Sam Grabiner Archives - North West End UK

22Dec

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

Christmas Day – The Almeida

Sam Grabiner's 'Christmas Day' is a deft exploration of religion and family politics. Over a Chinese meal in a barely habitable warehouse guardianship, a Jewish family debate their sense of belonging within their faith, giving rise to deep rooted tensions within their respective relationships. From the off, the exposed brick wall of the Almeida and the cold warehouse setting chimed carefully with the budding theme of familial expectations. With a boxy heater hanging ominously overhead, tension literally began to swelter within the play's closed space, where characters gradually shed Evie Gurney's smart costumes. Steadily, the outside world permeated the somewhat isolated setting. Aided by the intrusive rumbling of the Northern Line and the pervasive glare of the Christmas tree, the audi...

Sniff – Park Theatre

Pissing on stage has never been more popular. From Travis Alabanza’s Overflow to Sam Grabiner’s Boys on the Verge of Tears plays set in bathrooms proliferate. It seems all the best new writing owes its inspiration to some form of cubicle poetry. Poetry this play is. Lewd, brash, and at times nauseating poetry it may be but it is poetry and a very powerful sort at that. With spectacular writing and performances by Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson & Felix Grainger under Ben Purkiss’s deft direction the chemistry between Liam (Fogarty-Graveson) and Alex (Grainger), two men who meet in a pub toilet, genuinely sizzles. Fogarty Graveson is especially undeniable as Liam, a character so intensely charming and menacing that he is somehow impossible not to root for even as he gets up to nothing but b...

Boys on the Verge of Tears – Soho Theatre

As a society, the debate around toxic masculinity continues to rage and curdle. The emergence of male social media influencers with unhinged and criminal intentions towards women runs in tandem with alarmingly low conviction rates for men who sexually assault women. Just 2 in 100 rapes recorded by police between Oct' 2022 and Sep' 2023 resulted in someone being charged that same year. Let alone convicted. Into this worrying manosphere drops Boys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner. It offers no solutions, but by opening a a window onto the brutal evolution of boys to men, it certainly shows why we keep ending up here. Boys on the Verge of Tears was selected from 1,500 entries to the Verity Bargate Award, which is sponsored by Character 7, producers of The Night Manager and Culprits. I...