A Table Tennis Play

‘When does it happen?’

A long summer weekend, two strangers, and a full-size table tennis table.

Sam Steiner’s A Table Tennis Play is a play about how everything and nothing changes as people bat a ball. It premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a production by Walrus in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth.

‘Superb… a tense emotional back and forth… each line of Steiner’s script holds tremendous jeopardy’
- Exeunt Magazine

‘Grips tighter and tighter, masterfully dragging the audience down into the insecurities and fears of the players… Nobody writes dialogue quite like Sam Steiner… Zipping between hilarity and horribly affecting emotion, Steiner has a knack of making every single second count, leaving the unsaid hanging brilliantly heavy in the air… thrillingly enticing’
- Broadway Baby

‘Steiner’s gift for dialogue is in full evidence here, using his characters’ foibles and idiosyncrasies to illuminate masterfully and without judgement so much that goes unsaid’
- Broadway World

‘A Table Tennis Play is less concept-driven than Steiner’s previous work, but sees him at his finest: whip-smart dialogue is whacked back and forth as themes, desires and thoughts bounce around… riveting… characters that are so vividly drawn… solidifies Steiner’s status as a writer with the keenest ear for dialogue, finding magic among a sea of memories. An absolute ace’
- WhatsOnStage

‘A subtle and beguiling piece of writing, encompassing huge things - grief, the passing of time - and minutiae, ingeniously economical in the way it uses words, with a deliciously offbeat sense of humour… studded with moments of magic and unexpectedly, capsizingly moving narrative swerves’
- The Stage