clash at times, as when Larry tells Dan that Alice needed love, and Dan had left her for a relationship with Anna. The mythic constructions surrounding personal relationships—the myth of love and truth bringing us together, is deliberately and willfully turned on its head by Marber. Closer has been described as a work that "gets under its audience's skin, and ... not for the emotionally squeamish", a work in which "Marber is alert to the cruel inequalities of love, as the characters change partners in what sometimes comes over like a modern reworking of Coward's Private Lives." Language Marber uses direct, emotionally brutal and sexually explicit language. In scene three, when Dan and Larry are instant messaging on an adult website, Marber uses crude and up-to-date terminology and dialogue typical of such a communication. In a review of the Broadway run in New York magazine, John Simon writes, "Marber tells his story in short, staccato scenes in which the unsaid talks as loudly as the said. The dialogue is almost entirely stichomythic, the occasional speech still not much longer than a few lines. There are frequent pauses, but not of the Pinteresque variety—more like skipped heartbeats... Closer does not merely hold your attention; it burrows into you."According to Matt Wolf, "the animalistic pulse of the play [is] reflected in its often scabrous language". Music Although no music is indicated in Marber's script, different productions have often most commonly used classical music. This was also the case in the 2004 film version of Closer. In one production, the music in Closer was composed by Paddy Cunneen, a score described as sounding like "modern Bach". Productions Royal National Theatre It was first performed at the Royal National Theatre, London, on 22 May 1997. Dan .... Clive Owen Alice .... Liza Walker Anna .... Sally Dexter Larry .... Ciarán Hinds After its initial run, the production moved from the Cottlesloe to the Lyttleton Theatre in mid-1997. Mark Strong replaced Owen and Neil Dudgeon replaced Hinds; Walker and Dexter remained with the production. West End In March the next year the play moved to the West End. Dan .... Lloyd Owen Alice .... Liza Walker Anna .... Frances Barber Larry .... Neil Pearson Music Box Theatre The first American performance was presented 9 March 1999, on Broadway at the Music Box Theater, New York, by Robert Fox, Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Carole Shorenstein Hays,