Sketch: Nancy Carroll, Oliver Chris, Patrick Marber, Rachel Redford, Rufus Sewell in Closer

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Closer – Patrick Marber’s study about the brutality of modern relationships, gets its first major revival at London’s Donmar Warehouse and has already sold out.

When it premiered at the National Theatre in London in 1997 and the Music Box Theatre on Broadway in 1999, Closer won Olivier, Evening Standard and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and was nominated for a Tony for Best Play.

Directed by David Leveaux, it stars Rufus Sewell, Nancy Carroll, Oliver Chris and Rachel Redford as the quartet caught up in “an agonised sexual and emotional square dance,” according to The Telegraph.

The Donmar website sums the play as: “Dan rescues Alice. Anna photographs Dan. Larry meets Anna online. Alice rescues Larry. This is London at the end of the twentieth century, where lives collide and fates change in an instant.”

According to the Evening Standard, Marber writes perceptively about our obsession with appearances, the perils of honesty and the damage we can do to others in the name of love. Holly Williams in the Independent summarises it as “hook ups, fuck ups and break ups”.

The cast all signed my sketch after Saturday’s matinée, Closer runs until 24 April 2015

Drawing: Kristin Scott Thomas, Lia Williams and Rufus Sewell in Old Times

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Ian Rickson’s classy revival of Pinter’s cryptic play Old Times had a limited (Jan-April) engagement at the Harold Pinter theatre in London earlier this year. Locked away in a secluded farmhouse, Kate, Deeley and Anna reminisce about early days together in London. But, with conflicting memories and underlying sexual tensions, the past suddenly feels vividly present.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams alternated the role of Kate and Anna with Rufus Sewell playing Deeley. All three were happy to sign my sketch after a Saturday evening performance. In fact, Rufus even picked my New Zealand accent, and didn’t call me ‘Australian’ as is often the case