Pity

Two bombs in one day is a foul coincidence Don’t forget the lightning strike A normal day. A person stands in the market square watching the world go by. What happens next verges on the ridiculous. There’s ice cream. Sunshine. Shops. Some dogs. A wedding. Bombs. Candles. Blood. Lightning. Sandwiches. Snipers. Looting. Gunshots. Babies. Actors. Azaleas. Famine. Fountains. Statues. Atrocities. And tanks. (Probably). Rory Mullarkey’s new play asks whether things really are getting worse. And if we care.

Rory Mullarkey's original plays include Pity, The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court Theatre), Saint George and the Dragon (Royal National Theatre), Each Slow Dusk (Pentabus Theatre/UK Tour), Cannibals, Single Sex (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Grandfathers (National Theatre Connections, then Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre) and On the Threshing Floor (Heat & Light Company, Hampstead Theatre). His adaptations/translations include The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Bristol Old Vic/Manchester Royal Exchange), The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Shakespeare's Globe) and Remembrance Day by Aleksey Scherbak (Royal Court). He has written the libretti for The Skating Rink by David Sawer (Garsington Opera), Coraline by Mark-Anthony Turnage (Royal Opera House) and The Way Back Home by Joanna Lee (ENO/Young Vic). He has won the Abraham Woursell Prize (co-winner 2017), the James Tait Black Prize for Drama (2014), the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (co-winner, 2014), the Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court (2014) and the Pearson Bursary for the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2011).