Quartermaine's terms

by Simon Gray

'A masterly portrayal of an innocent.' Harold Pinter, from 'Directing Simon Gray's Plays', Simon Gray Plays 1'Superficially, it is a light comedy about a group of educated, often eccentric English characters in an academic backwater in the early sixties. But though the jokes are excellent, the piece cuts deep. There are Strindberg-like glimpses of wretchedly unhappy marriages and, as in Ibsen, a sense of chickens coming home to roost. But the primary impression here is of an English Chekhov. As in the plays of the Russian master, the characters talk a lot, but they rarely listen, still less understand, so they are often at cross-purposes. And like The Seagull, the long time scheme in Quartermaine's Terms - it spans several years - creates a poignant sense of transience and mortality.' Daily Telegraph'Gray's selection of details and exchanges is he achieves drama and mystery in mundane lives; the comedy is beautifully stated and even personal tragedies are underlined with running gags that ring with truthfulness. No false hothouse effect is necessary to make bare the bewilderment of spirit of his central figure, the grinning, forgetful and deeply kind staff lecturer, St John Quartermaine, an inarticulate character of awesome loneliness who rivals the tragic force of Willy Loman.' The Times 'A play that is at once full of doom and gloom and bristling with wry, even uproarious comedy. The mixture is so artfully balanced that we really don't know where the laughter ends and the tears the playwright is in full possession of the Chekhovian territory where the tragedies and absurdities of life become one and the same.' New York Times

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

79 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1981

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to 5 published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the worst play. Not my favorite either. I think I might enjoy the humor more if I saw it on the stage.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a play in which not much actually happens, it is a surprisingly engaging play with interesting characters. Usually this type of play would not hold my interest (and I sometimes have felt that way about Gray's writing), but in this instance I was wrapped up in it all.

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly diverting but does this play really need to exist?

[J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Saw this one in London with Rowan Atkinson. Acting was great, but it just didn't deliver as a piece.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Karen S · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars is probably not fair, maybe 2.5. Not bad, really, I just didn't LOVE it like I did Butley.