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Light comedy. Noel Coward Paul Sarodin the great painter is dead: his family and Jacob Friedland,
the art-dealer who discovered him, are aghast. For Paul has left
a letter stating the valuable 'Masterpieces' hanging in the great
galleries of the world are not his work. They were painted by a Russian
tart, an ex-chorus girl, a Negro revivalist, and a fourteen-year-old.
This was the uproarious spoof perpetrated on the art world by a man
who loathed the commercialising of creative talent. Drama. Arthur Carter. 4 men, 7 women. Unit Set Sylvia, feeling unloved, leaves her husband. To support herself
and her little girl, she accepts a job in Maury's number and horse-betting
office, where she is soon promoted. Though it is against the rules
to go out with anyone doing business with the office, Sylvia falls
in love with Dominic Spizzilini, a bookie. They are seen together,
and this is reported to Maury. On the heels of this Maury learns
that Dominic has come in with the number for the day, worth $5,000.
Maury is convinced Dominic is using Sylvia to cheat him. Dominic
goes into hiding in Sylvia's home, while Sylvia attempts to persuade
Maury that she and Dominic are innocent. In a brutal interrogation
Sylvia learns that the preceding year Dominic used another clerk
to cheat for him. By a ruse Dominic makes Maury responsible for his
safety, only to be shot down a few minutes later by Maury's hoodlums,
who are unaware that in killing Dominic they have involved Maury.
Sylvia is left crushed and disillusioned. Play. Jean Anouilh. Translated by Michael Frayn Anouilh's sharp,
witty play centres around the ageing, gout-stricken and passé playwright
Leon Saint-Pé struggling manfully to begin a new play, provisionally
entitled Les Misérables, despite the constant interruptions
and selfish demands of his utterly egocentric family and friends. A master
of the art of dramatic contrivance, Anouilh displays his usual stylish blend
of cynicism and subtle irony when he has Leon, eventually deciding that everyone
on earth is wholly self-centred, rechristen his play Number One. Richard
Norton-Taylor Edited transcript
of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, first performed at the Tricycle Theatre.
Using actual wording from the trial, the piece follows the defence arguments
of some of the top Nazi officers. As a play this is shattering, gripping
drama; as an educational aid it is a harsh and necessary history lesson.
'Theatre at its best as a moral tribunal, gripping and shaming, a challenge
to your nerves and your conscience' Sunday Times. |