The Duke in Darkness by Patrick Hamilton at The Tabard Theatre, Turnham Green, London
On from 16 Apr 2013 - 11 May 2013
From the Tabard Theatre website:
From the author of hit thrillers Rope and Gaslight comes Patrick Hamilton's The Duke In Darkness in its first London revival for 60 years.
This tense but touching play is the third of a trio of psychological thrillers written by Patrick Hamilton in an illustrious career both as a playwright and novelist (Hangover Square), which also saw him achieve Hollywood success with Rope directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
France is in the grip of long and bloody civil wars. A Duke and his servant, incarcerated for fifteen years, plot their escape and dream of freedom. But in this world of conspiracy and paranoia, where no one is quite who they seem, what will one man sacrifice for his chance of survival?
London-based playwright and actor Orlando Wells has kindly been granted permission by Samuel French and the Patrick Hamilton Estate to adapt Hamilton’s rarely seen piece for modern audiences.
The Rt Hon The Earl of Shrewsbury & Talbot - Trustee of The Hamilton Settlement and nephew of the late Patrick Hamilton said,
"The Hamilton Estate are delighted that the work of Patrick Hamilton is continuing to be shown to theatre going audiences, and that this thrilling play, The Duke in Darkness, is returning to the London stage after so many years. The fact that it is coming to the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, where Patrick lived and now has a blue plaque, makes it all the more appropriate."
The playwright and author lived at Burlington Gardens in Chiswick for 16 years. He died in 1962. Laura Thompson wrote of him in The Telegraph, "A writer whose merciless, uncompromising view of humanity is shocking even today...Hamilton is the poet of compulsion. Nobody writes it better." In 2011 English Heritage installed a prestigious Blue Plaque at his Chiswick address.
"[Hamilton] is a sort of urban Thomas Hardy: . . . he is unparalleled."- Nick Hornby
"[The Duke in Darkness] is the most unfairly underrated of all Patrick's dramatic works." - Nigel Jones
The production will be directed by Phoebe Barran, designed by Max Dorey with sound design by David McSeveney and lighting design by Nicki Brown.
The cast for the show is Michael Palmer (The Duke), Jamie Treacher (Gribaud), Sean Pogmore (D’Aublaye), Martin Miller (Duke of Larmorre), Jake Mann (Voulain) and Matt Fraser Holland (Marteau).
‘The Tin Horizon’, Orlando Well’s first production, recently premiered to wide acclaim at Theatre 503 in London.
"acting of the highest caliber in a play that proves Wells has a gift for gothic futurism...a name to watch… shows a wild imagination at work and displays unmistakable signs of talent" Michael Billington, The Guardian
"deeply sinister and queasily funny, with gripping performances… Wells's vision is the grotesque stuff of modern nightmares" Sam Marlowe, The Times
‘You may have to sneak and trick for your life. You may have to fight. Are you ready to fight, my lord?'
A claustrophobic psychological thriller set in 16th century France, Patrick Hamilton’s The Duke in Darkness never achieved the success of his earlier plays, Rope and Gaslight, and has been rarely performed since the original 1942 production, directed by and starring Michael Redgrave.
Newly adapted by Orlando Wells, the play emerges in Phoebe Barran’s admirably taut staging as much more than a historical curio. The setting is a tower prison in which the Duke of Laterraine (Michael Palmer) has been incarcerated for 15 years alongside his faithful servant Gribaud (Jamie Treacher), a victim of the era’s wars of religion and of rival aristocrat Lamorre (a supercilious Martin Miller).
Throughout his imprisonment, the Duke has survived on fantasies of escape, feigning blindness in an attempt to get his captors to lower their guard, but when the opportunity finally arises it can only be seized at great personal cost. When originally staged, the play’s conflict between persecuted Huguenots and Catholic absolutism, and its themes of resistance to tyranny, loyalty and sacrifice, clearly resonated with the contemporary struggle against fascism. Those ideas continue to resound, but Wells’ adaptation casts new light on the Duke and Gribaud’s ambivalent intimacy. Both roles are incredibly demanding but Palmer and Treacher valiantly rise to the challenge. Palmer makes the Duke’s moral choices gripping and moving, while Treacher brings off Gribaud’s descent into madness with touching humour.
If the name Patrick Hamilton rings a bell, it's probably one that chimes with a certain tone of inter-war urban despair: a recent resurgence of interest in his work means modern audiences are probably more familiar with his novels (including Hangover Square and 20,000 Streets under the Sky) than his plays.
