Sweet Nothings

A young man has an affair with a married woman. He is terrified her husband will challenge him to a duel and kill him. Meanwhile he toys with the affections of another and, for a moment, life seems full of joy. The doorbell rings. The husband enters the room. Based on Schnitzler's play Liebelei, David Harrower's Sweet Nothings captures the power of sexual longing, the cruelty of tradition and the vulnerability of those in love. The play premieres at the Young Vic, London, in March 2010. 'I write of love and death. What other subjects are there?' Arthur Schnitzler.

David Harrower's plays include Knives in Hens, Kill the Old, Torture Their Young, Dark Earth (Traverse Theatre), Presence (Royal Court) The Chrysalids (NT Connections), Blackbird (Edinburgh International Festival; West End), A Slow Air (Tron Theatre, Glasgow), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark, (Donmar). Adaptations include Büchner's Woyzeck (Edinburgh Lyceum), Chekhov's Ivanov and Horváth's Tales from the Vienna Woods (National Theatre), Schiller's Mary Stuart (National Theatre of Scotland), and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, Brecht's The Good Soul of Szechuan and Gogol's The Government Inspector (Young Vic). Film credits: Una; Outlaw King.