Beautiful Thing (play)

Last updated
Beautiful Thing
Written by Jonathan Harvey
Date premiered1993
Genre Comedy
SettingCouncil estate, South London

Beautiful Thing is a 1993 British play written by Jonathan Harvey. A screen adaptation of the play was released in 1996 by Channel 4 Films, [1] with a revised screenplay also by Harvey.

Contents

Plot of the Screen Version

The story is set in Thamesmead, a working class area of South East London dominated by post-war council estates. [2] [3]

Jamie, a teen who is infatuated with his classmate, Ste, has to deal with his single mother Sandra, who is pre-occupied with ambitious plans to run her own pub and with an ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony, a neo-hippie. Sandra finds herself at odds with Leah, a sassy and rude neighbour who has been expelled from school, does several drugs, and constantly listens and sings along to her mother's Cass Elliot records. While Jamie's homosexuality remains concealed, his introvert nature and dislike of football are reason enough for his classmates to bully him at every opportunity.

Ste, who is living together with his drug-dealing brother and abusive, alcoholic father in the flat next door, is one night beaten by his father so badly that Sandra takes pity and lets him sleep over. In the absence of a third bed, Ste has to make do with sleeping 'top-to-toe' with Jamie. On the second night they share a bed: after a massage and a minor conversation, the boys soon change sleeping arrangements and Jamie kisses Ste for the first time.

The next morning, Ste panics and leaves before Jamie awakens, avoiding him for days. Jamie works up the nerve to steal a Gay Times from a newsagent, apparently starting to accept his sexuality and affection for Ste. Jamie finally spots Ste at a nearby party and confronts him; they prepare to leave together. The party ends badly, with Sandra taking vengeance on Leah for gossiping, who then threatens to 'spill the beans' about Ste and Jamie and confesses to having covered up for Ste in front of his father and brother. Ste reacts poorly, angrily rejecting Jamie and running away.

Slowly, Ste accepts Jamie's love and their relationship begins to develop as they visit a gay pub together. Sandra follows them and discovers their secret, and the story reaches its climax as a bad trip by Leah (on an unnamed drug) precipitates Sandra's breakup with Tony; the news of Sandra's new job comes out; and Sandra confronts Ste and Jamie. Sandra comes to accept her son's relationship.

The play ends with the two boys slow-dancing in the courtyard of their council flats to the Cass Elliot song "Dream a Little Dream of Me", while a guarding Sandra dances defiantly at their side with Leah as the local residents look on; some of them shocked, some of them enjoying the moment themselves.

Theatrical productions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras</span> LGBT pride event

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest LGBT festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania. It includes a variety of events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and Party, Bondi Beach Drag Races, Harbour Party, the academic discussion panel Queer Thinking, Mardi Gras Film Festival, as well as Fair Day, which attracts 70,000 people to Victoria Park, Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Taymor</span> American film and theatre director and writer (born 1952)

Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.

<i>But Im a Cheerleader</i> 1999 film by Jamie Babbit

But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Lucas</span> American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director

Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.

<i>The History Boys</i> Play by British playwright Alan Bennett

The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London's West End on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enda Markey</span> Irish-born Australian theatrical producer

Enda Markey is an Irish-born, Sydney-based, theatrical producer and former singer and actor. He is the producer of the stage productions Side by Side by Sondheim and the international tour of Boublil and Schonberg's Do You Hear The People Sing?, and the Australian revival of Willy Russell's Blood Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Korie</span> American librettist and lyricist

Michael Korie is an American librettist and lyricist whose writing for musical theater and opera includes the musicals Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven, and the operas Harvey Milk and The Grapes of Wrath. His works have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and internationally. His lyrics have been nominated for the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award. In 2016, Korie was awarded the Marc Blitzstein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Conigrave</span> Australian actor, activist and author

Tim Conigrave was an Australian actor, activist and author of the internationally acclaimed memoir, Holding the Man.

Theatre Rhinoceros, Theatre Rhino, or The Rhino is a gay and lesbian theatre in San Francisco. Theatre Rhinoceros claims to be the world's longest-running professional queer theatre company. It was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet and his late partner Allan B. Estes, Jr.. The name is based on the lavender rhinoceros, a symbol popularized by the Boston gay community in the mid-1970s. It is a non-profit theater company dedicated to the production of plays by and about gay and lesbian people.

Gerard McCarthy is an actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Oliver Lee is an English actor. He played the role of Josh Jones in the Channel 4 television drama series Hollyoaks: In the City, during 2006; and Aiden Scotcher in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road, during 2011. He was born in Greater Manchester, England. He is married to Sophie Rosa Lee and they have 3 children.

