Penhall's 1994 play Some Voices was described as 'the most thrilling playwriting debut in years' by the Sunday Times. He has consistently lived up to and exceeded that early promise as the plays in this second volume of his work testify. Characterised by a taut mood, a grappling with moral dilemmas, and tough, eloquent dialogue, punctuated by outrageously comic moments, the plays in this volume are:
Blue/Orange: An incendiary tale of race, madness and power set in a psychiatric hospital. 'Britain's best new play since Michael Frayn's Copenhagen . . . thrillingly original' Financial Times
Dumb Show sees TV star Barry caught in a tense game of manipulation and entrapment in this satire on the fame game and the media industry: 'Penhall brings the same sharpness and wit to Dumb Show that he did to his hugely successful Blue/Orange' The Times
Wild Turkey (1993): a characteristically taut work about the acrimonious relationships of people in a late-night burger bar.
'More than any of his peers Penhall has shown a rare aptitude for confronting headline issues of the day, using his gift of the gab as a dramatist to interrogate their underlying complexities and contradictions' Daily Telegraph
Joe Penhall
