Losing Venice

by Jo Clifford

An epic fable set in the faraway Spanish Golden Age.

When a Duke from Spain embarks on a military adventure to save Venice and his reputation, the consequences are not what he expects...

Jo Clifford's play Losing Venice is a joyously original, witty take-down of dangerously daft machismo and the deranged behaviour of countries that have lost an empire and still not yet found a role.

Losing Venice was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1985. It was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in September 2018.

'A truly outstanding first stage play' - New Statesman

89 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Jo Clifford is one of the generation of Scottish playwrights who put the Traverse on the international theatrical map in the late 1980s with her Losing Venice, Lucy’s Play, Playing with Fire, Ines de Castro and Light in the Village. With her Great Expectations she became the first openly trans playwright to have a play running in London’s West End.

James McMillan wrote the music to transform her Ines de Castro into an opera (Scottish Opera/Edinburgh International Festival). Other work for the Edinburgh International Festival includes Schism in England (National Theatre of Great Britain), Anna (Traverse Theatre), Life is a Dream (The Lyceum, Edinburgh) and Celestina (Birmingham Rep).

Other translations and adaptations include Faust Parts 1 & 2 and Anna Karenina (both for The Lyceum, Edinburgh).

Other theatre works includes The Tree of Knowledge (Traverse Theatre), Every One (The Lyceum, Edinburgh / Chris Goode and Co.).