Hamilton's first big success, however, was the Nietzschean stage thriller Rope (a West End hit in 1929, filmed by Hitchcock in 1948, recently revived at the Brockley Jack Studio) and his other plays include Gaslight. With such a pedigree, the revival of a rarely-performed piece by Hamilton is an exciting and tempting prospect. But do Orlando Wells's adaptation and Phoebe Barran's production live up to expectations?
I won't keep you in suspense: the answer's a resounding yes, despite the rather confusing trailer on the Tabard's website, which features a mashup of all the most dramatic speeches yanked out of context and delivered fiercely to camera. There is such a thing as trying too hard, and this show really doesn't need to. Luckily, as soon as the curtain rises the audience is able to relax into the hands of a director and a cast who know exactly what they're doing.
The status quo that greets us in the first scene is as follows: in war-torn Renaissance Franc ethe Duke of Laterraine ("the Land"), played with weary nobility by Michael Palmer, has spent the last 16 years imprisoned with his manservant Gribaud (the excellent Jamie Treacher, mercurial and pathetic in the best sense). Nothing changes and nobody comes, especially not to their rescue: the pair's only amusements are chess and bickering, and Gribaud even cheats at chess. So far, so Endgame-meets-Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern. But this is no existential stalemate, for soon the prisoners are told to prepare for a visitor: their captor the Duke of Lamorre (Martin Miller).
As this is a taut, unshowy thriller which depends on its plot twists to hold the audience's interest, I won't reveal too much more, but I can say that Jake Mann as new gaoler Voulain manages deftly to combine oleaginous creepiness with wide-eyed sincerity to excellent effect, sometimes in the same sentence. Meanwhile, Martin Miller's Henrician Lamorre, a bluff buffoon in doublet and hose, provides welcome comic relief which only partly veils the unstable threat he represents.
The interplay between captor and captive during the visit depends heavily on Laterraine maintaining the fiction that he's feeble and blind, and this is a superlative piece of physical acting on Palmer's part, extending even into an entertaining game of mental chess which the prisoner (naturally) wins. When the chaotic, babbling Gribaud interrupts this delicately-balanced scene, the sense of danger is palpable: a single unguarded word could threaten the Duke's escape plans, and without him, any uprising to oust Lamorre will fail.
Gribaud, the Duke's only companion, his friend, helpmeet, sparring partner and loyal servant, has gone mad, and in doing so, made himself expendable. But will the Duke have the guts E.M. Forster once hoped for – to betray his country, rather than his friend?
I couldn't possibly comment on what happens next, of course, but the script (a svelte one hour, 40 minutes) certainly kept me guessing, and moreover completely held my attention right to the end. It did have one fewer twist than I was expecting from the marketing (and, yes, the bizarre trailer); but perhaps I've been spoiled by too many Hollywood double-triple-cross plots: sometimes things are exactly what they seem. It's a minor disappointment, in any case, and really nothing anyone could do much about without greatly altering the script. The tight, witty dialogue (which despite the period setting is not, thank God, cod-Shakespearean) is one of the pleasures of this piece, and adaptor Wells has had the sense and sensitivity to leave it largely alone.
Other highlights of the show are mostly visual: Nicki Brown's lighting is subtle and precise, Max Dorey's set is a brilliantly vertiginous, tumbledown tower-room which nonetheless never cramps the actors; and Ameena Kara Callender's costumes – from rags to codpieces – are simply ravishing. But at the core of it all shines the complex and compelling relationship between Gribaud and the Duke, and the question of whether their loyalty to one another can survive the prospect of freedom. Speaking of which...
If you believe the programme notes from producers Mark Perry and Lliana Bird, this is not just a political and personal thriller; it's "a tragic love story" between the Duke and Gribaud. However, while this version of the script will admit of a queer reading, it's certainly not necessary to view it through that lens to enjoy the show. One could say the same about the relationship between Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar, but it's debatable how much insight is gained if their closeness is read as that of lovers rather than friends: homosexual rather than homosocial. It was Oscar (Wilde) himself, after all, who said that "friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer."
In either case, after sixteen years locked in the same room, the question at the heart of The Duke in Darkness – would you betray your only friend to save yourself? – is just as appalling, no matter which way you turn (or indeed, swing). The answer's well worth finding out, too, through a great production of an unfairly neglected play. Go and see this thoughtful, nailbiting, beautifully-acted, morally urgent thriller: you won't regret it.
