127
Followers
155
Following
Bettie's Books
A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
Otherwise Engaged
bookshelves: fradio, radio-4, spring-2012, play-dramatisation, london, lifestyles-deathstyles
Recommended for: Radio Party Animals
Read from March 21 to 27, 2012
Saturday Drma. Comes with a Parental Guidance sticker.
Simon Gray's best-loved comedy. With James Purefoy, Hattie Morahan and Nigel Planer.
wiki source - a bleakly comic play by English playwright Simon Gray. The play previewed at the Oxford Playhouse and the Richmond Theatre,[1] and then opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 10 July 1975, with Alan Bates as the star and Harold Pinter as director, produced by Michael Codron. Ian Charleson co-starred as Dave, a Glasgow lout. Michael Gambon took over from Bates in 1976, "playing it for a year, eight times a week." The play also had a successful run on Broadway, opening in February 1977 with Tom Courtenay as Simon and Carolyn Lagerfelt as Beth. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.
The play revolves around a British publisher named Simon Hench. When we first see Hench, he has settled down in his lavish living room, and plans to spend a pleasant afternoon listening to classical music. However, Hench is repeatedly interrupted by his tenant, his friends, family and aspiring writers, all of whom want something from him.
First, he is visited by his tenant Dave, a penniless student. Later, Hench must deal with his brother, a money-strapped public school teacher with a large family to support. Later, Hench meets with a drunken journalist mate, and with that mate's girlfriend (an aspiring writer who is more than willing to flaunt her body to get a publishing contract from Hench). Later, Hench receives a call from a meek gentleman that Hench used to torment when they were schoolboys, and whose daughter Hench has been sleeping with.
Finally, Hench's tranquil afternoon is interrupted by his wife, who announces that she is leaving him.
Initially, Hench seems witty, warm and charming. For much of the play, he appears to be the one and only sane, grounded character. Gradually, this facade is stripped away, and Hench is revealed as a cold, selfish, cruel, lonely bully, unable to connect emotionally with others, and unable to care deeply about anyone but himself.
Simon Gray's best-loved comedy. With James Purefoy, Hattie Morahan and Nigel Planer.
wiki source - a bleakly comic play by English playwright Simon Gray. The play previewed at the Oxford Playhouse and the Richmond Theatre,[1] and then opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 10 July 1975, with Alan Bates as the star and Harold Pinter as director, produced by Michael Codron. Ian Charleson co-starred as Dave, a Glasgow lout. Michael Gambon took over from Bates in 1976, "playing it for a year, eight times a week." The play also had a successful run on Broadway, opening in February 1977 with Tom Courtenay as Simon and Carolyn Lagerfelt as Beth. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.
The play revolves around a British publisher named Simon Hench. When we first see Hench, he has settled down in his lavish living room, and plans to spend a pleasant afternoon listening to classical music. However, Hench is repeatedly interrupted by his tenant, his friends, family and aspiring writers, all of whom want something from him.
First, he is visited by his tenant Dave, a penniless student. Later, Hench must deal with his brother, a money-strapped public school teacher with a large family to support. Later, Hench meets with a drunken journalist mate, and with that mate's girlfriend (an aspiring writer who is more than willing to flaunt her body to get a publishing contract from Hench). Later, Hench receives a call from a meek gentleman that Hench used to torment when they were schoolboys, and whose daughter Hench has been sleeping with.
Finally, Hench's tranquil afternoon is interrupted by his wife, who announces that she is leaving him.
Initially, Hench seems witty, warm and charming. For much of the play, he appears to be the one and only sane, grounded character. Gradually, this facade is stripped away, and Hench is revealed as a cold, selfish, cruel, lonely bully, unable to connect emotionally with others, and unable to care deeply about anyone but himself.
1