Closer was first performed at the Royal National Theatre in London on 22 May 1997; it was the second original play written by Patrick Marber.

She is Alice Ayres, a self-described waif who has a scar along her leg shaped like a question mark.

More than a year later, Dan is on the verge of publishing a book based on Alice's past as a stripper, and Anna is taking his photograph for publicity.

When Larry arrives, stunned to see Anna (who Dan did not know would be there), he acts believing that she is the same person from the chat and makes a fool of himself.

Larry finds her at a seedy strip club in London, where he pushes her to tell the truth about her name.

They relive the memories of their first meeting, but Dan is haunted by their encounters with Larry and Anna and pushes Alice to tell him the truth.

In the moment when Alice becomes caught between refusing to tell the truth and being unable to lie to him, she says, "I don't love you anymore.

They are meeting because Alice has died the night before in New York, having been hit by a car while crossing the street.

Before Dan leaves, he tells Anna that Ruth, his ex-girlfriend whom he left for Alice/Jane, is now married, has a child, and is pregnant with a second.

She married a poet, having fallen in love with him (without ever having met him) after reading his book of poems, Solitude.

But these elements blend with melodramatic plot twists—the four characters switch partners frequently, and their emotional statuses constantly fluctuate between high and low, in a series of reversals that build toward increasing tension.

According to Robert Brustein, in the original production, "Memorial blocks constitute the backdrop of the set—a design that gradually accumulates all the scenic pieces used in the play, as if these four lives were a detritus of props and furniture.

Dan, the failed writer, speaks in romantic language but feels the least qualms about his infidelities.

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.

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.

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.

In one production, the music in Closer was composed by Paddy Cunneen, a score described as sounding like "modern Bach".

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, ABC Inc., the Shubert Organization, and the Royal National Theatre.

The production core consisted of: Closer ran for 172 performances on Broadway during 1999, with Polly Draper replacing Richardson starting 15 June.

[6] It received its Paris premiere on 22 December 1998 at the Theatre Fontaine, in a production based on a French translation by Pierre Laville and directed by Patrice Kerbrat.

[8] Gyllenhaal played opposite Rebecca De Mornay as Anna in a Mark Taper Forum production in December 2000, directed by Robert Egan.

In 2019, the Israeli Cameri Theater debuted a production of the play, translated and directed by Miri Lazar.

The feature film was directed by Mike Nichols, with stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen.

at the Disco split a line from the play into two song titles on their 2005 album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out: "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" and "But It's Better If You Do".

Also, the line spoken by Larry to Alice/Jane in the strip club, "I love everything about you that hurts", is used in the Fall Out Boy song "G.I.N.A.S.F.S.".