On from 16 Apr 2013 - 11 May 2013
From the Tabard Theatre website:
From the author of hit thrillers Rope and Gaslight comes Patrick Hamilton's The Duke In Darkness in its first London revival for 60 years.
This tense but touching play is the third of a trio of psychological thrillers written by Patrick Hamilton in an illustrious career both as a playwright and novelist (Hangover Square), which also saw him achieve Hollywood success with Rope directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
France is in the grip of long and bloody civil wars. A Duke and his servant, incarcerated for fifteen years, plot their escape and dream of freedom. But in this world of conspiracy and paranoia, where no one is quite who they seem, what will one man sacrifice for his chance of survival?
London-based playwright and actor Orlando Wells has kindly been granted permission by Samuel French and the Patrick Hamilton Estate to adapt Hamilton’s rarely seen piece for modern audiences.
The Rt Hon The Earl of Shrewsbury & Talbot - Trustee of The Hamilton Settlement and nephew of the late Patrick Hamilton said,
"The Hamilton Estate are delighted that the work of Patrick Hamilton is continuing to be shown to theatre going audiences, and that this thrilling play, The Duke in Darkness, is returning to the London stage after so many years. The fact that it is coming to the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, where Patrick lived and now has a blue plaque, makes it all the more appropriate."
The playwright and author lived at Burlington Gardens in Chiswick for 16 years. He died in 1962. Laura Thompson wrote of him in The Telegraph, "A writer whose merciless, uncompromising view of humanity is shocking even today...Hamilton is the poet of compulsion. Nobody writes it better." In 2011 English Heritage installed a prestigious Blue Plaque at his Chiswick address.
"[Hamilton] is a sort of urban Thomas Hardy: . . . he is unparalleled."- Nick Hornby
"[The Duke in Darkness] is the most unfairly underrated of all Patrick's dramatic works." - Nigel Jones
The production will be directed by Phoebe Barran, designed by Max Dorey with sound design by David McSeveney and lighting design by Nicki Brown.
The cast for the show is Michael Palmer (The Duke), Jamie Treacher (Gribaud), Sean Pogmore (D’Aublaye), Martin Miller (Duke of Larmorre), Jake Mann (Voulain) and Matt Fraser Holland (Marteau).
‘The Tin Horizon’, Orlando Well’s first production, recently premiered to wide acclaim at Theatre 503 in London.
"acting of the highest caliber in a play that proves Wells has a gift for gothic futurism...a name to watch… shows a wild imagination at work and displays unmistakable signs of talent" Michael Billington, The Guardian
"deeply sinister and queasily funny, with gripping performances… Wells's vision is the grotesque stuff of modern nightmares" Sam Marlowe, The Times
‘You may have to sneak and trick for your life. You may have to fight. Are you ready to fight, my lord?'
http://www.tabardweb.co.uk/dukeindark...
A review:
A claustrophobic psychological thriller set in 16th century France, Patrick Hamilton’s The Duke in Darkness never achieved the success of his earlier plays, Rope and Gaslight, and has been rarely performed since the original 1942 production, directed by and starring Michael Redgrave.
Newly adapted by Orlando Wells, the play emerges in Phoebe Barran’s admirably taut staging as much more than a historical curio. The setting is a tower prison in which the Duke of Laterraine (Michael Palmer) has been incarcerated for 15 years alongside his faithful servant Gribaud (Jamie Treacher), a victim of the era’s wars of religion and of rival aristocrat Lamorre (a supercilious Martin Miller).
Throughout his imprisonment, the Duke has survived on fantasies of escape, feigning blindness in an attempt to get his captors to lower their guard, but when the opportunity finally arises it can only be seized at great personal cost. When originally staged, the play’s conflict between persecuted Huguenots and Catholic absolutism, and its themes of resistance to tyranny, loyalty and sacrifice, clearly resonated with the contemporary struggle against fascism. Those ideas continue to resound, but Wells’ adaptation casts new light on the Duke and Gribaud’s ambivalent intimacy. Both roles are incredibly demanding but Palmer and Treacher valiantly rise to the challenge. Palmer makes the Duke’s moral choices gripping and moving, while Treacher brings off Gribaud’s descent into madness with touching humour.
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/rev...
One more review:
If the name Patrick Hamilton rings a bell, it's probably one that chimes with a certain tone of inter-war urban despair: a recent resurgence of interest in his work means modern audiences are probably more familiar with his novels (including Hangover Square and 20,000 Streets under the Sky) than his plays.
