John Byrne ‘If I don’t laugh when I’m writing, it gets tossed out’
over 4 years in The guardian
The playwright’s Tennis Elbow is a gender-swapped version of Writer’s Cramp, his uproarious 70s hit about a failed literary figure
If you were in Edinburgh during the 1977 festival there were two shows you couldn’t miss. One was the revue Beyond a Joke starring a young unknown called Rowan Atkinson. The other, down at the old Calton Studios, was a three-hander called Writer’s Cramp.
The exuberant comedy by first-time playwright John Byrne was one of those word-of-mouth hits that only the fringe could produce. The tiny venue was so packed that critic Michael Coveney had to crouch under a canvas chair occupied by a friend of the mother of actor Bill Paterson. “I have always retained a soft spot, and a bad back, for this wonderfully entertaining and freeform spoof revue,” he later wrote. Continue reading...
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