Taken at Midnight

Last updated
Taken at Midnight
Written by Mark Hayhurst
Date premiered2 October 2014, Chichester Festival Theatre, London
Genre drama
SettingNazi Germany

Taken At Midnight is a 2014 play by Mark Hayhurst on the life of Hans Litten, his cross-examination of Adolf Hitler in court in 1931 and his mother's attempts to secure his release after his arrest by the Nazis in 1933. Hayhurst also produced a television drama on the same topic in 2011, entitled The Man Who Crossed Hitler . [1] Taken At Midnight is Hayhurst's theatre debut. [2]

Contents

Production history

It premiered in the Minerva Theatre at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 2 October 2014 (previews from 26 September) to 1 November 2014, directed by Jonathan Church and starring Penelope Wilton. It transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, opening on 26 January 2015 (previews from 15 January) until 14 March 2015.

Characters and original cast

[3]

Hans Litten - Martin Hutson
Irmgard Litten - Penelope Wilton
Carl von Ossietzky - Mike Grady
Erich Mühsam - Pip Donaghy
Dr. Conrad -John Light
Fritz Litten - Allan Corduner
Gustav Hammerman - Marc Antolin
Lord Clifford Allen - David Yelland
SA Officer - Dermot McLaughlin
Hotelier - Christopher Hogben
Hitler's Voice - Roger Allam

Other parts were played by members of the company.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Wilton</span> English actress

Dame Penelope Alice Wilton, formerly styled Penelope, Lady Holm, is an English actress.

<i>The Deep Blue Sea</i> (play) 1952 play written by Terence Rattigan

The Deep Blue Sea is a British stage play by Terence Rattigan from 1952. Rattigan based his story and characters in part on his secret relationship with Kenny Morgan, and the aftermath of the end of their relationship. The play was first performed in London on 6 March 1952, directed by Frith Banbury, and won praise for actress Peggy Ashcroft, who co-starred with Kenneth More. In the US, the Plymouth Theater staged the play in October 1952, with Margaret Sullavan. The play with Sullavan subsequently transferred to Broadway, with its Broadway premiere on 5 November 1953, and running for 132 performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Royal Haymarket</span> West-End theatre in London, England

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alec McCowen</span> English actor

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin McDonagh</span> British-Irish filmmaker and playwright

Martin Faranan McDonagh is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his absurdist black humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, three Olivier Awards, and nominations for five Tony Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo Theatre</span> Theatre in London, England (opened 1901)

The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London. Designed by the architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfeld, it became the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street when it opened its doors on 21 February 1901, with the American musical comedy The Belle of Bohemia.

John Andrew Light is an English television, theatre, and film actor. He has received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his supporting performance in the play Taken at Midnight (2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen Atkins</span> English actress (born 1934)

Dame Eileen June Atkins, is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. In 2008, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Cranford. She is also a three-time Olivier Award winner, winning Best Supporting Performance in 1988 and Best Actress for The Unexpected Man (1999) and Honour (2004). She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Litten</span> German lawyer

Hans Achim Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic.

<i>Betrayal</i> (play) Play written by Harold Pinter

Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship, face-saving, dishonesty, and (self-) deceptions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Carter (actor)</span> English actor

James Edward Carter is an English actor, best known for his role as Mr Carson in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012–2015). He reprised the role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) and starred as the main villain Rookery in The Little Vampire and its 2017 remake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Corduner</span> British actor

Allan Corduner is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol University he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has worked extensively on stage, TV, and film, both in the UK and in the United States. His voice is familiar from many BBC radio plays, audio books and TV documentaries.

Edmund Stoppard is an English actor. He is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and doctor Miriam, Lady Hogg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menier Chocolate Factory</span>

The Menier Chocolate Factory is a 180-seat off-West End theatre, which comprises a bar and rehearsal rooms.

Janie Dee is an English actress and singer. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential.

Laurence Mark Wythe is an English composer, lyricist and writer for West End, international and Off-Broadway musicals. He is principally known for the off-Broadway musical Tomorrow Morning (2011), Through the Door and Midnight. Tomorrow Morning won the Jeff Award in Chicago for Best Musical (midsize) in 2009. The musical opened at the Landor Theatre in South London in October 2010, and off-Broadway at the Theatre at Saint Peters on Lexington Avenue in New York on 31 March 2011 and has played all over the world. Also: Creatives written with Irvine Welsh has been seen in the US and the UK; Extraordinary was produced by the University of Central Lancashire in 2017. He has also written one play's incidental music. The movie adaptation of Tomorrow Morning was shot in 2021 and will be released by Kaleidoscope Films in 2022, starring Samantha Barks and Ramin Karimloo with Omid Djalili, Fleur East, Joan Collins, Henry Goodman and Harriet Thorpe.

<i>Landscape</i> (play)

Landscape is a one-act play by Harold Pinter that was first broadcast on radio in 1968 and first performed on stage in 1969. The play shows the difficulties of communication between two people in a marriage. This is illustrated through the two characters who appear to be talking to one another though neither seems to hear the other. The dialogue resembles two independent monologues. The play is often studied, read, and performed alongside Silence, another one-act play published soon after Landscape. Both plays mark a change in Pinter's style, with echoes of the work of Samuel Beckett. In both plays nothing happens, the action of the plays is brought to a halt putting an added emphasis on the role of the dialogues and monologues that take place. As one critic put it "nothing happens but much is explored".

<i>One Man, Two Guvnors</i> Play by Richard Bean, first performed in 2011

One Man, Two Guvnors is a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters, a 1743 Commedia dell'arte style comedy play by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. The play replaces the Italian period setting of the original with Brighton in 1963. The play opened at the National Theatre in 2011, toured in the UK and then opened in the West End in November 2011, with a subsequent Broadway opening in April 2012. The second tour was launched six months later, playing the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. The second UK production in London closed in March 2014, before a third tour of the UK began in May 2014.

The Man Who Crossed Hitler is a 2011 BBC film set in Berlin in the summer of 1931, dramatising the true story in which a lawyer, Hans Litten, subpoenaed Adolf Hitler as a witness in the trial of some Nazi thugs. Hitler has formally renounced the use of political violence and the young lawyer sees a chance to expose the Nazi leader's deceptions to the German establishment, thereby discrediting Hitler and the Nazi Party. The film was given an alternative title Hitler on Trial which was used when the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States aired the work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Malarkey</span> British-American actor and musician (born 1983)

Michael Karim Malarkey is a British-American actor and musician. He is best known for playing the role of Enzo in the series The Vampire Diaries.

References

  1. "The Man Who Crossed Hitler – introduction" press release BBC (August 9, 2011). Retrieved September 4, 2011
  2. Taken At Midnight, London Theatre Direct. Retrieved: 29 Jan 2015
  3. Hayhurst, Mark (2014) Taken At Midnight, London: Bloomsbury, p.2.