Reykjavik

＂’For Those in Peril on the Sea’ makes dying at sea sound like something noble, patriotic. Whereas their husband, son or father has died for one half of a fish and chip supper...＂

February 1976. In freezing weather off the coast of Iceland, the sidewinder Graham Greene ices up, heels over, and sinks in seconds, taking fifteen of her crew with her. Such are the realities of the brutal world of
arctic fishing. On impulse, despised trawlerowner Donald Claxton flies to Reykjavik to see the survivors, setting in train an evening of drinking, horseplay, romance and storytelling that will change all their lives forever.

Richard Bean revisits Hull’s Distant Water trawling fleet that gave him his 2005 hit Under the Whaleback. His other plays include To Have and To Hold, Kiss Me and In the Club at Hampstead, One Man, Two Guvnors and Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre.

In 2011 Richard became the first playwright to win the Evening Standard Award for Best Play for two plays, The Heretic and One Man, Two Guvnors. The New York production of One Man, Two Guvnors was awarded the 2012 Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play. His recent credits include Kiss Me (Hampstead), The Nap (Sheffield Crucible), Great Britain (National Theatre), Made in Dagenham: The Musical (Adelphi Theatre) and Pitcairn (Chichester Minerva Theatre/Shakespeare’s Globe). Richard’s other work includes Under the Whaleback (Royal Court. George Devine Award 2002), The Heretic (The Royal Court. Evening Standard Best New Play 2011), Honeymoon Suite (Pearson Play of the Year), Harvest (Critic’s Circle Best New Play), The House of Games (from David Mamet’s film), a new version of Moliere’s The Hypochondriac, The Big Fellah (Out of Joint), England People Very Nice (National Theatre), The Mentalists (National Theatre), The English Game (Headlong), Up on Roof and Pub Quiz is Life (Hull Truck), In the Club (Hampstead), The God Botherers (Bush Theatre) and Mr England (Sheffield Crucible). His radio plays include Unsinkable, Robin Hood’s Revenge, Of Rats and Men.