Anatomy of a Suicide

Alice Birch's previous work at the Royal Court includes Peckham: The Soap Opera and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (RSC). Other credits include: We Want You To Watch (National), The Lone Pine Club (Pentabus), Little Light (Orange Tree), Little on the Inside (Almeida / Clean Break), Salt (Comedie de Valence), Many Moons (Theatre 503), Flying the Nest (BBC Radio 4) and Lady Macbeth (BBC Films / BFI / Creative England). Alice was the co-winner of the 2014 George Devine Award for Revolt. She said. Revolt Again and winner of the Arts Foundation Award for Playwriting 2014.

What determines our character? Nature or nurture? Genetic inheritance or social environment? It is an age-old debate, and Alice Birch now adds to it with this startling theatrical triptych about three generations of mothers and daughters... Birch’s progress as a writer has been fascinating to watch... On the evidence so far, I would say Birch has a gift for radical experiment in the style of Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane. In her new play we are confronted by three women, Carol, Anna and Bonnie, who we learn are mother, daughter and granddaughter. They exist in three different time zones but the story of their lives is told simultaneously. As Birch herself says, the text has been scored and can be read, or viewed, horizontally... I can, in fact, think of few exact parallels to this play.