Cruising (NHB Modern Plays)

A hilarious, real-life comedy about pensioners going in search of love - from the sublime to the downright saucy.

Maureen is a pensioner in search of passion. After 33 blind dates, 12 cruises and one broken heart, she is still determined to find Mr Right. But when best friend Margaret beats her to the altar, Maureen has her doubts - is Margaret just on the rebound and, more importantly, will she lose her pension?

Cruising was first staged at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2006 in a co-production with Recorded Delivery, using an innovative verbatim-theatre technique. The technique consists of recording interviews with real people, editing them and replicating them on stage in all their uncanny verisimilitude. The result is both disconcertingly comic and profoundly moving, as all the individual peculiarities of the 'characters' are scrupulously reproduced.

Formed in 2003, Recorded Delivery's first show Come Out Eli won the Time Out Live Award for Best Production on the Fringe.

'a heart-warming piece of theatre' - Metro

'gloriously idiosyncratic dialogue, which even the most skilful writer would struggle to devise' - Time Out, Critics' Choice

'both shocking and uncomfortable ... [Blythe] has discovered theatrical gold' - Daily Telegraph

Auteur

In 2003 Alecky founded Recorded Delivery whose first production Come Out Eli premiered at the Arcola Theatre London and later transferred to the BAC (winner of the Time Out Award for Best Performance on the Fringe). The company went on to make All the Right People Come Here (New Wimbledon Theatre). Alecky has since created Strawberry Fields (The Courtyard Hereford); Cruising (Bush Theatre London); The Girlfriend Experience (Royal Court Theatre and Young Vic London); I Only Came Here for Six Months (KVS and Les Halles Brussels); and Do We Look Like Refugees?! a joint project for the National Theatre Studio and the Rustaveli Theatre Georgia (Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010; winner of Fringe First Award). Alecky was one of the writers on Decade (Headlong) and co-wrote Friday Night Sex with Michael Wynne (Royal Court). London Road with music composed by Adam Cork premiered at the Cottesloe auditorium of the National Theatre in 2011 (winner of Best Musical Critics' Circle Awards) and transferred to the Olivier auditorium in 2012. For television she has written A Man in a Box (IWC and Channel 4); The Riots: In Their Own Words (BBC2). For film she has adapted London Road into a feature (BBC Film BFI National Theatre).