Closer is the second play written by Patrick Marber. Set in contemporary London, it tells the story of four people in the "body business"^[1] — Dan the097898y 9uyhiy.165460464954654987g fhrd6gh4d90t87y460457 764986797yf6ty4dty 0 t4d r3ty 4rd t 4drt3y dty4 d6t5t680dry854 9774e7 e4fd 3h4fdh, and ... not for the emotionally squeamish", a work in which "Marber is alert to the cruel inequalities of love, as the characters change partners in what sometimes comes over like a modern reworking of Coward’s Private Lives"^[2]. Patrick Marber (born 19 September 1964) is an English playwright, director, actor and Academy Award nominated screenwriter. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Private Lives is a play written by Noel Coward in 1930. ...

Marber described the play's "construction" in an October 1999 interview:

The idea was always to uyf uyg8obgutgjvh8o7iyh8776235467890-biu 5r8yhngt jyhgjhf ufyu vuyt76It received its Paris premiere on December 22, 1998 at the Theatre Fontaine, in a production based on a French translation by Pierre Laville and directed by Patrice Kerbrat^[3]. The production starred Anne Brochet as Alice, Caroline Sihol as Anna, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey as Larry and Gad Elmaleh as Dan^[3].

The play premiered on Broadway on March 9, 1998 at the Music Box Theatre. On Broadway, Anna Friel, Rupert Graves, and Natasha Richardson joined Ciaran Hinds (from the London cast). Closer ran for 172 performances on Broadway during 1999, with Polly Draper replacing Richardson starting June 15^[4]. Closer won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 1999^[5]. December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Gad Elmaleh (born April 19, 1971, Casablanca, Morocco) is a Moroccan Jewish one man show humorist and actor who lives in France. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theatre. ... Anna Friel (born 12 July 1976) is a popular English actress born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. ... Rupert Graves (born 30 June 1963) is an English actor. ... Natasha Jane Richardson (born May 11, 1963 in London), is a Tony Award-winning English actress and member of the Redgrave family, an enduring theatrical dynasty. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Polly Draper (born June 15, 1956 in Palo Alto, California) is an American actress. ... June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... The New York Drama Critics Circle is comprised of nineteen drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. ... A Tony Award for Best Play has been awarded since 1947. ...

Early productions of Closer on the West Coast of the United States include one featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal as Alice in a Berkeley Repertory production in May 2000 (directed by Wilson Milam)^[6], and another also featuring Gyllenhaal opposite Rebecca De Mornay as Anna in a Mark Taper Forum production in December 2000, directed by Robert Egan^[7]. Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Maggie Ruth Gyllenhaal (born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. ... Wilson Milam. ... in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Rebecca De Mornay (born Rebecca J. Pearch on August 29, 1959) is an American actress. ... The Mark Taper Forum is a small (<1000 seats) theater-in-the-round (thrust stage) at the Los Angeles Music Center. ...

As of 2001^[8], the play has been produced in more than a hundred cities in over thirty different languages around the world. 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Trivia

• During a 2004 interview Marber commented on the audience's early reactions to a scene from the play where two of the actors interact via a cybersex chat room:

It's lovely on the stage. We had an enormous screen that would lower down with the two actors on either side so you saw them typing and the words would just appear on the screen. When the play premiered in May 1997 in London, at least half the audience didn't know what that scene was. You can trace the rise of the Internet really from that night. May '97, I would watch the audience and I could just tell that the majority, in fact, had no idea what they were watching. Whereas the younger people in the audience absolutely knew, oh my God they're in a chat room. We've never seen this done before. It hadn't been done on stage or in film before and it felt very new and very strange and radical and it played to complete silence, shocked awe. It was at the National Theatre in London which is a respectable, subsidized theater and people were amazed. And it wasn't until the critics came a week after previews had started and said there's this really funny Internet scene that people started laughing^[9].

Cybersex, computer sex or net sex is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more persons connected remotely via a computer network send one another sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Online chat. ... Originally intended to share data between a few universities and government agencies, the Internet today allows connectivity from anywhere on earth and beyond—even ships at sea and in outer space. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.albemarle-london.com/closer2.html (quoting a review in The Times)
2. ^ k lkjg tufsdyhjf 8i77g pi9ugkhttp://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=2634
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.playbill.com/news/article/42658.html
4. ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/45815.html
5. ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/45894.html
6. ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/52896.html
7. ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/57285.html
8. ^ http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth255
9. ^

The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ...

External links

• Closer at The Internet Broadway Database