Beautiful Thing - Softcover

Harvey, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822217171 ISBN 13: 9780822217176

Publisher: Dramatist's Play Service, 2000

Synopsis

parts for 3 men and 2 women. Jamie and Ste (short for Steve) are teenage neighbors in a working-class housing project in London. Jamie is bookish and shy while Ste is more athletic. Neither one has an ideal home life: Jamie's mother Sandra is bitter over her financial situation and her romantic life, but she's willing to settle for a bloke named Tony and cover up her disappointment with scathing humor; Ste's father and brother abuse him in the form of escalating domestic squabbles and actual beatings. After one such fight, Ste asks Sandra if he can stay at her house and she lets him and Jamie bunk together. As their friendship grows, Jamie begins to realize he has stronger feelings for Ste, and one night, after Ste suffers a particularly bad beating, the two boys decide to experiment together. Both realizing they're gay, Ste and Jamie begin a tentative relationship. Soon, Sandra hears the rumor that her son's gay, and knowing that he's been having trouble in school, she confronts him and he admits the truth. Ste and Jamie's friend, Leah, is also in on the secret and she's supportive of them, probably because of her own outsider status as a Mama Cass worshipper. The play ends with the two boys feeling less alone in the world than before; they have each other, and even the bickering Sandra and Leah call a truce and accompany the boys in a slow dance for all their neighbors to see.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Harvey is an award-winning playwright, whose plays include: The Cherry Blossom Tree (Liverpool Playhouse Studio) which won him the 1987 National Girobank Young Writer of the Year Award; Wildfire (Royal Court Theatre); Beautiful Thing (Bush Theatre, London and Donmar Warehouse/Duke of York's Theatre), winner of the John Whiting Award 1994; Babies (Royal National Theatre Studio/Royal Court Theatre), winner George Devine Award 1993 and Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award 1994; Boom Bang-A-Bang (Bush Theatre); Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (English Touring Theatre/Contact Theatre Company, Donmar Warehouse/Criterion Theatre); Swan Song (Pleasance/Hampstead Theatre); Guiding Star (Liverpool Everyman/National Theatre); Hushabye Mountain (English Touring Theatre/Hampstead) and Out in the Open (Hampstead Theatre/Birmingham Rep). Television and film work includes: West End Girls (Carlton); Love Junkie (BBC); Beautiful Thing (Channel Four/Island World Productions); Gimme Gimme Gimme (BBC).

Edition details

• Publisher: Dramatist's Play Service
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0822217171
• ISBN 13: 9780822217176
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 72