The Suicide

Description

I used to work in PR, if you're going to kill yourself let's make it an event . . . You can own this, Sam. For the first time in your life you. Could be. In charge. Things are getting tough for Sam. No job, benefits stopped and stuck in a tiny flat with his girlfriend Maya and her mum. The pressure is building. It feels like there might be only one way out. But every ending is a beginning and there are plenty of people keen to capitalise on Sam's momentous decision. From corrupt local politicians to kids trying to raise the number of views of their online videos, everyone wants a piece of Sam's demise. It scarcely matters what Sam actually wants. Faced with the promise of immortality, what's his life worth? Suhayla El-Bushra takes the satiric masterpiece by Nikolai Erdman and smashes it into contemporary urban Britain. It's provocative, fast-paced and very funny.

Suhayla El-Bushra is a playwright and screenwriter. In 2015 she was writer in residency at the National Theatre Studio. Her film/TV credits include Hollyoaks, feature screenplays, children's drama and several scripts for Doctors. Suhayla developed an original screenplay, Left Luggage as part of the Guiding Lights scheme where her mentor was Christopher Hampton. Suhayla's stage work includes Pigeons which was produced as part of the Royal Court's Open Court season in 2013 and on a subsequent tour, Cuckoo (Unicorn Theatre, 2014) and The Kilburn Passion (Tricycle, 2014 - two runs). Her play The Suicide, an adaptation of the play by Nikolai Erdman, opened in April 2016 at the National Theatre's Lyttleton Theatre.

What El-Bushra gets across brilliantly is the self delusion of a capitalist society ... [her] script creates brilliant ambiguities and alternatives. Exeunt