Louise Page Plays: 1: Tissue; Salonika; Real Estate; Golden Girls

Description

"Louise Page's intimate, emotional dramas open up vast areas of feeling beneath the surface of ordinary lives" (Independent) Tissue: "The tissue of the title is a left breast and lymph node removed during Sally Bacon's mastectomy Louise Page catalogues Sally's changing attitudes to what her mother calls her chest, her brother calls her tits and what she calls her bosoms." (Guardian); Salonika "There is in this strange and beautiful new play a moment when the author crosses the boundaries of naturalism and the seaside sands of Salonika are literally parted and the dead past rises to life" (Guardian); Real Estate "Miss Page, by accurate, detailed, loving writing has created four real people, sensitive to the needs of others yet each, ultimately with an instinct for self-preservation. These are 'ordinary' people to whom nothing special happens. They become special, extraordinary because of the dignity their creator endows them with" (Spectator). Golden Girls: "Not only does this enthralling play take us into the world of women's athletics, it also raises any number of questions about the success ethic, the dubious role of sponsorship and the secondary status of nearly all women's sports." (Guardian)

Louise Page's stage plays include Want-Ad (Birmingham Arts Lab, 1977; ICA 1979); Lucy (Bristol New Vic Studio, 1979); Tissue (Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 1978; ICA 1978; adapted for Radio 4, 1979); Hearing (Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 1979); Flaws (Sheffield University Drama Studio, 1980); Housewives (Derby Playhouse, 1981, a Radio/Theatre production); Salonika (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1982; winner of the George Devine Award); Real Estate (Tricycle Theatre, London, 1984) and Golden Girls (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Other Palce, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1984); Beauty and the Beast (jointly commissioned by the Women's Playhouse Truest and Methuen) which opened at the Liverpool Playhouse in November 1985 before transferring to the Old Vic, London, in December 1985; Diplomatic Wives (Palace Theatre, Watford, 1989); Adam Was a Gardener (Chichester Minerva Studio, 1991); Hawks and Doves (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, 1993); and Another Nine Months (Clean Break Theatre Company, New End Theatre, 1995). She was awarded the first J T Grein Award for Drama by the Critics' Circle. She has also written for radio and television. She died in May 2020.

"Louise Page's intimate, emotional dramas open up vast areas of feeling beneath the surface of ordinary lives." --Independent