Awkward flirting, 4am breakdowns and a last kiss: David Eldridge on a decade of writing about love

Beginning, Middle and End form a trilogy charting the ups and downs of different relationships. Audiences have taken them to their heart – one couple saw the first play on a date, got married and had its title engraved on their ringsIt’s October 2017 and I’m sitting at the National Theatre, notebook open and pen poised, waiting for the third preview of my play Beginning to begin. The first previews had flown and I felt relaxed, enjoying the preshow music and its house party vibes. But instead of the play’s two characters, Laura and Danny, awkwardly flirting in her north London flat, I found myself imagining a couple 10 years older, in a big house in Essex. A relationship at breaking point. Middle. Fuck, I thought, and pushed the thought away as the show started.Eight years on and the final play of my trilogy, End, is in rehearsal at the National Theatre, with Saskia Reeves and Clive Owen playing a couple knocking 60. The three plays aren’t linked narratively as I wanted audiences to be able to experience them as individual works. Beginning tells the story of a couple on the edge of 40 who have just met and the 100 minutes it takes them to kiss. Middle is the story of a late fortysomething couple whose marriage hangs in the balance at 4am. In End, Alfie and Julie must decide how to live the end of their relationship. You don’t have to have seen Beginning or Middle to appreciate or enjoy End, but the collection of plays make a whole and explore my preoccupations from differing perspectives. Continue reading...

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