Losing Venice (NHB Modern Plays)

An epic fable set in the faraway Spanish Golden Age. When a Duke from Spain embarks on a military adventure to save Venice and his reputation, the consequences are not what he expects... Jo Clifford's play Losing Venice is a joyously original, witty take-down of dangerously daft machismo and the deranged behaviour of countries that have lost an empire and still not yet found a role. Losing Venice was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1985. It was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in September 2018. 'A truly outstanding first stage play' - New Statesman

Jo Clifford (formerly known as John Clifford) is an award-winning playwright, translator, poet and performer, who has also worked as a journalist and academic. She was instrumental in establishing the reputation of the Traverse Theatre Company in the 1980s. She is the author of about eighty plays, many of which have been performed all over the world. They include: Losing Venice, Every One, Faust and The Tree of Knowledge. Her adaptation of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations makes her the first openly transgendered woman playwright to have had a play on in London's West End.