AN

The Tristero theatre collective has a certain affinity for the work of the British playwright Martin Crimp. After Play With Repeats in 2005-06 and Face To The Wall in 2006-07, they are now staging their third play by this intriguing writer. In AN, they are presenting their own version of Attempts On Her Life. This 1997 play is generally considered to be Crimp’s masterpiece.

Attempts On Her Life comprises seventeen scenes, from very short to very long, monologues and dialogues, in each of which a woman called An is involved. But who is she? Each scene sends us in a different direction: this character seems to be able to assume a great many guises. She appears to have a ‘fluid’ identity: whenever we think we have a hold on her, she slips through our fingers. While building up a possible story, Crimp deconstructs his own building blocks before our very eyes and as a writer increasingly distances himself from his earlier ‘well-made plays’.

On this ‘confusing’ basis, Tristero as always creates an accessible, intelligent and humorous theatre experience with a bitter aftertaste.