Harrogate - Al Smith

There's gossip going around that we're all like him. That we're all
paper thin, that it's all been painted over, and each one of us is gonna
sit down one day and not be able to stand up, like we've disappeared to
ourselves.Harrogate tells the story of a father
struggling to confront his obsessions head-on without destroying his
family. It is a play about how we perform versions of ourselves
depending on what company we keep, and how we project onto others
versions of the people we want to see, rather than accepting who stands
in front of us.The play is a triptych about obsession,
repression and lust. It received its world premiere on the 11 September
2015 as part of the HighTide Theatre Festival and this edition has been published for its subsequent production in October 2016.

Al Smith's theatre includes Enola (Underbelly, 2005), Radio (Soho / 59E59
NYC, 2006/7), The Astronaut Wives Club (Soho, 2006), The Bird
(Underbelly / Arcola, 2008), Gold & Popcorn and Black & White
(NYTRep, 2012), Harrogate (HighTide, 2015) and Diary of a Madman
(Gate/Traverse, 2016). He has been Pearson Playwright in Residence at
the
Finborough Theatre and a participant of the Paines Plough Future
Perfect
scheme.

Harrogate plays games with its audience, setting up and then
confounding our expectations ... Smith's writing is punchy, sometimes
bruising
Financial Times

[A] knife-like piece of writing
Stage on "Harrogate"

Smith's skill is in sidling up to a taboo and staying just the right side of it ... A slippery, unpinnable piece: a triptych full of uncanny echoes and reverb
Whatsonstage on "Harrogate"