Speed Death of the Radiant Child
I travelled to Plymouth to see Speed Death of the Radiant Child and it was completely worth it even if in the combined train travelling time and ticket prices I could have watched the play almost 4 times…
There will be more detailed thoughts later, but I wanted to record my sadness that this seems unlikely ever to make it to London and that so few people had the chance to see it.
In the macro, it seemed to me to be a kaleidoscope of life in all its noise and random/ intended interconnectedness of being and unbeing.
In its detail, it threads the information we radiate out with the data we receive in with the brilliant blazing children – like River Phoenix – and the lack of language to describe ______ the words needed to build the ground to walk on (what’s a condition or illness if you don’t have the terms or words for it?) and various types of death – blue skin – and water.
If that doesn’t quite make sense, it’s partially because it’s very hard to recreate the sense of theatre the work gives you, in words.
For me personally, I had images and sounds of these kids – radiant children themselves – jumping off an abandoned high dive platform into the Plymouth sea – splash boom – look towards the light house – look back – catch the sight of the stillness of the rock pool – interweaving with the heat and wet of the play; and on the train journey back: flash a pylon – radiant – sleep – wake – where’s the language to describe that?
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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