Taking Sides/Collaboration - Duchess Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
RONALD Harwood’s two World War Two plays, Taking Sides and Collaboration, will transfer to the West End’s Duchess Theatre, where they will run in rep from May 20 to August 29, 2009.
The plays were first presented together last summer at Chichester Festival Theatre, where they will return for a short run (April 28 to May 16) prior to the London transfer.
Though each is a story in its own right, the two plays were written as companion pieces, both exploring the fine line between collaboration and betrayal during World War Two.
In Taking Sides conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, prized by Hitler as the cultural jewel in the crown of the Third Reich, became the perfect post-war target for interrogation as a Nazi sympathiser. Major Steve Arnold, who has witnessed the horrors of Belsen, is about to cross-examine him.
Collaboration begins in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as composer Richard Strauss and writer Stephan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. But Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march. Is it possible to keep artistic aspiration and political action separate?
Reprising their roles will be Michael Pennington (as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss) and David Horovitch (as Stefan Zweig and Major Arnold).
Pennington has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the West End and with the English Shakespeare Company, of which he was the co-founder. He was seen on stage last year in Sweet William at Trafalgar Studios and Hampstead Theatre.
Horovitch’s numerous stage credits include Absurd Person Singular (Garrick Theatre), Losing Louis (Hampstead Theatre) and Mary Stuart (Donmar Warehouse).
Chichester Associate Director Philip Franks will direct a cast that also includes Isla Blair (The History Boys), Pip Donaghy (The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby), Martin Hutson (The Voysey Inheritance), Melanie Jessop and Sophie Roberts.
Harwood’s other works include The Dresser, After the Lions and Another Time; plus screenplays for The Pianist, for which he won an Academy Award, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England continues at the Duchess Theatre until May 16, 2009.
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