Hamilton's first big success, however, was the Nietzschean stage thriller Rope (a West End hit in 1929, filmed by Hitchcock in 1948, recently revived at the Brockley Jack Studio) and his other plays include Gaslight. With such a pedigree, the revival of a rarely-performed piece by Hamilton is an exciting and tempting prospect. But do Orlando Wells's adaptation and Phoebe Barran's production live up to expectations?
I won't keep you in suspense: the answer's a resounding yes, despite the rather confusing trailer on the Tabard's website, which features a mashup of all the most dramatic speeches yanked out of context and delivered fiercely to camera. There is such a thing as trying too hard, and this show really doesn't need to. Luckily, as soon as the curtain rises the audience is able to relax into the hands of a director and a cast who know exactly what they're doing.
The status quo that greets us in the first scene is as follows: in war-torn Renaissance Franc ethe Duke of Laterraine ("the Land"), played with weary nobility by Michael Palmer, has spent the last 16 years imprisoned with his manservant Gribaud (the excellent Jamie Treacher, mercurial and pathetic in the best sense). Nothing changes and nobody comes, especially not to their rescue: the pair's only amusements are chess and bickering, and Gribaud even cheats at chess. So far, so Endgame-meets-Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern. But this is no existential stalemate, for soon the prisoners are told to prepare for a visitor: their captor the Duke of Lamorre (Martin Miller).
As this is a taut, unshowy thriller which depends on its plot twists to hold the audience's interest, I won't reveal too much more, but I can say that Jake Mann as new gaoler Voulain manages deftly to combine oleaginous creepiness with wide-eyed sincerity to excellent effect, sometimes in the same sentence. Meanwhile, Martin Miller's Henrician Lamorre, a bluff buffoon in doublet and hose, provides welcome comic relief which only partly veils the unstable threat he represents.
The interplay between captor and captive during the visit depends heavily on Laterraine maintaining the fiction that he's feeble and blind, and this is a superlative piece of physical acting on Palmer's part, extending even into an entertaining game of mental chess which the prisoner (naturally) wins. When the chaotic, babbling Gribaud interrupts this delicately-balanced scene, the sense of danger is palpable: a single unguarded word could threaten the Duke's escape plans, and without him, any uprising to oust Lamorre will fail.
Gribaud, the Duke's only companion, his friend, helpmeet, sparring partner and loyal servant, has gone mad, and in doing so, made himself expendable. But will the Duke have the guts E.M. Forster once hoped for – to betray his country, rather than his friend?
I couldn't possibly comment on what happens next, of course, but the script (a svelte one hour, 40 minutes) certainly kept me guessing, and moreover completely held my attention right to the end. It did have one fewer twist than I was expecting from the marketing (and, yes, the bizarre trailer); but perhaps I've been spoiled by too many Hollywood double-triple-cross plots: sometimes things are exactly what they seem. It's a minor disappointment, in any case, and really nothing anyone could do much about without greatly altering the script. The tight, witty dialogue (which despite the period setting is not, thank God, cod-Shakespearean) is one of the pleasures of this piece, and adaptor Wells has had the sense and sensitivity to leave it largely alone.
Other highlights of the show are mostly visual: Nicki Brown's lighting is subtle and precise, Max Dorey's set is a brilliantly vertiginous, tumbledown tower-room which nonetheless never cramps the actors; and Ameena Kara Callender's costumes – from rags to codpieces – are simply ravishing. But at the core of it all shines the complex and compelling relationship between Gribaud and the Duke, and the question of whether their loyalty to one another can survive the prospect of freedom. Speaking of which...
If you believe the programme notes from producers Mark Perry and Lliana Bird, this is not just a political and personal thriller; it's "a tragic love story" between the Duke and Gribaud. However, while this version of the script will admit of a queer reading, it's certainly not necessary to view it through that lens to enjoy the show. One could say the same about the relationship between Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar, but it's debatable how much insight is gained if their closeness is read as that of lovers rather than friends: homosexual rather than homosocial. It was Oscar (Wilde) himself, after all, who said that "friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer."
In either case, after sixteen years locked in the same room, the question at the heart of The Duke in Darkness – would you betray your only friend to save yourself? – is just as appalling, no matter which way you turn (or indeed, swing). The answer's well worth finding out, too, through a great production of an unfairly neglected play. Go and see this thoughtful, nailbiting, beautifully-acted, morally urgent thriller: you won't regret it.
http://onestoparts.com/review-duke-in...