Mood Music

by Joe Penhall

‘Music is medication. The elixir of life. It’s for injecting into the blood stream to take away the pain…to promote euphoria…to adrenalise us and give us courage and fortitude’ In a top London recording studio, Cat, a young songwriter, her producer Bernard, their lawyers and psychotherapists go to battle over who owns a hit song. Amidst a gathering storm of bitter complaints and brutal recriminations Cat and Bernard inflict a devastating toll on each other in a war that only one of them can win. ‘The music industry isn't about healing heartbreak and vulnerability. It's about selling it’ A sly, wry exploration of the dark side of the music industry by the multi-Olivier Award-winning writer of Sunny Afternoon and Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall. This edition was published alongside the world premiere at The Old Vic, London in April 2018, directed by Roger Michell.

88 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2018

Reviews

[Pauline Butcher Bird · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up reading this play half way through because I found it so boring. Perhaps I was biased because I had just finished reading Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, a riveting play that kept my attention with every word. Here, a man and a woman who've been in a relationship talk in two separate dialogues about who owns the rights to a song they have written together and produced together - or have they? Is this really the stuff of drama? I don't think so and would have no interest in seeing this on stage.
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