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Books

Michael Frayn’s new book is the most highbrow TV sketch show ever

A review of Matchbox Theatre: Thirty Short Entertainments, by Michael Frayn. Other loo books may sell more come Christmas but none will bring more joy than this collection of ingenious playlets

1 November 2014

9:00 AM

1 November 2014

9:00 AM

Matchbox Theatre: Thirty Short Entertainments Michael Frayn

Faber, pp.292, £12.99, ISBN: 9781783063468

Enough of big ideas and grand designs. Instead, here are 30 unusually small ideas from the giant pulsating brain of Michael Frayn. Matchbox Theatre is a collection of tiny playlets, all one-handers or two-handers, designed to be performed in the most intimate theatrical space of them all: your mind.

In ‘Sleepers’, Sir Geoffrye de Frodsham and Lady Hilarye lie motionless in their tomb, and bicker throughout eternity.

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