The Man (Graham)
by James Graham

The Man (Graham) Book Cover — The Man (Graham) Cover

Highlights

Present Day Bare Stage/Simple Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes Comedy

Synopsis

Graham presents an affectionate and funny portrait of a year in the life of one nervous self-employed man, pieced together from receipts, shopping and commercial transactions.

With a web of narratives, the play’s structure is innovative and flexible; in performance, each receipt triggers a unique story as the actor plucks the receipts from the audience’s hands at random.

Ben has been dreading his self-assessment form, with every transaction evoking the good times and the bad – memories of things gone wrong, gone right, journeys taken, relationships that have begun and ended.

Prompted by frequent calls to the Inland Revenue helpline, Ben relives the humiliations, successes and tragedies of the last twelve months, stitching together his memories of the Tax Year 2009/2010 from tiny scraps of paper.

Press Reviews

"In this sophisticated and innovative new play, tax really isn’t all that taxing."
— WhatsOnStage

"★★★★ “What would a year’s worth of receipts, the kind of bundle you’d need to complete a self-employed tax-return, say about your life, if you were to pile them up and sift them all through?… That’s the beautifully simple idea at the heart of James Graham’s ingenious, touching and wryly intelligent new play"
— The Daily Telegraph

"★★★★ “Highly original… [a] picture of a nervous but likable individual coping with the populated solitude of city life."
— The Guardian

"★★★★ “Perhaps what’s most impressive, though, is the way that Graham takes an arid, theatically unpromising activity and finds in it scope to unpack all kinds of youthful confusions, dashed hopes, shrewd insights and mixed feelings. What has he to declare? Talent – tons of it."
— The Daily Telegraph