Richard Bean: Plays Five

By Richard Bean

“You’re an octopus. All mixed up, like me. One leg something, and one leg something else.”

As far as Sarah, Sara and Scheherazade are concerned, they have nothing in common. And yet they’ve all been called in for an interview to determine how British they are: a new requirement for those with ‘non-indigenous heritage’.

Sara looks kind of Asian. Scheherazade looks kind of Middle Eastern. And Sarah is kind of white and has no idea why she’s here. She also keeps bursting into song. But by the end of the play it becomes clear that the three women are all what Scheherazade thinks of as ‘octopuses’ — mixed race and mixed up with it. And maybe that’s true of Britishness too.

Octopus takes a satirical look at what it means to be British, how it feels to be treated as a foreigner in your own land, and the power of punk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Release date: May 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786821942

Richard Bean

In 2011 Richard Bean became the first playwright to win the Evening Standard Award for Best Play for two plays, The Heretic and One Man, Two Guvnors. The New York production of One Man, Two Guvnors was awarded the 2012 Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play. His recent credits include Kiss Me (Hampstead), The Nap (Sheffield Crucible), Great Britain (National Theatre), Made in Dagenham: The Musical (Adelphi Theatre) and Pitcairn (Chichester Minerva Theatre/Shakespeare’s Globe). Richard’s other work includes Under the Whaleback (Royal Court. George Devine Award 2002), The Heretic (The Royal Court. Evening Standard Best New Play 2011), Honeymoon Suite (Pearson Play of the Year), Harvest (Critic’s Circle Best New Play), The House of Games (from David Mamet’s film), a new version of Moliere’s The Hypochondriac, The Big Fellah (Out of Joint), England People Very Nice (National Theatre), The Mentalists (National Theatre), The English Game (Headlong), Up on Roof and Pub Quiz is Life (Hull Truck), In the Club (Hampstead), The God Botherers (Bush Theatre) and Mr England (Sheffield Crucible). His radio plays include Unsinkable, Robin Hood’s Revenge, Of Rats and Men.

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[Sean · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is "Octopus" by Afsaneh Gray, not "Richard Bean: 5 Plays"