Plays 52 - Closer by Patrick Marber

5. Closer - Patrick Marber

Closer is set in London in the mid-nineteen-nineties and the play takes place over several distinct time periods over the space of four and a half years. It follows the love lives of four people as their paths intertwine. The play is also an examination of how four different types of people play off against each other; Alice is a young woman from the town, Dan is an obituary writer from the suburbs, Anna is a photographer from the country and Larry is a doctor from the city. It is also an examination of how men and women relate to each other.

Alice and Dan become involved when she is struck down by a taxi and he escorts her to hospital. This first scene sets the parameters for their relationship throughout; Alice knows her own mind and is spontaneous, whereas Dan is quite evasive when talking about what he's doing and how he's feeling. A year and a half later, Dan later falls in love with a photographer, Anna, who is taking a photograph at the behest of the publishers of a book he has written, based on Alice's life. Alice overhears Dan and Anna, subsequently asking her to take her photograph.

Larry and Anna meet and become a couple as a result of his and Dan's conversation in an online sex chatroom. Dan pretends to be Anna and arranges to meet him the following day at the London Aquarium. All four characters are present at Anna's photography exhibition later that year, where Dan once again implores her to "jump" and be with him, which ultimately she does. Larry, in a later conversation with Anna, makes the observation that there is a deceptive quality to Alice, despite her apparent honesty. Sometime during the next year, Larry and Anna marry.

A year later, both couples undergo a cathartic separation, Larry and Anna's possibly more so, in a cleverly rendered split-scene where the stage space represents both couples' living rooms. Larry aggressively questions Anna about the nature of her sexual relationship with Dan, and there is a sense that this is what Larry needed in order to maintain control and not be hurt by Anna. Dan tells Alice about his relationship with Anna and she walks out on him, despite the fact that she still loves him. By chance, Larry later discovers Alice working as a stripper and she is evasive, hiding behind her stripper persona which is contrasted with Larry's blunt honesty. She does, however, reveal to Larry her real name; Jane Jones, but does so in a way that appears to be an attempt to own her 'real' identity whilst simultaneously protecting herself. Shortly after their meeting, Larry and Alice begin a predominantly consolatory sexual relationship.

In another split-scene, Dan and Anna's separation is shown alongside an earlier meeting between her and Larry. Anna agrees to have sex with Larry to ensure he will sign their divorce papers, yet her confession of this to Dan seals their fate. Dan later meets Larry in his surgery and finds out where Alice is working. The distinction between Dan and Larry is never more acute that this scene, where Dan is the "writer"; a man of words and Larry is the man of action; a man of the "real" world. Larry cannot bring himself to forgive Dan, despite getting back together with Anna and reveals his relationship with Alice.

Dan does indeed find Alice and a month later they are in a hotel room waiting for a flight to New York when Dan begins to quiz her about Larry. This results in their acrimonious separation, with Alice telling Dan that his declarations of love are just words and that she does not feel loved by him.

Six months later, Larry and Anna, who are no longer together, are at Postman's Park memorial, for people who have died saving the lives of others. It emerges that Alice has recently died in New York after being hit by a car. Larry points out that there is a memorial for a girl named Alice Ayres and "Alice" evidently took her name. Dan arrives at the park just as Larry is leaving and reveals that Alice's name was in fact Jane Jones.