The Imitation Game: Three Plays for Television

by Ian McEwan

These three television plays were written between 1974 and 1979. Solid Geometry was banes by the BBC just before going into production and became a cause celèbre.

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Ian McEwan studied at the University of Sussex, where he received a BA degree in English Literature in 1970 and later received his MA degree in English Literature at the University of East Anglia.

McEwan's works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award (1987) and the Prix Fémina Etranger (1993) for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement received the WH Smith Literary Award (2002), National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award (2003), Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction (2003), and the Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004). He was awarded a CBE in 2000. In 2006, he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Saturday and his novel On Chesil Beach was named Galaxy Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards where McEwan was also named Reader's Digest Author of the Year.

McEwan lives in London.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of McEwan's novels, I was interested in seeing what he could do in a dramatic format; unfortunately, these are not PLAYS, per se, but the scripts for some TV dramas he produced early in his career. The first two pieces are trifling bagatelles with twists at the end, which are neither terribly surprising, nor clever. The second of these, 'Solid Geometry' is primarily of interest in that, after it had begun production, the BBC decided it was obscene (largely, apparently, on the basis of a prop of an enormous penis persevered in a jar of formaldehyde!), and halted it.

The final, longer, titular work was of interest since I'd just finished the author's most recent book, Machines Like Me, and both concern AI in some form. Unfortunately, even this disappoints, kind of a desultory 'Bletchley Circle', as McEwan turns cracking the Enigma Code into a turgid examination of prejudice against women during the war effort. Worse, he changes the character of the notoriously homosexual Alan Turing into the character of Turner, a straight (albeit impotent) man ... and then subverts his 'imitation game' (which was used to determine whether machines could think, and if so, whether a person could determine if someone was man or machine by virtue of their thoughts alone), into whether a person could determine the SEX of an unknown entity via the same method.

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three plays are all fascinating but, if you like the absurd, you might especially enjoy 'Solid Geometry' - I had already read it as a short story but thought it would make an excellent play. Like so much of what Ian McEwan has written, it is rather unpleasant, but it does have a slightly comical side to it. And if you do not have much time, the whole book makes a very quick read!

[Bibliomantic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I paused for a minute as I found myself half way through this collection of three screen plays to wonder to myself how much of a McEwan-maniac have I really become to be reading screen plays? They are clever and tackle the usual McEwan topics, but aren’t anything special. Well, that was until I got to the title play, and felt my dedication amply rewarded. This, what I think of as McEwan’s sole feminist piece of writing, reads as well as any of McEwan’s stories, or at least, comes as close to that as a play can. McEwan is often quite cruel to his women, and there is a little of that here too, but the feminist turn gave it a spark that it might not have otherwise had.
One of the other two plays is a reworking of ‘Solid Geometry’. It’s an interesting take on the story, but isn’t much more than a clever exercise. McEwan himself acknowledges this in the introduction. The introduction is especially worth reading. It offers some autobiographical glimpses of the author’s exterior and interior life.

[Samuel Shuttleworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my problem with McEwan's writing is that he too often borders on the weird for futile reasons. The first two plays both feel quite randomly strange, while the imitation game - while interesting - feels rushed and incomplete.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. This is not McEwan at his best, not by a long shot. Stoppard did "Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration" and "Solid Geometry" much better in "The Real Thing," "Jumpers," and "Arcadia". And Robert Harris did a much better job with Bletchley in "Enigma." So. Go for the good versions.

[CherieBiebie]

The first two plays left no particular impression, but the third one did.

The context: Second World War. Due to a shortage of manpower, women are joining the effort as secretaries, cooks, etc.

One note in the introduction preceding the play, an excerpt from a wireless broadcast that Ian McEwan found in the Imperial War Museum Library: "Henceforward, as our colossal war machinery gets underway, no skilled person is to do what can be done by an unskilled person, and no man is to do what can be done by a woman."

Women become vital in the fight and gain independance by getting wages. But still they do not hold a position of power.

'The Imitation Game' is a good read.I do have to say that if I had not read the introduction, I wouldn't have enjoyed the play that much.

The other two, meh. Skip them unless you want to read about a preserved penis in an old jar ('Solid Geometry').

[Stuart Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

One good TV drama and a couple of inconsequential curiosities. Fun yet slight.

[Anders Gustafsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually a couple of plays, one of which, "Solid Geometry" (my favourite) was banned/shelved by the BBC, just before going into production. Want to know why? Read it!

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the three plays in this collection, only the title piece is extraordinary. I'd give the others 2 stars. "The Imitation Game" is about Cathy Raine, hoping to do her bit in WWII despite society's assurance that she is a decorative non-entity. She becomes one of the hundreds of Bletchley Park women who, in complete ignorance of what she is really doing, endlessly records and transcribes the radio signals that feed the electronic "brains" that Alan Turing (here named "Turner") and other men are directing. By seducing Turner, Cathy manages to learn the truth, becoming "the woman who knows."

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but this particular story fascinated me. I especially enjoyed McEwan's introduction, which helped put the story in perspective. He writes, "I had come to think of Ultra as a microcosm, not only of the war but of a whole society. Peter Calvocoressi graphically described Ultra's organization on the 'need to know' basis as a set of concentric rings. The closer you moved to the centre, the more men you found; the further you moved to the periphery, the more women." The story illustrates the absurdity and consequences of such a structure.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three television plays are the early work of McEwan and for me, a fan of Ian McEwan, I found them really interesting to read, also the excellent introduction by the author himself, explaining how he came to write each play and the motivations behind the writing. Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration I thought was a little dated but I really enjoyed Solid Geometry and its time travel with a twist. My favourite was the title play which was like reading an early draft of the movie Enigma, one of my top ten movies.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel slightly handicapped reading screen plays. Okay, there is dialogue and there are notes about circumstances and expected attitude of the players. But the feeling missing the essential visuael aspects, makes it harder to fully enjoy the ‘material’.
Reading about Jack Flea was not a feast, it felt shallow.
Solid geometry has some originality, but that didn't 'unfold' satisfactorily.
The imitation game. This story had contence, meaning, depth and flow – fully recommended. On its own good for three stars. JM

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Three plays in the same style as his earlier short stories. Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration (forever the baby), Solid Geometry (the science of disappearing), ans The Imitation Game (codebreakers and women in the army).

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading these. Wish that I could see the finished films now.

[Tom Romig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting TV scripts. Because Ian McEwan's other work, especially the novels that came later, is so compelling, there's little point in spending time on these rather ho-hum efforts.