Book description
'Ladies and gentlemen, as some of you may know, my name is Edward Gant:
prodigy, soldier, traveller, poet - but always and ever a showman.' In
1881, the famed and enigmatic impresario Mr Edward Gant presented his
renowned travelling show for the final time. The opiate-addicted actor
manager showcased his troupe creating a spectacle of grotesquery, black
comedy, mystery and magic realism. Over a century later, playwright
Anthony Neilson has reconstructed this intriguing and fantastic
historical event in a theatrical piece that combines the melodrama and
extravagance with the painful loneliness that characterised a Victorian
freak show. Neilson's play offers a strange and beautiful exploration of
sadness and mortality, probing even the nature of theatre itself.
'Without further ado, I present for your astonishment the Extraordinary!
The Terrible! The AMAZING FEATS OF LONELINESS.' Edward Gant's Amazing
Feats of Loneliness was first produced at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, in
2002, and was revived by Headlong Theatre and the Nuffield Theatre,
Southampton, in February 2009. Anthony Neilson is an Artistic
Associate of National Theatre of Scotland and a creator of pioneering,
taboo-breaking new work. He writes and directs witty, bold and
compassionate plays that explore unchartered psychological territories.
