Rotterdam

Jon Brittain is a playwright, comedy writer and director. His play Rotterdam won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre and was nominated for the Evening Standard’s Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright. His other plays include the Fringe First Award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) and the critically acclaimed musical adaptation of David Walliams’ children’s book Billionaire Boy. He co-wrote and directed the cult hit Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho and its sequel Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows. He has directed all of John Kearns’ stand-up shows including the Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning Sight Gags for Perverts and Shtick. He has also directed shows for Tom Allen, Tom Rosenthal and Mat Ewins. Most recently he directed the world premiere of Richard Gadd’s Fringe First Award-winning play Baby Reindeer. For television he has worked as a staff writer for Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball and Netflix’s The Crown. Stephen Farrier is Reader in Theatre and Performance, at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. With Alyson Campbell has co-edited Queer Dramaturgies: International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer (2015) as well as a themed edition of RIDE, The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance named the ‘Gender and Sexuality Issue’.

The introduction and commentary to the play will cover:

Introduction to Author's Life and Work
Contexts: historical, political and social (focusing on sexuality and gender, and including terminology)
Themes: identity, intergenerational relationships, secrets and truth-telling, friendship
Dramaturgy and Genre
Production History and Reception
Scene-by-Scene Summary
Play-text

Further Reading