Graham Greene's 'The Living Room': a four-star hit at Jermyn Street Theatre

Christopher Timothy and Tuppence Middleton

Christopher Timothy and Diane Fletcher

Christopher Timothy, Christopher Villiers and Tuppence Middleton

 

‘Graham Greene’s first play thrilled audiences when it premiered [in the UK] in 1953, succeeding because — as one critic put it — “There seems to be nothing we so much relish nowadays as a good, brisk chat about Evil,” wrote the London Evening Standard’s reviewer, Henry Hitchings, on 11th March 2013 about the first major revival of Greene’s The Living Room produced by Primavera in association with Jermyn Street Theatre, London.

THE LIVING ROOM

by Graham Greene

CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM

MICHAEL DENNIS: Christopher Villiers

ROSE PEMBERTON: Tuppence Middleton

MISS TERESA BROWNE: Caroline Blakiston

MISS HELEN BROWNE: Diane Fletcher

FATHER JAMES BROWNE: Christopher Timothy

MRS DENNIS: Emma Davies

Directed by Tom Littler

Set Design by Cherry Truluck

Lighting Design by Tim Bray

Sound Design by George Dennis

Costume Design by Emily Stuart

PERFORMANCES

Monday to Saturday 7.30pm; Saturday matinees 3.30pm.

The production will run until 30th March 2013.

TICKETS

Tickets: £20.00 (or £16.00 for Concessions)

Box Office telephone: 0044-(0)-207-287-2875

VENUE

16b Jermyn Street

London, SW1Y 6ST

England, UK

Nearest underground railway station:

Piccadilly Circus

SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY

Two elderly sisters, Theresa and Helen Browne, live together in their family home with their brother James, a crippled Catholic priest. James’ paralysis means that he can no longer perform his priestly duties. The sisters cannot abide the idea of sleeping in a room in which someone has died. The room in which all four scenes of the play are set is a bedroom converted into a living room. As the play opens, their niece, Rose, has just arrived from the funeral of her mother. She is accompanied by her legal executor, Michael Dennis.

Michael and Rose are lovers. Helen, the sharper of the sisters, guesses the truth. Rose and Michael plan to go away together, but Helen blocks this idea by forcing Theresa into a psychosomatic breakdown, knowing that Rose will agree to stay to look after her. Rose becomes an established part of this oppressive household. Each afternoon she slips away to a flat in Regal Court for an adulterous union with Michael, but the life of deceit takes its toll. Rose loses her bloom.

ROSE: ‘“Since my last confession three weeks ago I have committed adultery twenty-seven times.” That’s what Aunt Helen would like me to say, and, Father, it doesn’t mean a thing.’
The Living Room, Act 2, Scene 1, in Graham Greene, Collected Plays. London: Vintage, 2002. 47.

This synopsis draws on programme notes written by Dr Joe Spence for the dramatised reading of The Living Room at the Graham Greene International Festival on Friday 1st October 2010.

FIRST PRODUCTIONS

The Living Room was first performed in Stockholm (Sweden) in October 1952. One contemporary critic wrote, ‘The public who went to the play included the whole of literary Stockholm, [and] appreciated to the full incomparably the most fascinating production of the autumn season.[...]. When Graham Greene stepped on to the stage, I thought the applause would never stop. It was, perhaps, rather for one of the greatest novelists of our time, than for the dramatist, but either way, it was well-meant.’ (Svenska Dagbladet, 1st November 1952, quoted in Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2: 1939-55. London: Random House, 1994. 452).

In the UK the play was performed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brighton, before it opened at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, on Thursday 16th April 1953 with the following cast:

MARY: Dorothy Dewhurst

MICHAEL DENNIS: John Robinson

ROSE PEMBERTON: Dorothy Tutin

MISS TERESA BROWNE: Mary Jerrold

MISS HELEN BROWNE: Violet Farebrother

FATHER JAMES BROWNE: Eric Portman

MRS DENNIS: Valerie Taylor

The production was directed by Peter Glenville with settings by Leslie Hurry.

DRAMATISED READING AT THE FESTIVAL 2010

At the Graham Greene International Festival in Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire, UK) on Friday 1st October 2010 there was a shortened dramatised reading of The Living Room with the following cast:



Eliza Boyd

Sally Knyvette

 

Eve Matheson



Philip Battley




Isabel Pollen

MICHAEL DENNIS: Michael Palmer

ROSE PEMBERTON: Eliza Boyd

MISS TERESA BROWNE: Sally Knyvette

MISS HELEN BROWNE: Eve Matheson

FATHER JAMES BROWNE: Philip Battley

MRS DENNIS: Isabel Pollen

Dr Joe Spence (Master of Dulwich College)

The reading was introduced and directed by Joe Spence.

MICHAEL BILLINGTON ON GREENE THE PLAYWRIGHT

Michael Billington (theatre critic, The Guardian) gave a talk titled 'Graham Greene in the Theatre' at the Graham Greene International Festival on Saturday 3rd October 2009. He developed the talk into his chapter 'The Plays of Graham Greene' in Dangerous Edges of Graham Greene (editors, Dermot Gilvary and Darren J.N. Middleton. Continuum: London and New York, 2011).

ORIGINAL REVIEWERS' COMMENTS ON THE LIVING ROOM (1953)

'The best first play of its generation,' wrote Kenneth Tynan. Dorothy Tutin was 'masterly: the very nakedness of acting. In her greatest sorrow, she blazes like a diamond in a mine.' The critic for The Illustrated London News commented on the character of Rose: 'This is a part for an ingenue that is much ado about something; Miss Tutin sustains it with a beautiful certainty.' In the Daily Mail Cecil Wilson wrote that Dorothy Tutin gave 'a performance of heartrending simplicity which is at once childlike and mature in its emotional force'.

REVIEWS OF THIS PRODUCTION (2013)

Henry Hitchings in the London Evening Standard (11th March 2013)

Philip Fisher in the British Theatre Guide (March 2013)

Michael Billington in The Guardian (13th March 2013)

Paul Taylor in The Independent (12th March 2013)

Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph (12th March 2013)

PRIMAVERA

Primavera and director Tom Littler return to Jermyn Street Theatre after acclaimed sell-out revivals of Bloody Poetry, Anyone Can Whistle and Saturday Night.

The company has assembled an outstanding all-star cast for this revival.

Christopher Timothy, well known for his roles as James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small and Mac McGuire in Doctors, plays Father James Browne, Rose's uncle.

Her aunts Teresa and Helen are played by distinguished actresses Caroline Blakiston (Brass and, previously at Jermyn Street Theatre, Black Bread and Cucumber) and Diane Fletcher (House of Cards).

Rising star Tuppence Middleton (Tormented, Cleanskin, and the BBC's The Lady Vanishes) makes her theatre debut as Rose.

Mr and Mrs Dennis are played by Christopher Villiers and Emma Davies; both are widely known for their extensive television and stage work.

GREENE’S THE POTTING SHED

Svetlana Dimčović (theatre director) gave a talk titled 'Backstage with Greene' at the Graham Greene International Festival on Saturday 2nd October 2010, when she discussed her production of Greene’s play The Potting Shed at the Finborough Theatre (Earl’s Court, London) in 2010. The show was given an extended run in January 2011.
 

Cast: Charlie Roe, Zoe Thorne, Cate Debenham-Taylor, Eileen Battye, Malcolm James, Paul Cawley, David Gooderson, Carl Ferguson, Janet Hargreaves, Lorna Jones and Martin Wimbush.

Design: Kate Guinness. Lighting: Jessica Glaisher. Sound: Simon Perkin. Direction: Svetlana Dimčović.