Taken verbatim from Joe Orton's private and often explicit diaries, this raucous and poignant new production is directed by Nico Rao Pimparé ( The Start of Nothing, 2020; Rainer, Arcola Theatre; Candy, King’s Head Theatre). The cast is completed by Jemma Churchill ( Doctor Who, BBC; Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, NewVic Theatre; NATIVITY! The Musical, UK tour), Jamie Zubairi ( Cucumber, Why The Lion Danced, Yellow Earth; The Letter; Wyndham'sTheatre), Sorcha Kennedy ( Rainer; Arcola Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Comedy of Errors; Petersfield Festival, Sam Wanamaker Festival; Shakespeare's Globe) and Ryan Rajan Mal, making his stage debut. He's also a typical man. Subtle doesn't work for him so his tentative friendship with Liz, a woman he (literally) dreams about, is a bit slow to get off the ground. Even when Liz quite obviously asks Brian something where her meaning is quite obvious, for instance, if he would like a nightcap, she gets a monologue with the reasons why he is unable to, or even told that he is watching reruns of A Touch of Frost on the TV that night! Only in poetry does he find refuge and relief, interlarding diary entries with his mischievous verses, some parodies of pop songs (REM, Bee Gees, Blur), some of actual poems, nearly all of them quotable. I especially like his haiku horoscopes: Highly original, genuinely funny and clever, with a gentle humanity in between the lines. Brian Bilston should be Poet Laureate -- John O'Farrell The English comic novel, whose death this year was announced prematurely, is actually alive, well and in the safe hands of Brian Bilston -- Jonathan Coe * The Times *

If you like a) laughing or b) words which rhyme with each other, you will love Brian Bilston' - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club grāmata gandrīz derētu Ziemassvētku lasāmlistē, jo, kā jau kārtīga dienasgrāmata, sākas 1. janvārī, un beidzas 31. decembrī (ar tam piedienošu svētku noskaņu). Braiens ir šķirtenis tā ap 40+, kurš vada dienas neiedvesmojošā darbā, iet uz vīzdegunīgu grāmatu klubiņu (pilnīgi ne tādu kā mūsējais), kuram nekad nav sagatavojies, un daudz jaukāku dzejas klubu. Lai gan jaukajā dzejas klubā ir tikpat jaukā Liza, neizbēgt arī no savas darvas piles, un to sauc Tobijs Salts - dzejnieks, kura vēl neiznākušais krājums jau ir nodēvēts par gada dzejas grāmatu (un no kura pāris dzejas rindām jums jau smadzenes saiet ķīselī). Un kad Tobijs Salts/Enemy No 1 mīklaini pazūd, Braiena problēmām - nespēja uzrakstīt neko jēdzīgu, darba zaudēšana, sarežģītas attiecības ar pusauga dēlu, kurš, šķiet, labāk saprotas ar savas mātes jauno bojfrendu/seriālo iedvesmotāju, pievienojas arī policijas apciemojumi un nedabiskā interese par viņa dienasgrāmatu. Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse. You probably get the picture that Brian makes a few mistakes during the course of the book, but it's impossible to do anything but like him.

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I knew I should take all three boxes to Cambridge police station and, if they remained unclaimed, after a suitable time have them incinerated. I was a Peeping Tom to do anything else. The writer describes things in a way that makes it clear she never expected or wanted anyone else to hear about them, let alone put them in a biography. Word play, laugh-out-loud poems and the deft skewering of office life are part of the fun in this brilliant comic debut. -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express * Life just gets worse. He sinks deeper and deeper into a state of lethargy, with only the cat for company, and his funny and sometimes subversive poems to lighten his mood. His focus narrows down to his neighbours’ bin day and other habits. He finds it difficult in his depressed state to engage with his teenage son Dylan who visits once a week. Sophie acquires a dynamic partner, the paragon of all virtues, a man whose success does not stop him from doing good deeds and who inspires Brian’s son with motivational quotes. As if life couldn’t get worse, this paragon decides he will relocate to the US taking Sophie and Dylan with him - this, just when Brian was starting to bond really well with his son. His son is reluctant to go. Unless I arranged the diaries, I couldn’t know how everything tied together.’ Photograph: Pal Hansen/The Guardian

Brian Bilston has decided to write a poem every day for a year while he tries to repair his ever-desperate life. His ex-wife has taken up with a new man, a marketing guru and motivational speaker who seems to be disturbingly influencing his son, Dylan. Meanwhile Dylan’s football team keeps being beaten 0–11, as he stands disconsolately on the wing waiting vainly to receive the ball. At work Brian is drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and is becoming increasingly confused by the complexities of modern communication and management jargon. So poetry will be his salvation. But can Brian’s poetry save him from Toby Salt, his arch nemesis in the Poetry Group and potential rival suitor to Brian’s new poetic inspiration, Liz? Worst of all Toby has announced that boutique artisan publishing house Shooting from the Hip will be publishing his first collection, titled This Bridge No Hands Shall Cleft, in the autumn. And when he goes missing Brian is inevitably the number one suspect. He's a bit of a likeable fool. I particularly loved how Brian would enter a bookshop for one particular book and just had to buy a few more to keep it company. I'm sure that resonates with every book lover. There are fascinating possibilities in this situation. I’d get it down on paper if I were you” said Joe Orton once, the young playwright followed his own advice, and for a period of his short life kept a diary. American theatre critic John Lahr dramatized the diaries in 1989, and the result is Diary of a Somebody which has now opened as the second production at the new Seven Dials Playhouse in London. Taken verbatim from Joe Orton's private and often explicit diaries, this raucous and poignant new production is directed by Nico Rao Pimparé (The Start of Nothing, 2020; Rainer, Arcola Theatre; Candy, King's Head Theatre). The cast is completed by Jemma Churchill (Doctor Who, BBC; Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present, New Vic Theatre; NATIVITY! The Musical, UK tour), Jamie Zubairi (Cucumber, Why The Lion Danced, Yellow Earth; The Letter; Wyndham's Theatre), Sorcha Kennedy (Rainer; Arcola Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedy of Errors - Sam Wanamaker Festival; Shakespeare's Globe) and Ryan Rajan Mal, making his stage debut. After 1990, everything succumbs to television. She disappears as a human being in these last years of her life, and reappears as cataloguer of Michael Barrymore gossip. She rages against “those who are stuffed with sleep”.Two terrible things happened during those five years in London. Dido, my writing collaborator for 25 years, was diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, the same disease that killed Steve Jobs. It had seeded over her liver. Its spores were crowded in her blood. Richard, a well‑known professor of the history of ecology – a field he had almost invented – had a car crash and was grotesquely brain damaged. He was now in a wheelchair, unable to speak. The bloodbath diary was from 1961: greeny-blue and caved in halfway up the spine One of the funniest novels in years . . . It also has genuine heart - and scores of poems so witty and accomplished that, in the real world, their author would surely be as famous as, well . . . I predict that Brian Bilston will soon be * Reader's Digest * A welcome reminder of the joy to be had when you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative . . . Funny and ingenious * The Times * I”’s curse began when she was 14, took over her life when she was 20, at its worst ruined three weeks out of every four (one lost to fear, one to pain, one to exhaustion), caused her to lose around 36 litres of blood and membrane, and was not considered bad enough to need medical attention.