The Arches, Glasgow Neil Cooper 3 stars There are few things more pervasive in this gadget-obsessed society than the ringing of a mobile telephone. The mere possibility of some life-changing call is so great, it seems, that staying in touch at all times is crucial. Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Sarah Ruhl makes this abundantly clear in her increasingly absurd study of just how desperate making a connection can be. It starts inconsequentially enough, with a man and a woman sat at separate tables in a quiet little diner. If the possibility of flirtation is there then no-one's saying much about it. Only when the man's phone rings in earnest is the woman, Jean, prompted into an action that steers her on a picaresque adventure involving grieving mothers, wronged mistresses and loving brothers, not to mention the proposed sale of a kidney in a South African airport. Ruhl's play may only have been written in 2006, but so far has technology come in terms
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.