Lawrence After Arabia | |
---|---|
Written by | Howard Brenton |
Date premiered | 28 April 2016 |
Place premiered | Hampstead Theatre, London |
Original language | English |
Lawrence After Arabia is a 2016 play by the British playwright Howard Brenton, centred on T. E. Lawrence and his 1922 retreat from public life at the home of his friends George Bernard Shaw and his wife Charlotte. [1] Its premiere production ran from 28 April to 4 June 2016 at the Hampstead Theatre in London to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Arab Revolt, in which Lawrence played a leading part. [2]
The Independent found it "intriguing, richly researched but underpowered"; [3] while The Daily Telegraph noted "A quiet, but highly topical, masterpiece...clever and engaging...the skill of the play is that it doesn’t make you think; it lets you think"; and The Times found it "Fascinating...it feels as if we have been given a magic window to see what really happened to Lawrence after Arabia." [4]
Thomas Edward Lawrence was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918) against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. E. Lawrence while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire of 1916 to 1918.
The Arab Revolt or the Great Arab Revolt was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, an agreement between the British government and Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, the revolt was officially initiated at Mecca on June 10, 1916. The aim of the revolt was to create a single unified and independent Arab state stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen, which the British had promised to recognize.
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Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend was an Irish political activist in Britain. She was a member of the Fabian Society and was dedicated to the struggle for women's rights. She married the playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Maxwell Robert Guthrie Stewart "Max" Stafford-Clark is a British theatre director.
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Never So Good is a 2008 play by Howard Brenton, which portrays the life and career of Harold Macmillan, a 20th-century Conservative British politician who served as Prime Minister (1957–1963). It was first performed in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 26 March 2008; previews began on 17 March 2008.
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Bloody Poetry is a 1984 play by Howard Brenton centring on the lives of Percy Shelley and his circle.
Drawing the Line is a 2013 play by Howard Brenton, centred on Cyril Radcliffe and his part in the partition of India in 1947. It premiered from 3 December 2013 to 11 January 2014, in a production directed by Howard Davies at London's Hampstead Theatre.
Caryl Lesley Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Celebrated for works such as Cloud 9 (1979), Top Girls (1982), Serious Money (1987), Blue Heart (1997), Far Away (2000), and A Number (2002), she has been described as "one of Britain's greatest poets and innovators for the contemporary stage". In a 2011 dramatists' poll by The Village Voice, five out of the 20 polled writers listed Churchill as the greatest living playwright.
Village Wooing, A Comedietta for Two Voices is a play by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1933 and first performed in 1934. It has only two characters, hence the subtitle "a comedietta for two voices". The first scene takes place aboard a liner, the second in a village shop. The characters are known only as "A" and "Z".
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