Quartet (Harwood play)

Last updated

Quartet
Written by Ronald Harwood
CharactersReggie
Wilfred
Jean
Cecily
Date premiered8 September 1999 (1999-09-08)
Place premiered Albery Theatre, London
Original languageEnglish

Quartet is a play by Ronald Harwood about aging opera singers.

Contents

The play, presented by Michael Codron, was first directed by Christopher Morahan at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford prior to its West End opening at the Albery Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) on 8 September 1999 starring Sir Donald Sinden as Wilfred, Alec McCowen as Reginald, Stephanie Cole as Cecily and Angela Thorne as Jean. [1] Following a four-month run it closed on 8 January 2000.

A regional tour from June to August 2010 enjoyed success with Michael Jayston as Reggie, Timothy West as Wilfred, Susannah York as Jean, and Gwen Taylor as Cecily. [2]

Plot

The setting is a retirement home for musicians. Three elderly former opera-singers, who often worked together, are sitting out on the terrace. Reginald is quietly reading a serious book, but jovial, priapic Wilfred is chuckling about sex, as he regards Cissy, lying back and listening to music through her headphones.

They are about to be joined by newcomer Jean, who was a major star in her day and to whom Reginald was once unhappily married.

Is there any chance that these four will ever sing together again? A gala concert is about to take place at the retirement home to celebrate Verdi's birthday. Three of the four are keen to recreate the third act quartet "Bella figlia dell'amore" from Rigoletto and one is not. But the play eventually moves to an uncertain conclusion when they don costumes and lip-synch to their own retro recording.

Critical reaction

Writing for The Independent , Paul Taylor described the play as "an unashamed – no, shameless – vehicle for four feisty old troupers whose task is to make us laugh a little, sigh a little and cry a little as they take us into the bittersweet world of facing up to age and mortality." [3]

Charles Spencer for The Daily Telegraph wrote: "the show's heart is in the right place and a cherishable company of senior thesps give it everything they've got, breathing vitality into a script that could be an inert embarrassment if performed by less accomplished players." [4]

Reviewing the play for The Spectator , Sheridan Morley concluded: "Harwood seems to have set out with something sad to say about the ravages of age on a profession which largely depends on staying young, but then to have been sidetracked into a sort of Three Tenors concert celebration without the Three Tenors. So his play doesn’t end, it just stops, and we are left with nothing more than the memory of four performances desperately trying to make bricks despite a distinct lack of straw; if Harwood has anything new to tell us about singers who have for different reasons lost their voices and yet are now going unquietly into that good night he seems, like his characters, to have abruptly and irretrievably forgotten what he was going to say. And the rest is a kind of silence." [5]

Film adaptation

The play was adapted as a film by Harwood himself in 2012. Quartet was directed by Dustin Hoffman and the principal cast includes Maggie Smith as Jean, Tom Courtenay as Reg, Pauline Collins as Cissy and Billy Connolly as Wilfred. The production was filmed at Hedsor House, Buckinghamshire.

Related Research Articles

Dustin Hoffman American actor and director

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. Actor Robert De Niro described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human". At a young age Hoffman knew he wanted to study in the arts, and entered into the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music; later he decided to go into acting, for which he trained at the Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles. His first theatrical performance was 1961's A Cook for Mr. General as Ridzinski. During that time he appeared in several guest roles on television shows like Naked City and The Defenders. He then starred in the 1966 off-Broadway play Eh? where his performance garnered him both a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award.

Dorothy Tutin British actress

Dame Dorothy Tutin, was an English actress of stage, film and television. For her work in the theatre, she won two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress. She was made a CBE in 1967 and a Dame (DBE) in 2000.

Michael Praed, birth name Michael David Prince, is a British actor and narrator, probably best remembered for his role as Robin of Loxley in the British television series Robin of Sherwood, which attained cult status worldwide in the 1980s.

