Faces in the Crowd by Leo Butler

Leo Butler

Leo Butler is a British playwright. He graduated from the Royal Court's young writers' scheme. He is active since 2000, when he was described as one of the "Great British Hopes". His plays have been staged, among others, by the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National...

 was first performed at the Royal Court

Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

 theatre in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 2008. The original cast had Amanda Drew

Amanda Drew

Amanda Drew is a British actress. Drew is best known for her role as the psychotic Dr. May Wright in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Biography:...

 and Con O'Neill

Con O'Neill (actor)

Robert "Con" O'Neill is a British actor. He began his acting career at Liverpool's Everyman Youth Theatre....

 directed by Clare Lizzimore. Its been called a 'credit-crunch generation Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider...

'.

It was one of the first pieces of theatre to examine the credit crunch

Credit crunch

A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...

 and focused on an estranged husband and wife. The original performance was particularly notable for the staging where the play was performed in the round and the audience sat above the flat in which the play was set and looked down on the action.

Overview

Dave and Joanna were married but he left their Sheffield flat under too much pressure. The action starts 10 years later when Joanna comes to visit him wanting a baby, they fight and argue viciously and sleep together as secrets come out about their past.

Reviews

On the whole the play was reviewed to be good and well acted however its political and economic dimension a little forced. The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 reviewed it mainly positively but finished with

It reaches its height in the final 20 minutes, when Dave and Joanne stop beating the hell out of each other and start spouting social-history textbooks - with Dave telling us he's unhappy because of Maggie Thatcher and the cult of individualism, and Joanne announcing that she's miserable because feminism is a con. I just didn't buy it.The Guardian

Some did give the play simply good reviews.
The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

said...

Talk about bang on the money. Leo Butler's outstanding new play - his best yet - catches the mood of the moment in its raw and devastating account of a couple who got swept along on a tide of easy credit, only to end up dashed against a northern rock of debt. Daily Telegraph