Dirty Hearts, written by Theatre503 award-winning Valhalla‘s Paul Murphy and billed as “an existential comedy for the age of anxiety”, gets its world premiere next month at London’s Old Red Lion Theatre, in a strictly limited season from 5 to 30 April 2022. Time to get booking!
When wealth manager, Ben asks art appraiser Julienne to authenticate a painting stored in the Geneva Freeport he sets off a chain of events that forces four friends to re-examine their relationships.
Best friends Simon and Laura know all about ethical duty. Laura has the Hippocratic Oath to keep things clear, and Simon has a career in conflict resolution. But when put to the test all four are forced to question who they really are.
Paul Murphy’s new play shows the difficulty of doing the right thing when faced with what Simone De Beauvoir calls the ‘ambiguity of existence’. It’s a darkly comic exploration of love, friendship, truth and morality.
Laura: It’s vanity to think you can save everyone.
Simon: And it’s defeatist to think you can help no one.
Tell the truth. Be a good person. Do the right thing. If only it was so easy…
Ben: We live in a system of contradictions, you can’t stand outside of it and reason a better world into existence.
Simon: And neither do you just accept history as nature. ‘This is the way things are, so this is the way things must be.’
Old Red Lion Theatre
A wholly independent production, Dirty Hearts is made possible by an investment in TESLA* Disclosures:
- This play makes no mention whatsoever of the following: Covid, Brexit, or Boris Johnson.
- Neither TESLA nor any of its subsidiaries is/has in any way contributed to or is affiliated with the production. We have received no money or endorsement directly from Tesla. They do make very nice cars though.
Dirty Hearts is written by Paul Murphy and directed by Rupert Hands for Pine Street Productions. The premiere production is designed by Sophia Pardon, with lighting by Hector Murray. Enrico Liou is assistant director and Lydia Holford is stage manager.
Paul Murphy commented:
“As a writer, when pitching a play you’re often asked ‘Why now?’ But what I was more interested in with Dirty Hearts was: ‘Why always?’ This isn’t a play ripped from the headlines, rather it’s a piece whose themes have been with us for over two thousand years.
“Love, friendship, trust, morality. All the topics that philosophers and artists have been grappling with from The Golden Age of Athens through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment are what I’m looking to explore. The great comedic potential when a person’s ethics come up against their desires.”
ONE WEEK LEFT! #Saintpatricksday is coming. For the chance to win a bottle of Jameson’s fine Irish whisky..
Book for Dirty Hearts @ORLTheatre before midnight on the 17th. #whisky #fringetheatre #offwestend
Dirty Hearts: An Existential comedy for the Age of Anxiety April 5th-30th pic.twitter.com/5j7IGyQJ7I— Pine Street Productions (@PineStTheatre) March 10, 2022
Director Rupert Hands added: “Dirty Hearts is brilliantly tight, very funny and ultimately a movingly human play. I can’t wait to start work on this piece that really excavates how we live with and hold each other to account. It’s a firecracker of a script that really has everything; we can’t wait to introduce it to an audience.”
Bios
Pine Street Productions
Paul Murphy (writer) is an award-winning playwright from the North West. His previous play Valhalla (Nick Hern Books) was the joint winner of the inaugural Theatre 503 Playwriting Award.
Rupert Hands’ (director) credits include Wendy & Peter Pan (co-directed with Jonathan Munby) at Leeds Playhouse, Blackbird (starring Sophie Melville) at The Other Room. Rupert is currently Associate Director for Jamie Lloyd Productions’ revival of Cyrano De Bergerac, starring James McAvoy, at the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre.
