Tag Archives: Matthew Kelly

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Abbie Rippon ‘Why must a play be such a performance?’ argues Neil, the writer of Caliban’s Day. The cast are rehearsing for an upcoming production which explores the life of WH Auden and his collaborations with Benjamin Britten, and The Habit of Art is the play within which this play falls. Confused yet? Don’t be. ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Neil has meticulously researched his latest play, Caliban’s Day, in which he imagines a meeting between poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten in 1973, shortly before the death of each and at the time Britten was writing Death in Venice. Today, the director can’t make it so the rehearsal ...

Writer: Alan Bennet Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: James Eves To be able to tell a captivating story for the theatre is one thing, it requires a lot of character, skill and time. Therefore, to be able to create two stories for the same play that run alongside one another at the same time, deserves twice the admiration. To put it ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Alice Fowler Which is more powerful, music or words? The poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten debate this point in Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art and, unsurprisingly, agree to differ. Bennett stages an imagined meeting between the two great men in 1972, rekindling an old friendship at a point when both ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Reviewer: Michael Hootman The Habit of Art sees Alan Bennett stake his claim to the same theatrical territory inhabited by Tom Stoppard. Habit is very much a play of ideas. Or, to put it more bluntly, a play of too many ideas. It’s a play-within-a-play which examines the very idea of theatrical devices whilst ...

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Philip Franks Designer: Adrian Linford Reviewer: Ron Simpson Aside from his wonderful monologues, Alan Bennett tends to write plays that are not what they seem, made up of seemingly irreconcilable elements: even the perennially popular History Boys goes off at what seems to be a bizarre tangent with a crippled presenter of television history shows. When ...

Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art, a play within a play based on a fictional meeting between poet W.H Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, premiered at the National Theatre back in November 2009 with the production going on to tour in the Autumn of 2010. This year, the Original Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal will present the first ever ...

Writer: Eugene O’Neill Director: Sam Yates Designer: Chiara Stephenson Reviewer: Sheila Stratford Desire Under the Elms is a powerful and moving play. The highly acclaimed American playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote this play in 1924. He was strongly influenced by Greek tragedy which impacted on his work. During his lifetime, he won four Pulitzer prizes and the Nobel prize for literature. ...