Jo Clifford's play Losing Venice is a joyously original, witty take-down of dangerously daft machismo and the deranged behaviour of countries that have lost an empire and still not yet found a role.

John Clifford (now known as Jo Clifford) is an award-winning playwright, translator, poet and performer, who has also worked as a journalist and academic. As John Clifford, he was instrumental in establishing the reputation of the Traverse Theatre Company in the 1980s.