Rope - Almeida Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
ROGER Michell will direct Patrick Hamilton’s classic thriller Rope, which runs at the Almeida Theatre from Thursday, December 10, 2009 to Saturday, February 6, 2010.
Said to be inspired by the real life murder of a young boy in 1920 by two University of Chicago students, Leopold and Loeb, Hamilton’s thriller is set in a Mayfair apartment.
Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo have murdered fellow student Ronald Kentley and deposited his body in a chest in their living room. Believing they are above common morality and suspicion they invite the student’s father, his aunt and several of their friends over for tea, served on the chest.
English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton’s Rope was first produced at the Strand Theatre in 1929. In 1948, it was adapted for film, with Alfred Hitchcock directing James Stewart in what was the first of Hitchcock’s films to be made in technicolor. And in 1983, Alan Rickman starred in a radio version broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Hamilton’s other works include Gaslight, which only last year was staged at the Old Vic where it starred Rosamund Pike and Kenneth Cranham, and Hangover Square, which was adapted for stage by Fidelis Morgan and recently enjoyed a sell-out run at the Finborough Theatre.
Award-winning stage and screen director Roger Michell’s recent theatre credits include The Female of the Species (Vaudeville Theatre); Betrayal and Old Times (Donmar Warehouse) and Honour, Landscape With Weapon, Blue/Orange, The Homecoming, Under Milk Wood and The Coup (National Theatre).
His many screen credits include Notting Hill, Venus, Enduring Love, The Mother, Changing Lanes, Titanic Town, Persuasion, My Night with Reg and The Buddha of Suburbia, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay.
Rope will be produced at the Almeida Theatre in association with Sonia Friedman Productions.