<i>Side by Side by Sondheim</i> Musical revue featuring the songs of Stephen Sondheim

Side by Side by Sondheim is a musical revue featuring the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Its title is derived from the song "Side by Side by Side" from Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Wilde</span> English playwright, screenwriter, actor and director

Patrick Wilde is an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director for television, film and theatre.

Richard Bruce Wherrett AM was an Australian stage director, whose career spanned 40 years. He is known for being the founding director of the Sydney Theatre Company in 1979.

Jonathan Paul Harvey is an English screenwriter, actor, playwright and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Ashley</span> Australian actor

Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret, and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seymour Centre</span> Performing arts centre at the University of Sydney

The Seymour Centre is a multi-purpose performing arts centre within the University of Sydney in the Australian city of Sydney. It is located on the corner of City Road and Cleveland Street in Chippendale, south-west of the city centre, in the City of Sydney local government area.

<i>Cloudburst</i> (2011 film) Canadian-American comedy-drama film

Cloudburst is a 2011 Canadian-American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald and starring Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. The film is an adaptation of Fitzgerald's 2010 play of the same name. Cloudburst premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia on September 16, 2011. It opened in a limited release in Canada on December 7, 2012.

<i>Beautiful Thing</i> (film) 1996 film by Hettie MacDonald

Beautiful Thing is a 1996 British romantic comedy film directed by Hettie MacDonald and released by Channel 4 Films. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Harvey based on his own original play of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Moss</span> British writer-director-composer

Lucy Amelia Nancy Moss is a British musical theatre composer, lyricist, playwright, writer, and director best known for co-creating the hit musical Six with Toby Marlow. As director of most Six productions, Moss became the youngest ever female director of a Broadway musical at 26.

References

  1. ↑ Derek Elley (10 March 1996). "Beautiful Thing". Variety. p. 77. Pic, which also unspools at this year's AFM, had buyers scrambling for their cell phones in the Berlin market and is rumored to be a contender for a spot in the sun at Cannes. Its world preem is set for March 28 in the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
  2. ↑ Benedict Nightingale (3 August 1993). "If only things were so simple". The Times. Into the Bush we go and what strikes our eager eyes? Concrete paving, grey stucco walls, drab doors with 368, 369 and 370 embossed on them, and, as a feeble protest against the gloom, a few flowerpots and plaster dwarfs. This is the third floor of a council estate in Thamesmead, and as unlikely a setting for a play called Beautiful Thing as Buckingham Palace's gardens would be for Les Miserables.
  3. ↑ "The council cries foul play". Evening Standard. 24 November 1994. p. 43. Jonathan Harvey's West End hit Beautiful Thing is 'sickening' – that's official – as far as Bexley Borough Council is concerned. Harvey's play, about gay love is, of course, set in Thamesmead, part of which falls under the council's aegis. You might think fame for the borough would fill the breast of Bexley Tory councillor Graham R Holland, but no. The Duke of York's Theatre last week received a very severe letter from him on the council's headed paper. It criticises the billing of Harvey's gay love story as a comedy, and says the Holland family were 'intimidated' by gays in the bar and that they found 'the sight of older men with young lads was sickening, if legal'. He goes on to complain about the play's 'sordid' language: 'It was gratuitous, foul and offensive and was neither relevant nor, with my experience of Thamesmead ... in any way typical of the young people with whom I am in contact.' The shocked family group left after 20 minutes.
  4. 1 2 Nightingale, Benedict (25 September 1994). "EUROPE: THE NEW SEASON; A City of Many Stages". The New York Times .
  5. ↑ Donmarwarehouse.com
  6. ↑ Instagram
  7. ↑ Willdowe.com
  8. ↑ Hughbonneville.uk
  9. ↑ "Sutco.co.uk". Archived from the original on 2017-05-26. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  10. ↑ "Beautiful Thing: Paris 2009 (French language)". Mac.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Current Season - Walterdale Playhouse: Edmonton 2009". Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  12. ↑ Oberlin College Theater & Dance Archived 2010-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ Oberlin's Beautiful Thing Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Facebook
  15. ↑ Swindonweb.com
  16. ↑ "Burleytheatre.com". Archived from the original on 2013-02-19. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
  17. ↑ Gooderham, Ryan (20 February 2017). "Poster: Beautiful Thing 2017". Facebook. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  18. ↑ "Information about Show: COSAS HERMOSAS: Ticket Center". tcpr.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-04-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.