Keeping Plays Secret: Spoiler Alert
Two plays in London by high-profile dramatists — Joe Penhall’s “Birthday” and Alan Bennett‘s “People” — have tried to keep their plots secret. But theatre is too collaborative a business for that to have lasted long. The former, opening next week at the Royal Court, was breached when the lead actor, Stephen Mangan (pictured), gave a newspaper interview, which proved impossible to conduct without addressing the conceit of the play. In “Birthday,” Mangan plays a man who, following surgical and hormonal treatment, is able to give birth to a child. The plot of Bennett’s “People” isn’t widely known yet (the show opens later this year) but it will be, my people, it will be.
