Closer (play)

Closer
Grove edition cover
Written by	Patrick Marber
Characters	Dan Alice (Jane Jones) Anna Larry
Date premiered	29 May 1997
Place premiered	Cottesloe Theatre London
Original language	English
Subject	A quartet of strangers in a sexual square dance in which partners are constantly swapped, caught between desire and betrayal.
Genre	Drama, melodrama
Setting	London, 1990s

Closer is the second play by English playwright Patrick Marber. The play was premiered at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in London in 1997, and made its North American debut at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway on 25 January 1999.

It was adapted by Marber as a 2004 film of the same name, produced and directed by Mike Nichols.

Closer was first performed at the Royal National Theatre in London on 22 May 1997; it was the second original play written by Patrick Marber. Closer has drawn comparisons with Noël Coward's Private Lives, Harold Pinter's Betrayal, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses in its intricate focus on the politics of four people trading partners for lust.

A young man, Dan, takes a young woman to hospital after she has been hit by a taxi; they flirt as they wait for the doctor to attend to her bloodied knee. Larry, a doctor in dermatology, inspects her leg briefly and leaves. Dan and the young woman introduce themselves—he is Daniel Woolf, an obituary writer and failed novelist who tells her how he and his colleagues use euphemisms humorously in their work in obituaries. Upon the girl's prompting, he says his euphemism would be "reserved" and hers would be "disarming". She is Alice Ayres, a self-described waif who has a scar along her leg which is shaped like a question mark. Wanting him to spend the rest of the day with her, she calls his editor and tells his boss that he's sick and can't come in to work.

More than a year later, Dan is on the verge of publishing a book based on Alice's past as a stripper, and Anna is taking his photograph for publicity. Dan falls in love with Anna, though he is in a relationship with Alice, having left his former girlfriend for her. He begs Anna to see him again, and she rejects him. Alice overhears his conversation with Anna. She asks Anna to take her photo, and when Dan has left, confronts her; Anna insists she is "not a thief" and snaps a photo of a tear-stricken Alice.

Six months later, Dan and Larry meet in an adult chat room. Dan impersonates Anna and has internet sex with Larry. He tries to play a practical joke on Larry by arranging for Larry to meet him (Dan pretending to be Anna in the chat room) in the London Aquarium the next day. When Larry arrives, stunned to see Anna (who Dan didn't know would actually be there), he acts under the impression that she is the same person from last night and makes a fool of himself. Anna catches on and explains that it was probably Dan playing a practical joke on him. She reveals that it is her birthday and snaps a photo of Larry. They become a couple.