Bonnie Langford English actress, dancer and singer

Bonita Melody Lysette Langford is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series Just William. In the 1980s, she played companion Mel Bush in Doctor Who. She has also been known for appearing in various musicals in the West End and on Broadway, including shows such as Peter Pan, Cats, The Pirates of Penzance and Chicago. From 2015 to 2018, she portrayed the role of Carmel Kazemi on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, for which she received the 2016 British Soap Award for Best Newcomer.

Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.

Alec McCowen English actor

Alexander Duncan McCowen, was an English actor. He was known for his work in numerous film and stage productions.

Sir Ronald Harwood was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).

Gabrielle Drake is a British actress. She appeared in the 1970s in television series The Brothers and UFO. In the early 1970s she appeared in several erotic roles on screen. She later took parts in soap operas Crossroads and Coronation Street. She has also had a stage career.

Yvonne Arnaud

Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was a French-born pianist, singer and actress, who was well known for her career in Britain, as well as her native land. After beginning a career as a concert pianist as a child, Arnaud acted in musical comedies. She switched to non-musical comedy and drama around 1920 and was one of the players in the second of the Aldwych farces, A Cuckoo in the Nest, a hit in 1925. She also had dramatic roles and made films in the 1930s and 1940s, and continued to act into the 1950s. She occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career. The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was named in her memory in Guildford, Surrey.

Donald Sinden English actor

Sir Donald Alfred Sinden was an English actor.

Peter James Byrne was an English actor and director.

Olivia Hallinan is a British actress best known for her role as Laura Timmins in the BBC TV series Lark Rise to Candleford and also as Kim in the Channel 4 drama Sugar Rush. She also starred as Ellie in Girls in Love.

Marc Sinden English Filmmaker and Actor

Marcus Andrew Sinden is an English actor and film & theatre director and producer.

Ross Antony Musical artist

Ross Anthony Catterall, known by his stage name Ross Antony, is a British singer, musical actor, television entertainer and presenter based in Germany. He rose to fame as a member of the R&B/pop group Bro'Sis. Since the group disbanded in 2006, Antony has maintained a profile as a TV personality in Germany, culminating in his 2008 winning of Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!, the German version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Caroline Keiff is a British theatre performer, best known for her portrayal of Nessarose in Wicked. She was member of the original London cast and performed on the show's opening night of 27 September 2006. She performed in the ensemble and understudied the role of Nessarose. From July 2007, she began to understudy Glinda. She then replaced Katie Rowley Jones in the lead role of Nessarose on 9 June 2008, while continuing to understudy Glinda. She departed on 9 May 2009, after almost three years in the show, and was succeeded by Natalie Anderson.

That Good Night is a play by NJ Crisp, written with the intention of it being performed by Donald Sinden and his son Marc Sinden playing the central characters of the father and son. However Marc, who in 1991 had starred in Crisps' psychological thriller Dangerous Obsession, decided to produce it instead and so it became his first play as a Theatrical Producer.

<i>Quartet</i> (2012 film) 2012 British comedy-drama film directed by Dustin Hoffman

Quartet is a 2012 British comedy-drama film based on the play Quartet by Ronald Harwood, which ran in London's West End from September 1999 until January 2000. It was filmed late in 2011 at Hedsor House, Buckinghamshire. The film is actor Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut.

Castro's Beard is a play by British playwright Brian Stewart. The play centers on the true plots by the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro in the 1960s.

Valentine Gilbert Delabere "Val" May, CBE was an English theatre director and artistic director. He led the Bristol Old Vic from 1961 to 1975, and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre from 1975 to 1992.

<i>The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes</i> 2020 book edited by Gyles Brandreth

The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes is an anthology of theatrical anecdotes comprising four-hundred years of world theatre history, from Shakespeare to the present day, edited by "lifelong theatre-lover Gyles Brandreth in the Oxford tradition."

References

Notes

  1. "Dustin Hoffman riles Sir Donald Sinden with his comments about new film Quartet, The Daily Telegraph
  2. Review Quartet at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, by Sheila Connor (2010)
  3. The Independent , 10 September 1999
  4. The Daily Telegraph , 10 September 1999
  5. The Spectator, 18 September 1999

Bibliography