What do you think?
Rate this book
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky
On a farm in the North East of England a family gathers. Five brothers and four generations feature in an epic play about hope, love, fear and the very end of time.
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky is a refreshingly subtle and compassionate vision of the world on the edge of apocalypse. Within a cosmological context, the focus is on a single family, their relations with each other and their unreconciled regrets, soon to become permanent. With an ensemble of strong, engaging characters, there are knotty, realistic family dynamics and a palimpsest of recent family history. The characters and dialogue are naturalistic but the serious themes are elucidated and alleviated with humour and quirky, surreal touches.
The play represents a unique collboration between three of the UK's pre-eminent stage writers. The ambition of the partnership is matched by the ambition of the play's sweeping scope. Whilst the three voices collide, they also ring out individually without sacrificing the piece's coherent wholeness, and the play represents a rare, fascinating study in stage collaboration.
A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky is a refreshingly subtle and compassionate vision of the world on the edge of apocalypse. Within a cosmological context, the focus is on a single family, their relations with each other and their unreconciled regrets, soon to become permanent. With an ensemble of strong, engaging characters, there are knotty, realistic family dynamics and a palimpsest of recent family history. The characters and dialogue are naturalistic but the serious themes are elucidated and alleviated with humour and quirky, surreal touches.
The play represents a unique collboration between three of the UK's pre-eminent stage writers. The ambition of the partnership is matched by the ambition of the play's sweeping scope. Whilst the three voices collide, they also ring out individually without sacrificing the piece's coherent wholeness, and the play represents a rare, fascinating study in stage collaboration.
- GenresPlays
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 7, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 30, 2018
fuck this was so good!
May 14, 2016
It's the end of the world as we know it ... and the Benton family is decidedly NOT feeling fine. As a cosmic event spells the end of life on earth, five brothers gather with their mother and assorted other family members at the old family pig farm to rehash old wounds and attempt closure. Three of the UK's most innovative playwrights collaborate on this odd, yet compelling, piece of theatre, a bit reminiscent of 'August: Osage County'. Some of it seems impossible to stage (the sudden resurrection of a flock of dead birds, the ending titular cataclysm), but I'd really love to see the attempt.
October 30, 2020
A very, very slow play. I don't usually do this, but I actually put it down after 60 pages (more than halfway) and decided that because nothing had happened I couldn't be bothered to finish it. There were some beautiful lyrical lines of dialogue, hence a generous extra star, but certainly not what I would have expected from Simon Stephens and David Eldridge collaborating. What a disappointment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews