The Editing Process

by Meredith Oakes

Set in the offices of a magazine publishers, Meredith Oakes' comedy of fragile values in the media will not restore your faith in human nature, but it is guaranteed to help you get on in publishing without really succeeding. First performed at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Stephen Daldry.

64 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nick Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels like a sitcom. A very jolly and often amusing sitcom, but a sitcom nonetheless. I wonder if I had seen it at the Royal Court back in the early 1990s whether I would have had a good time but felt as though I had been short changed: after all, if I had wanted to see a sitcom I could have switched on the TV rather than trundling down to the theatre. It often feels as though the scenes are designed around the easy laughs: the characters are manoeuvred into situations where they can deliver their amusing lines...that’s why it feels like a sitcom. I suppose it is a satire on the new work environment, old staff being shed as part of cost cutting exercises while small fortunes are paid out to for a company rebranding – and such like stuff. It isn’t, however, nostalgic or sentimental about the old times: the old timers are as horrific as the new breed. That’s about it.