; vigorous but not folksy ... oddball, quirkily parochial, and as authentic as a slice of rough bread."
—Sunday Times