Works by of one of the nation’s most beloved and famed writers, Alan Bennett, can be seen on the stage of the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.
Huddersfield Thespians are producing a series of no fewer than five acclaimed one-act plays by Bennett under the umbrella title of Offices & Gentlemen.
The plays have been divided into two groups and will be performed on alternate days – from Tuesday, January 30, until Saturday, February 3.
In the first group audiences will see Say Something Happened, A Visit from Miss Prothero and Green Forms. They offer an insight and unique perspective into everyday life and work in an office.
With Bennett’s trademark wit, irony and compassion, the tales follow the fortunes of a council worker, two corporate employees and a recently retired office worker.
In Gentlemen, the Thespians are telling the stories of An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution, which follow events in the lives of Cambridge spies Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt. The former is based on the true story of a meeting in Moscow between English actress Coral Browne and Burgess and is a touching portrait of a man torn between Marxist principles and his longing for contact with his upper class British peers.
A Question of Attribution portrays Blunt’s interrogation by MI5 officers, his acquaintance with the Queen and his work in art restoration (during which he discovers faces concealed beneath a painting’s surface) and is an exploration of the gulf between appearance and reality.
The plays all date from the 1970s and 80s and some have been seen on the small screen as well as stage. Bennett, who has been a leading contemporary dramatist since the 1960s, is best known for his Talking Heads television series and works such as the Madness of King George III, the History Boys and The Lady in the Van, which was made into a film in 2015 and starred Maggie Smith.
The Thespians are offering theatregoers the chance to see all five one-act plays with a special ticket offer of £20 for two performances. Tickets for individual shows, Offices or Gentlemen, are £12. For details visit thelbt.org.uk or call 01484 430528.
