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Out of Joint, in a co-production with the Hampstead Theatre, present

The Positive Hour
by April De Angelis

Director Max Stafford-Clark

Designer Julian McGowan

Lighting Johanna Town

Sound Scott Myers

Original cast: Kate Ashfield, Julia Lane, Margot Leicester, Patti Love, David Sibley, Robin Soans, Holly Searson or Kitty Stafford-Clark

World Premiere: 27 February 1997, Hampstead Theatre, London

Miranda is a social worker, with no shortage of problems herself. Her best friend, Emma, is a failed artist in the throes of a mid-life crisis; her partner, Roger, is a frustrated academic, desperately trying to finish his book on Hegel. Personal problems are exacerbated by work and, especially, Miranda’s relationship with Paula, an unemployed single mother who takes up prostitution to survive.

Witty and astute, The Positive Hour teasingly questions the place of liberal values in a world of post-New Man, anonymous sex and the crumbling nuclear family.

‘funny, sharp and surprising…what is beyond doubt is the excellence of the acting…and the continuing unexpectedness of the script’s humour’
The Independent

‘one of the best plays I’ve seen in ages…very funny, very subtle and very intelligent’
BBC Radio 4

‘a marvelous, warm, angry play…edgy, pugnacious and bitterly funny’
Sunday Times

‘a social comedy that hits the bullseye’
The Guardian