The Slaves of Solitude - Hampstead Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
NICHOLAS Wright’s The Slaves of Solitude is to receive its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre. Adapted from the novel by Patrick Hamilton and directed by Jonathan Kent, it runs from October 30 (previews from October 20) to November 25, 2017.
Have I shocked you? Have I bruised the delicate feelings of the English Miss? Miss Missed-her-chance. Miss Missed-her-man. Miss Prim. Miss Prude.
The Slaves of Solitude weaves a fascinating blend of dark hilarity and melancholy in a story about an improbable heroine in wartime Britain.
1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, which is as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war now consists of a thousand petty humiliations, of which the most burdensome is sharing her daily life with the unbearable Mr. Thwaites.
But a breath of fresh air arrives in the form of a handsome American Lieutenant and things start to look distinctly brighter. Until, that is, a seeming friend moves into the room adjacent to Miss Roach’s, upsetting the precariously balanced ecosystem of the house…
Nicholas Wright returns to Hampstead Theatre following the sell-out hit The Last of the Duchess (Main Stage, 2011) and A Human Being Died That Night (Downstairs, 2013). His other plays include Treetops and One Fine Day (Riverside Studios), The Gorky Brigade (Royal Court), The Crimes of Vautrin (Joint Stock), The Custom of the Country and The Desert Air (RSC), Cressida (Almeida Theatre at the Albery), Rattigan’s Nijinsky (Chichester Festival Theatre), and Travelling Light, Mrs. Klein, Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter (National Theatre).
He adapted His Dark Materials (National Theatre), and wrote versions of Naked and Lulu (Almeida Theatre), John Gabriel Borkman and Three Sisters (National Theatre) and Thérèse Raquin (Chichester Festival Theatre/National Theatre). His adaptation of Pat Barker’s Regeneration was produced in Northampton and on tour in 2014.
Jonathan Kent returns to Hampstead Theatre following Good People, starring Imelda Staunton in 2014. He was joint Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre between 1990 and 2002, which he founded as a full-time producing theatre. His numerous productions included Britannicus (also West End/New York), Hamlet (also Broadway), King Lear, The Tempest, Platonov, Lulu (also Washington), Coriolanus (also New York/Tokyo), The Life of Galileo, The School for Wives, Medea (also West End/Broadway) and The Rules of the Game.
His other theatre work includes Sweet Bird of Youth (Chichester Festival Theatre), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Broadway), David Hare’s Chekhov Trilogy: Ivanov, Platonov and The Seagull (Chichester Festival Theatre/National Theatre), Gypsy (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), Good People (Hampstead Theatre/West End), Private Lives (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End), The Emperor and Galilean (National Theatre), and Marguerite, The Sea and The Country Wife (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
Patrick Hamilton’s plays include the thrillers Rope (1929) – on which Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rope was based – and Gaslight (1939), also successfully adapted for screen in the same year. There was also an historical drama, The Duke in Darkness (1943). Among his novels are The Midnight Bell (1929), The Siege of Pleasure (1932), The Plains of Cement (1934), a trilogy entitled Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky (1935), Hangover Square (1941) and The Slaves of Solitude (1947).
The Gorse Trilogy is made up of The West Pier, Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse and Unknown Assailant, which were first published during the 1950s. He died in 1962.
The Slaves of Solitude is the second production in Hampstead Theatre’s Autumn 2017 season and follows the world premiere of Prism, which stars Robert Lindsay as legendary, double Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardif (September 6 to October 14, 2017).