Simon Gray: Four Plays

Simon Gray's plays are frequently described as hilarious, witty, coruscating, mordant, droll, intelligent and sophisticated and the four plays included in this volume are, all of these things and more. The Pig Trade, a new play, set in 1937 where, under the menacing shadow of Mussolini, a famous art historian and a notorious art dealer have an explosive final encounter. In the Vale of Health and Japes are companion plays, where the love of two brothers for one woman both highlights and obscures their dependency on each other. The Holy Terror, grew out of Melon, the story of a publisher's nervous breakdown, and has the same central character. It was then produced on Radio 3 in 1989 and staged in the USA in 1991. The Holy Terror received its British premier in 2002.