My Girl 2

Description

-I want things to get better, not worse. -There's hundreds of thousands worse off than us. Ideals are worthless if you can't pay the bills. Anita and Sam live in East London. Burdened by debt and on the eve of giving birth to their second child, Anita begins to wonder whether it was a good idea for Sam to become a social worker. Can they survive in David Cameron's London on Sam's wage with two children? Anywhere else it would be fine, but where he's needed most, can Sam make ends meet? Will their marriage take the strain as the needs of family are pitted against the greater good? Bitingly funny, challenging, angry and deeply humane, My Girl 2 is Barrie Keeffe's reworking of his iconic 1989 play. This edition published to coincide with the premiere of the updated version at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London, in 2014.

Barrie Keeffe (b. 1945) is a well-known English dramatist and writer, whose plays include Only a Game (1973), A Sight of Glory (1975), Here Comes the Sun (1976), My Girl (1989), I Only Want to Be With You (1995), The Long Good Friday (1997), Shadows on the Sun (2001), Still Killing Time (2006) and two trilogies: Gimme Shelter and Barbarians. He has also been resident writer at the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Shaw Theatre and the Soho Poly Theatre and Associate Writer at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. He taught dramatic writing at City University in London and in 2010 he gained the title of Doctor of Letters by the University of Warwick.

My Girl 2 is a fiery two-hander for the new recession, a marriage in meltdown, and a third version of a play that started out at the old Soho Poly in 1975... now surfaces, still angry, tweaked with spiky updates. * Whats On Stage * My Girl 2... sits comfortably in the long tradition that stretches from the kitchen sink realism of the late 1950s through to Eastenders misery fests today. * Broadway World * It might sound like a sequel, but this is more a 're-imagining'. Writer Barrie Keeffe has taken his furious 1989 anti-Tory state of-the-nation play 'My Girl' and updated it to reflect an equally grim British socio-political landscape under coalition control in 2014. * Time Out London * An opening scene, in which a late-for-work Sam refuses a quick toast or porridge breakfast... creates a moving picture of a relationship as well as a political statement. It is a strong indictment of where the economic attitudes and aims instilled by Thatcher and maintained by succeeding governments have got us. * British Theatre Guide *