Lucky Break

Esther Freud

An unpretentious tale of the diverging fortunes of a group of actors where you find yourself immersed in their claustrophobic world - shattered by every bad audition and laughing out loud at their bizarre experiences. This is an authentic take of the acting vocation, so full of pitch-perfect observations that I found myself totally absorbed by the unpredictable ebb and flow of their lives. An accomplished and very readable novel.

Extract

‘If you go to the theatre tonight, or on any night,’ he continued, ‘in our famous West End, you will see no end of vacuous performances, actors with no idea where they are, or where they’re going, really just attempting to speak and not bump into the furniture, but a student of Drama Arts will stand out from this colourless troupe. A student from here will have a purpose, an energy, that will drive him forward, so when you are still here, rehearsing late, night after night, complaining you’re cold or hungry or tired, remember how lucky you are. You are actually learning something. You are being Trained!’

Parallels