Abstract/Summary

This paper will focus on Martin Crimp's Cruel and Tender, first performed at the Young Vic in the spring of 2004. The play is representative of Crimp's tendency to explore the fields of the private and the public in equal degrees, navigating both territories in the same text. It is, perhaps, features such as this that have triggered comparisons between Crimp and Pinter and it is true that, like Pinter, Crimp is a master of language and subterranean action. In this paper, I will argue that Crimp is equally effective in depicting private and public conflicts and I will demonstrate this by exploring the techniques which he employs in order to communicate the characters' tension and aggression, concluding that his subtle methods are highly effective. In terms of theory I will focus on Stanton Garner's Bodied Spaces, a phenomenological approach to performance. In doing so my purpose is mainly to indicate the value of phenomenology as a theoretical approach to Crimp's theatre for which Cruel and Tender will serve as an example.