Comment is Free & Start Swimming (NHB Modern Plays): Two Plays

By James Fritz

Two plays by award-winning writer James Fritz, each asking urgent, pointed and complex questions of the times we live in.
Ideal for schools, youth theatres and amateur companies to perform, these versatile and incisive plays demonstrate an innovative playwright at the top of his craft.
In Comment Is Free, a journalist forms the centre of a devastating media storm. After being staged by Old Vic New Voices in 2015, the version published here was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016, winning both the Tinniswood and Imison Awards for Audio Drama.
Start Swimming is a play about occupation, revolution and what the future holds for today's youth. One step away from disaster, there's only one thing left to do: start swimming. First staged by the Young Vic Taking Part department, Start Swimming was also performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017.
'both a caustic critique of contemporary society's treatment of young people and an exploration of the role of language in the perpetuation and justification of the practices under critique' - Exeunt Magazine on Start Swimming
'theatrical and fun... radiates a puckishness and sense of mischief that mocks control systems even as it articulates their bleakness' - Time Out on Start Swimming
'raw and vivid... a powerful indictment of the situation in which many people find themselves' - Scotsman on Start Swimming
'a brilliant piece... It took my breath away' - Telegraph on Comment is Free

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Nov 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780019796

James Fritz

James Fritz is a playwright whose work includes: The Flea (Yard Theatre, London, 2023);Lava (Nottingham Playhouse/Fifth Word, 2018; revived 2022);Parliament Square (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and Bush Theatre, London, 2017);Start Swimming (Young Vic Taking Part, Edinburgh Fringe, 2017);The Fall (National Youth Theatre at the Finborough Theatre, London, 2016);Comment is Free (Old Vic New Voices, 2015; BBC Radio 4, 2016; winner of the Imison and Tinniswood Awards for audio drama, 2017);Ross & Rachel (MOTOR at Assembly George Square, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2015; 59E59 Theaters, New York);Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Hampstead Theatre, 2014; Most Promising Playwright, Critics' Circle Awards);Lines (Rosemary Branch Theatre, 2011).

Book preview

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