The Knot of the Heart
10 Mar 2011Size: 198mm x 129mm£11.99
The Knot of the Heart
Paperback £11.99
A grippingly insightful play about a young woman whose social drug habit has got disastrously out of control.
Full of David Eldridge's trademark lyricism within everyday family life, The Knot of the Heart is a play where emotions are high and relationships are sensitively written.
Beautiful and privileged, Lucy is enjoying a burgeoning career in television. But her social drug habit has become a serious addiction, casting a dark shadow over her future happiness. As her charmed life begins to slip away, Lucy comes to realise that the devoted support of her family does not come without a price.
Ultimately hopeful and redemptive, The Knot of the Heart is atmospheric and poetic without undermining the all-too-believable characters' realism.
This play is published by Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
'There is no point in pretending this is an easy evening. David Eldridge’s superb new play is the most painful and persuasive account of addiction I have ever encountered.
There are scenes almost too distressing to watch, as we follow the harrowing progress of Lucy, an attractive, spoilt, middle-class 27-year-old just beginning to get a toehold on success as a children’s TV presenter. Her life collapses around her, however, after she is discovered smoking heroin in her dressing room and she is sacked from her job.
She seeks sanctuary with her indulgent, guilt-haunted mother in their comfortable Islington home, who in trying to do her best for her child actually does everything that’s worst, enabling Lucy’s escalating heroin habit while smothering her with an unconditional love which, far from being admirable, is manifestly unhealthy.
In a series of short, sharp scenes we watch Lucy’s decline over several years, as she trades sex for drugs, starts to inject, and winds up first in casualty, then in rehab.
It’s a challenging play, but exceptionally rewarding and illuminating and I especially recommend it to anyone with addiction problems in their family. There is real enlightenment on offer here, as well as tentative hope.' Rating: Five Stars
Charles Spencer - Telegraph10 Mar 2011Size: 198mm x 129mm£11.99
