The Late Henry Moss - Southwark Playhouse
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
W14 Productions is presenting Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss at Southwark Playhouse (The Little) – from September 4 (previews from September 2) to September 26, 2015.
When you’re alone like this – just sitting here – just the two of you – you can start to make stuff up.
Two brothers, Earl and Ray, travel to Bernalillo New Mexico upon the mysterious death of their estranged father, Henry. Over a bottle of bourbon and a box of old photographs, they try to reconcile their very different childhood memories.
Earl’s version of Henry’s death doesn’t add up; so Ray determines to find the truth. As Ray plays detective, audiences encounter Henry’s bizarre collection of friends as the story of his last days is uncovered. Family tensions are blown apart as Ray discovers more than he’d bargained for…
First written in the year 2000 by actor, director and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard and performed only once in London, The Late Henry Moss is about a family and home.
The cast includes Joseph Arkley (The Rehearsal, Chichester Festival Theatre, The White Devil, The Witch of Edmonton, Romeo and Juliet, The Grain Store, Julius Caesar, The Winter’s Tale, RSC), Harry Ditson (Porgy and Bess, Savoy Theatre, Once in a Lifetime, Piaf, Piccadilly Theatre), Joe Evans (3 Winters, National Theatre, Dirty Dancing, national tour, Les Miserables, West End), Chris Jared (First Encounter, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Hamlet, RSC), Jack Sandle (War Horse, New London Theatre, Far from The Madding Crowd, English Touring Theatre) and Carolina Valdés (The Secret Agent, Young Vic, Julius Caesar, Donmar Warehouse).
The Late Henry Moss is directed by Mel Hillyard, who recently won the JP Morgan/National Theatre emerging director award, and designed by Cecilia Carey, with lighting design by Christopher Nairne, and sound design and composition by Keir Vine.
Playwright Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983) and received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009.
The Late Henry Moss is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited.
Tickets: £18, £16 concessions (students, under 16’s, unwaged, registered disabled, over 65’s). Previews £10. Registered disabled patrons can take one companion free of charge. To book, call 020 7407 0234 or visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 8pm; Saturday matinees at 3.30pm.
Also in The Little at Southwark Playhouse: Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs, David Halliwell’s startlingly pertinent comedy (until August 1, 2015).