Rapture, Blister, Burn

Description

Women are running for president. Men are exfoliating. It's all jumbled: you can't read the signs. Can any woman have it all? After university Catherine and Gwen chose opposite paths: Catherine built a career as a rock-star academic, while Gwen built a home with a husband and children. Decades later, unfulfilled in opposite ways, each woman covets the other's life, and a dangerous game begins as each tries to claim the other's territory. Sparks fly and the age-old question arises: what do women really want? Gina Gionfriddo dissects modern gender politics in this breathtakingly witty and virtuosic comedy, set in a small New England college town. Traversing the experiences of women across the generations, this play is a hugely entertaining exploration of a new style of feminism, ripe for the twenty-first century. Rapture, Blister, Burn was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, where it premiered, with funds from the Harold and Mim Steinberg Charitable Trust. It received its UK premiere at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in January 2014.

Gina Gionfriddo is an American writer whose plays include Becky Shaw; Rapture, Blister, Burn;After Ashley; US Drag and Guinevere. She has won an Obie Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In addition to writing, Gionfriddo has taught playwriting at Brown University, Providence College, and Rhode Island College.

Combines intelligence with winning humour and palpable humanity. * Telegraph * . . . an interesting potted history of postwar feminism . . . * Guardian * the best sassy one-liners * Independent * modern feminist theatre can be pretty cool. * Time Out London * a witty, unsentimental piece that . . . fully articulate[s] tricksy questions about how one should live one's life in these enlightened times. * Time Out London * [Gionfriddo] is back with another sparky comedy, which combines intelligence with winning humour and palpable humanity ... the warmth and wisdom of the writing remain impressive. * Daily Telegraph * It's a highly intelligent play, but beyond the witty debate it is the wise humanity of the piece that impresses most. * Daily Telegraph * much wittier than many an ideas play. * The Times * articulate, witty * Sunday Express * Gionfriddo has written an engrossing and entertaining play * Metro (London) * plenty of good laughs . . . a very impressive clarity and zest . . . some good bright lines * Tribune *