The actress playing Alice would need to be….

Aleks Sierz (2001: 187), as quoted by Graham Saunders in Closer, Modern Theatre Guide. Aleks Sierz popularised the expression of In Yer Face

http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/~/media/Files/Behind%20the%20Scenes%20Guide/Closer.ashx  6 

Sex 

Love 

Truth 

Power 

http://www.enotes.com/topics/closer/themes 1 

http://www.juliekistler.com/reviews/92.asp 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closer_(play) 3

http://www.claudesteiner.com/j-clos.htm  4

The text of the play insists on all settings being "minimal". Though evocative of real happenings, the lack of physical detail in setting is meant to balance the verbal excess. Places are evoked, not shown—benches instead of the front of a museum; a large photo instead of the entire showing.

According to Robert Brustein, in the original production, "Memorial blocks constitute the backdrop of the set—a design that gradually accumulates all the scenic pieces used in the play, as if these four lives were a detritus of props and furniture." 

The setting is formed to be deliberately symbolic. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closer_(play) 

Aleks Sierz, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Theatre Today:

‘The 90s were a jagged and violent decade. Day after day, the media brought news of war and killing: terrorist bombs, ethnic cleansing and mass graves left indelible images on the public imagination. The murder of a toddler by two ten-year-old boys in February 1993 became one of the key events of 90s Britain…’

Britain in the 90s was strange. [..] It was the period of Trainspotting, the Spice Girls, Britpop, Madchester, the dawn of New Labour and the election victory of Tony Blair. British fashion led the world with an androgynous, grungy heroin-chic. This renaissance was branded ‘Cool Britannia’ – a tag that immediately felt embarrassing. 

Socially, it was a period that saw some slippage in the way some traditional identities were held together. Conservative/Labour, gay/straight, woman/man.

A pivotal – and memorable – scene in CLOSER takes place in an internet sex chatroom. Dan seduces Larry, pretending to be a woman and adopting Anna’s name. Arguably, CLOSER was the world’s first major play to explore the dramatic possibilities of the internet. When the play first opened, audiences were astonished – and baffled – by what was unfolding before them. 

Patrick Marber recalls: “When the play was first presented in May ‘97 and we got to the internet scene, I would say two thirds of the audience had no idea what they were watching. [..] And they watched it in fascinated, appalled silence – no laughs.”

It’s intriguing to think about what the play reveals about pre-internet romance and human relationships. Contemporary mainstream media is awash with stories about the impact of the online world on our capacity to make and maintain human relationships. Yet CLOSER certainly seems to depict – in a pre-digital era – an alienation, sexual cynicism and fluidity of identity.

“Back in the Nineties, its most obviously radical element was its explicitness, with frank discussion of shagging, lashings of bad language and the first example of online sex in theatre” [1]  

“Some people seemed to like it and some people seemed to be very upset by it, and some people were angered by it [..] It isn’t the frankness of the language – it’s the frankness of the feelings of the play that are genuinely shocking. It’s the rawness of how it feels to be hurt, to be jealous, to be in love … It’s the shock of the passion more than the language.” Patrick Marber  [1] 

In the 80’s there were deep cuts to the arts, overseen by Margaret Thatcher’s government. In the West End, it was a decade of the mega-musicals, like Cats and Les Misérables. “These shows were huge hits with the British public. But it is noticeable that [..] none seemed to speak with a particular urgency to young Brits in their twenties and thirties.”[2]

Michael Billington (Guardian, August 2006) commented on how this form of theatre, which “combines celebration of individualism with sentimental uplift... individuals triumph over circumstance leading to a transcendent apotheosis” was no accident. It suited the Thatcherite capitalist agenda. 

“The 90s, though, saw young writers such as Patrick Marber, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Anthony Neilson and Jez Butterworth begin to write plays set in a recognisable contemporary Britain with characters drawn from modern life.”[2] The plays of these writers have been grouped as ‘In Yer Face’ Theatre. Aleks Sierze popularised the expression of In Yer Face, and described Closer as “Arguably the decade’s key play about relationships” (2001: 187), as quoted by Graham Saunders in Closer, Modern Theatre Guide

Historical, social, cultural, political context of the piece 

Character analysis 

Themes 

Original acting style 

The given circumstances 

The structure of the play 

Playwrights intentions 

Dan: Black, smart jeans. White shirt. Brown tie. Black coat. Brown brogues.
Dan works in the city, in an office, but he can't be making much money in the "dying business", so his attire should be quite scruffy and plain.

Jonathan Law (2011) said that In Yer Face theatre was typically set in small studio spaces, seating between fifty to eighty people, to ensure the audience was actively engaged with the characters’ emotions. It also featured imagery that depicted acute pain or “comfortless vulnerability”, and “a ninety- minute structure that dispensed with the relief of an interval.” 

“In-yer-face theatre describes not just the content of a play but rather the relationship between the stage and the audience … In other words, … when watching extreme theatre (you get) the feeling of your personal space being threatened, or violated. This kind of theatre was a radical break with much of the drama of the 1980s. At its best, its aim was to use shock to awaken the moral responses of the audience – its desire was no less than to help change society.” (Law, 2011) 

References 

Sierz, A. (2000) In Yer Face Theatre [online] Available at: http://www.inyerfacetheatre.com/info.html (accessed 26 November 2016) 

Law, J. (2011) The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre. 1st edn. London, Bloomsbury Publishing 

Trying to love, despite the suffering that it can bring, is something most of us will, or have, experienced in our lives. As long as people continue to search for love, Closer will always be relevant to new generations. Marber’s interest in technology and new forms of communication, and how it effects the way we relate, has perhaps never been so relevant. His play explores the way “media like the Internet and photography misleads, paints false pictures, and enables people to project their own expectations and lies onto each other.” (AU, 2016)

I’m setting my extract in modern day, exemplified through the use of music, making it even more relatable to the young audience.

References 

Author unknown (September 2016) Closer (play) [online] Available at: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closer_(play) (accessed on 15 October 2016)

Themes 

Theatre style 

Intentions 

Intended audience reaction 
Atmosphere 

Casting 

Set design 

Ground plan

Prop and costume design & list
Lighting plan & cue sheet 

Sound plan & cue sheet 

Rehearsal schedule & changes (separate document)

Performance evaluation
Annotated script