Further than the Furthest Thing

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Tang’s fitfully bombastic staging, with an extremely nifty eco-friendly, amphitheatre-style set from Soutra Gilmour, teeters between viscerally entertaining and a bit overegged. Ian William Galloway’s dramatic video projections are cool; I was a bit vague on the logic of throwing live vocalist Shapla Salique into the mix – her yearning, wordless Eastern-inflected melodies are impressive, but it seems like an odd additional cultural element to throw into the mix. There’s a rambling quality to the first half, which sets the play up as a showdown between salt-of-the-earth islanders and the sharp-suited representative of Big Jar.

The story takes us from a volcanic eruption to mass evacuation and the forced exile of its islanders. It is an example of colonial conquest in miniature, which chimes with the real-life plight of the indigenous population on the Chagos Islands. There are further plotlines that reveal the island’s own murky secrets and a troubled past romance between Francis and the unhappily pregnant Rebecca (Kirsty Rider). Irregular adjectives are a challenge for many English learners. Just like every other rule in English, such as knowing which comparative and superlative form is correct, there are exceptions. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August, 2000, winning the Peggy Ramsay Award, the John Whiting Award and an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and is now regarded as a modern classic.

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Further” and “farther” are both comparative forms, so when you use each, there should be some comparison made using the word “than.” Plays rarely get as out there — literally so — as Further than the Furthest Thing, the Zinnie Harris theatrical fantasia of sorts which opened in 2000 at the National and was seen off-Broadway, in a separate production, in 2002. Now considered a contemporary classic of sorts, not least for its compelling strangeness, Jennifer Tang revives the play into a prime case of elliptical beauty. The performances are solid and the islanders’ naivety and bewilderment towards the outside world are well enacted. But the play takes time to build its intrigues, the pace is occasionally ponderous and the dialogue repetitious. Even if this is deliberate, it keeps us too much at surface level at times, and although the strands come together in the end, the play feels drawn out. Without any conceptual footing, the script is brimming with wearily vague references to "the island" or "the war," "the ship" and the audience becomes lost. Lugubrious imagery and portentous, but severely undercooked, themes about immigration, sexual assault, abortion, and religion drown the production in a sea of its own ambition.

Bill Laverello, Mill's husband, and one of the few islanders to have left the island. He had left during the Second World War, and brought Christianity to the island on his return, becoming the island's minister. Isherwood, Charles (5 February 2002). "Further Than the Furthest Thing". Variety . Retrieved 19 May 2021. Further than the Furthest Thing is a play in two acts by the Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris, set in 1961 on a remote island based loosely on Tristan da Cunha, and in the English city of Southampton. During the next scene, Bill's funeral, it is revealed that Mr Hansen had admitted to the islanders that he had lied to them about the extent of the damage, and that they intended to return to the island. Mr Hansen apologises to Mill, and promises that he will ensure the supply ships come to the island annually in future. In the last scene, the islanders, including Rebecca, leave Southampton, with the exception of Francis, who tries to persuade Rebecca to convince him to return but ultimately chooses to remain. I loved Ian William Galloway’s video projections of the sea and Shapla Salique’s haunting live vocals.

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As the play begins, wayward son of the island Francis (Archie Madekwe) has returned after a spell working in South Africa. He has been raised by his formidable aunt Mill (Jenna Russell) and on-edge uncle Bill (Cyril Nri), two idiosyncratic island folk who speak with endearinglyidiosyncraticaccents as they fret over the three eggs (‘h’eggs’) that Mill has acquired by way of a celebration of Francis’s return. Francis Swain, the nephew of Mill and Bill, who adopted him after his mother starved during the War. His return to the island after a year in Cape Town drives many of the play's events. For once, the trigger warnings underdo it... there is a steady strangeness and an unhysterical sense of horror to this tale of the inhabitants of a colonial island in the South Atlantic" Furthest” and “farthest” are both the superlative form of “far.” As irregular adjectives, they describe distance. However, these terms are nuanced in what type of distance they describe. You’ll use “farther” to describe physical distances and “further” for metaphorical distances. Zinnie Harris’s second play ‘Further than the Furthest Thing’ isn’t necessarily amasterpiece. But there’s much about it that is still compelling, and once it gets going Jennifer Tang’s Young Vic revival feels intensely worthwhile.

To test your knowledge, read the sentences below and consider if “furthest” is correct in each context. Drawing on the memories of her own mother, Zinnie Harris based her play on the experience of the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, the British overseas territory in the South Atlantic, who in 1961 escaped a volcanic eruption, moving first to Cape Town and then to England. The islanders were discouraged from returning home by being told, wrongly, that their homes had been utterly destroyed. The ploy did not work. What’s the difference between further and farther ? The definition of further does overlap with farther , but first let’s look at the meanings that are unique to this term. Further , unlike farther , can be a verb : Based on real events on the island of Tristan da Cunha, this multi-award-winning play by Zinnie Harris ( Macbeth (an undoing), This Restless House, How To Hold Your Breath) follows a community haunted by its past and under threat from a modern world in crisis. You can also use “further” as a sentence modifier, although its usage as a standalone term is relatively uncommon. You are more likely to see the phrase “furthermore” instead. In both cases, you can use the word to introduce a new statement or add additional information to a previous one.Part of that Vesuvian mix was Zinnie Harris’s acclaimed second play, Further than the Furthest Thing. First seen in August 2000, it’s inspired by Tristan da Cunha, the South Atlantic UK Overseas Territory described as the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago. In 1961, its volcanic peak erupted, and its several hundred islanders got evacuated temporarily to England. Just such a scenario happens here but, as Harris explains, “I stole the real Tristan da Cunha to feed my imagination”. It’s 1961, and a volcanic eruption displaces this remote populace to the comparative bustle of Southampton, where we find ourselves after the interval — an incident that actually happened to this one-time British dependency. What transpires is an empathically imagined investigation into what we mean by “home”, folded into an often-grim parable of acculturation. The dictionary definition of popularity is “to be liked by many.” Based on this definition, you might predict that popular students are the cheeriest and most agreeable people in a school: kind to everyone and always willing to lend a helping hand. Such a conclusion couldn’t be further from the truth! Despite the direction working against them, the performers garner strong chemistry even if they struggle to acclimtise to Harris' deliberately jarring vernacular. The first act may feel more like a rehearsed reading than an actual performance, but the second half gathers more momentum aided by trippy lighting and sound that organically undulates to evoke the play's elemental focus. Further than the Furthest Thing is not quite duller than the dullest thing, but it's not far off. How do the definitions of farther and further overlap? Can you use further or farther away in the same way? Some usage guides disagree, but both terms have been used interchangeably to describe physical distance. Here is a quote in which further fulfills that role: