Plays 1: Bluebird / Christmas / Herons / Port

by Simon Stephens

This first collection from the Pearson Award–winning playwright Simon Stephens brings together four of his earliest plays. Since Bluebird in 1998, Stephens has gained recognition for humane plays that display a sharp observation and compassionate response to the lives of ordinary people in urban locations.

Genres: Plays

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2005

Reviews

[Nicholas Rose]

This is for CHRISTMAS - only way to review it on here 😔

It’s fine….

[Alex]

I initially picked this out because I am doing a monologue from Bluebird for my LAMDA exam. Bluebird was very good, but I felt that it didn't really have a plot, it was more of a short story than a play, and even then it wasn't really a story. Even so, I enjoyed reading it because of its uniqueness. It is not often that you can read something from the perspective of a cab driver, and so it was interesting to see the conversations with the different 'fares' from a taxi driver's perspective, but then to also have the added tension of Jimmy trying and then succeeding to meet up with Clare meant that the play had some sort of drama, even if it didn't really stand out.
I particularly enjoyed the last scene, which was Jimmy's conversation with Clare, since I felt that there was lots of emotion and that was the most heightened scene out of all. I would have to see these in a theatre because when I imagine them I cannot really imagine them unfolding on stage in an engaging manner.

[Eli Campbell]

These plays would be difficult to watch onstage, but are really moving. They all kind of hover around the "violence begets violence" theme, while also taking a magnifying glass to the cruelty of small lives. My favorite was "Port."

[Seyed Mohammad Reza Mahdavi]

بلوبرد و دو نمایشنامه دیگر
ترجمه حمید دشتی
انتشارات روزنه
336 صفحه
شامل سه نمایشنامه بلوبرد،مرغ ماهی خوار و پورت

[Ronja (queer-is-the-universe)]

Bluebird just blew me away. The idea to write a play about a cap drive is just so funny. Even do the play made dark turns.

[Ian]

A great mix of initial plays, worth checking out.