The Lie

by Florian Zeller

seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 29 September 2017

Lindsay Ponsner directs Christopher Hampton's version of Zeller's new play with Samantha Bond as Alice, Tony Gardner as Paul, Alexandra Gilbreath as Laurence and Alexander Hanson as Michel.

Anna Fleischle has designed a stylish French apartment's living room for a very stylish and very French play about the thorny issues of lying, being honest, being tactful and being deceitful, set around Alice's disquiet at hosting her husband's friend Michel and his wife in the evening after by chance seeing Michel kissing another woman in the street during the afternoon. Paul argues that neither Michel nor Laurence should be confronted - it is Michel's business and not theirs to interfere - but this raises large questions about honesty amongst friends and in a marriage, with spiralling and unforeseen consequences for all concerned.

The Wars of the Roses

by William Shakespeare adapted by John Barton and Peter Hall

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames on 29 October 2015

In 1962 John Barton and Peter Hall devised three plays they called 'Henry VI', 'Edward IV' and 'Richard III' from Shakespeare's original 'Henry VI' Parts 1, 2 and 3, and 'Richard III'. Presented under the overall title 'The Wars of the Roses', this was a major success for the then-new Royal Shakespeare Company, but the adaptations have rarely been performed since. Trevor Nunn saw the original productions as an undergraduate, and they inspired his vocation as a theatre director - he later followed Peter Hall as artistic director of both the RSC and the National Theatre. Peter Hall was also the founding patron of the Rose Theatre, and so Trevor Nunn has revived the trilogy here as a tribute to his mentor.

This production features Alex Waldmann as Henry VI, Joely Richardson as his queen Margaret of Anjou, Kåre Conradi as Edward IV, Alexandra Gilbreath as his queen Elizabeth, Robert Sheehan as Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III) and Alexander Hanson as Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York. The many other speaking parts are shared between these and sixteen other actors, some young boys and a 'company community chorus' of sixteen more assorted soldiers and peasants. The set was designed by John Napier and Mark Friend.