An unforgettable homecoming to an estranged family, a lost love, unsettling sex and an unexamined life.

I drank three glasses of scotch and ginger ale before we’d even cleared Coney Island. I didn’t want to come home. It was then that I decided to write you these letters. On a crisp winter day in New York, Willem gets the call. It’s Mum. Pauli’s died. Come back to Amsterdam. An unforgettable homecoming to an estranged family, a lost love, unsettling sex and an unexamined life. One of Stephens's most poetic plays to date, Song from Far Away received its UK premiere at the Young Vic, London, on 2 September 2015.

"An unexpected return to naturalism for Simon Stephens in this frail, gorgeous monologue" - Time Out London

"Simon Stephens's Song From Far Away is one of the saddest plays I have ever seen . . . offset by mournfully funny moments." - Observer

"It's a strong premise, and one that Stephens tackles with both humour and poignancy: there are some funny moments, and others that snatch the breath from the throat." - Daily Telegraph

"a new monologue by Simon Stephens that treads lightly through the imagination yet leaves behind a set of indelible footprints. . . . Stephens's writing demands patience and an attentive ear. . . . this miniature tragedy about the comforts and terrors of intimacy is both as soft as a sigh, and bruisingly desolate." - The Times

"there are echoes of Stephens's heartbreaking Sea Wall in the way it cradles grief and confronts how we disappear without trace. . . . Song from Far Away offers a window into the heart." - Guardian

"Stephens muses on the concept of home and belonging; in this case, not just a geographical location, but the sense that we never settle down in this life itself." - Financial Times

"a 75-minute meditative monologue - a searching study of impotently self-aware emotional insufficiency" - Independent