Overview

""Abrasive, unsettling and bitingly funny."" The Whyte Cliffs is a sharp, darkly comic bilingual playscript (English-French) set against the backdrop of England's migrant crisis. Often abrasive and some might say shocking, it explores power, desire, and the fragile bonds of sorority on the south-east coast. Siobhàn, a young Irish busker, is on her way to Paris to start a new life as a student. But before crossing to the continent, she has an old score to settle at the Whyte Cliffs Guest House. Mrs Whyte, the menopausal owner of the guest house, remains entangled in her long-term abusive relationship with Fred Tennant, a former member of the National Front who has long since lost interest in her. Desperate to rekindle his desire, Mrs Whyte leans on her friend Joan, who runs a makeshift beauty parlour from her garden shed next door. Singing, and its restorative force, together with the solidarity of women, drive this darkly comic drama towards its unexpected conclusion. -------- Une tragi-comédie qui se joue sur les falaises blanches de la côte anglaise, où les réfugiés clandestins arrivent en grand nombre, dans des petites embarcations précaires. Mrs Whyte est propriétaire de The Whyte Cliffs, une pension de famille, en grande difficulté financière depuis le Brexit. Toujours amoureuse de Fred, son compagnon violent qui ne s'intéresse plus à elle, Mrs Whyte cherche par tous les moyens à le reconquérir... Heureusement ses amies sont là pour venir à sa rescousse et l'aident à trouver la chanson qui guérirait ses maux ... C'est périlleux, mais Mrs Whyte sort enfin de son placard.

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9781068150906

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Reviews

""Abrasive, unsettling, and bitingly funny.""

Author Information

Elaine Dubourdieu began her adult life as a VSO Volunteer, teaching at Njase Girls' School, Choma, Zambia. She then read French at Leicester University (having initially enrolled to read Sociology, but after 2 weeks of Durkheim she gave up the idea). The third year of her honours degree was spent as a student in Bordeaux, where she met and subsequently married Bernard. They went to live in Marrakech for two years, before returning to France to start a family. As she has dual French/British nationality, she was able to take the necessary competitive exams to become a teacher and French civil servant. She spent most of her career at Nantes University as Senior Lecturer, teaching language, translation and what the French intriguingly call 'civilisation' - a mixture of History and Politics. Elaine was responsible for various Erasmus exchanges: Manchester Metropolitan, Liverpool Hope and the University of Tromso. She also set up an exchange with the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1996, with her colleague Wilma, she set up and ran the British Film festival in Nantes - which happily continues to this day. In 2007 she also set up and taught 'L'anglais créatif' - which must have been one of the first creative writing classes in a French University. Elaine Dubourdieu has now retired and is finally able to spend most of her time writing!

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