With Travesties and David Baddiel: My Family Not the Sitcom taking up residence in the West End, Funny Girl on the road as part of a major national tour, the Menier Chocolate Factory today announces the West End transfer of their current critically acclaimed revival of Terence Rattigan’s Love in Idleness.
The production plays a strictly limited season for just 50 performances, opening on 18 May 2017 at the Apollo Theatre (where Travesties is currently running), with previews from 11 May, and is running until 1 July. Public booking opens at 9am on 29 March.
Trevor Nunn directs Eve Best (Olivia Brown), Edward Bluemel (Michael Brown), Anthony Head (Sir John Fletcher), Vivienne Rochester (Miss Dell) and Nicola Sloane (Polton/Celia Wentworth). (Helen George is unable to transfer with the production due to prior filming commitments.)
Returning from Canada after a four-year absence during the war, eighteen-year-old Michael is full of youthful ideology and leftist leanings. But he is shocked to find his widowed mother Olivia is now the mistress of cabinet minister Sir John Fletcher, enjoying a comfortable society life. When Michael and John clash, sparks fly and relationships are tested as everyone learns some difficult lessons in love.
This new production sees Nunn return to Rattigan, following the huge success of Flare Path, with another of the playwright’s trio of ‘war plays’, which also includes While the Sun Shines.
Nunn will follow Love and Idleness at the Menier Chocolate Factory with Lettice and Lovage. Maureen Lipman and Felicity Kendal star in the Shaffer revival, which runs 17 May to 8 July 2017, with a press night on 17 May.
Terence Rattigan’s (1911 – 1977) other major works include The Deep Blue Sea, The Browning Version, Separate Tables, French without Tears and The Winslow Boy.
Love in Idleness has set and costume designs by Stephen Brimson Lewis; with lighting design by Paul Pyant; sound design by Gregory Clarke, and projections by Duncan McLean. It’s produced in the West End by Chocolate Factory Productions and Nica Burns.
