Humble Boy

Humble Boy

by Charlotte Jones (Author)

Synopsis

An award-winning new play that has been called "a brilliant latter-day variant on Elsinore in an English country garden blitzed by bees" (Sheridan Morley, "The Spectator")All is not well in the Humble hive. Thirty-five-year-old Felix Humble is a Cambridge astrophysicist in search of a unified field theory, but after the sudden death of his father, James, a teacher and amateur beekeeper, he is forced to return to the family home in the English countryside. Once there he and his demanding mother, Flora, a glamorous former showgirl who resents having spent the last thirty years in suburban exile, attempt to reconcile themselves to James's death and to each other, plumbing the depths of their anger as well as their love. The emotional turmoil increases exponentially with the arrival of George, Flora's longtime lover, and his daughter Rosie, Felix's former girlfriend, as Felix is forced to acknowledge that his search for unity must include his own chaotic home life. A play concerned with beekeeping and astrophysics, imbued with heartbreak and wit, larger questions of the universe and smaller questions of family dynamics, Humble Boy has been called "a feast: a serious, moving, cerebral feast" ("The Sunday Times").

$14.23

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 114
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 01 May 2003

ISBN 10: 0571212875
ISBN 13: 9780571212873
Book Overview: Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones - winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award 2001, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award 2002, and the People's Choice Best New Play Award 2002.

Media Reviews
The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy. -- John Peter, The Sunday Times

The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy. -John Peter, The Sunday Times

The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy. --John Peter, The Sunday Times

The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy. John Peter, The Sunday Times
The real thing. This is a marvellous play: harsh and forgiving; sad, very sad; funny, very, very funny; learned and intricate but light on its feet; a poem about people, bees, and the galaxy. --John Peter, The Sunday Times
Author Bio
Charlotte Jones's first play Airswimming premiered at the Battersea Arts Centre, London and was later broadcast on BBC Radio 4. In Flame premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 1999 and was revived at the New Ambassadors, London, in September 2000. Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis premiered at the Bolton Octagon in 1999 and transferred to the Liverpool Everyman in May of that year. It won the Manchester Evening News Best Play Award and the Pearson Television Best Play Award of 1999. Charlotte Jones won the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2000 for In Flame and Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. Humble Boy was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2001, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award, 2002, and the People's Choice Best New Play Award, 2002. The Dark premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2003, and in 2004 she wrote the book for the musical of The Woman in White (music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel), which ran in the West End and on Broadway. The Lightning Play was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London in 2006.