Man and Boy
by Terence Rattigan
Transferred to London's West End for a ten weeks run after an opening at Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford Sep 2004 and an eight weeks national tour
Running time: 2h 45min
1 interval
Director: Maria Aitken
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Mick Hughes
Music and Sound: Howard Davidson
Run sheet
Opening:
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford........ 22 Sep - 2 Oct 2004
UK Tour:
Arts Theatre, Cambridge................... 4 - 9 Oct 2004
Everyman Palace, Cork................ 11 - 16 Oct 2004
Theatre Royal, Bath.................... 18 - 23 Oct 2004
Theatre Royal, Brighton................ 1 - 6 Nov 2004
Theatre Royal, Plymouth............ 8 - 13 Nov 2004
The Oxford Playhouse............. 15 - 20 Nov 2004
Richmond Theatre, Surrey...... 22 - 27 Nov 2004
West End:
The Duchess Theatre........ 7 Feb - 16 April 2005
David Suchet...... Gregor Antonescu
Ben Silverstone...... Basil Anthony/Vasily Antonescu
David Yelland...... Sven Johnson
Colin Stinton...... David Herris
Will Huggins...... David Beeston
Jennifer Lee Jellicorse...... Carol Penn
Helen Grace...... Countess Antonescu
Synopsis
A corrupted, unscrupulous and manipulative East European financier in 1930’s America is willing to sacrifice everything, even his estranged son, in order to avoid ruin and allegations of fraud.
A detailed synopsis will be added over time...
Notes
Suchet based his research and performance of Antonescu on media tycoon Robert Maxwell, a character he later was to play in the BBC drama Maxwell.
Ben Silverstone wrote a diary for Stage Online during rehearsal, previews and opening night at The Duchess.
Cast and crew faced a tragic incident during rehearsals at Yvonne Arnaud, when actress Fritha Goodey (the role of Antonescu's wife), committed suicide two weeks before opening night. Goodey had suffered from anorexia for years and had been off screen and stage during hospitalization and recovery earlier in life. Her career was rising, and the role in Man and Boy was her most important ever. Still struggling with anorexia, though, she had become riddled with self-doubt, and feared she would fail. She committed suicide in her home by stabbing herself in the chest with a kitchen knife, leaving a farewell note to her family.
Emma Ferguson took over her role at Yvonne Arnaud and on tour - Ferguson was later replaced by Helen Grace on the London stage.
Rattigan’s play was ahead of its time and not well received by most critics when shown in 1963 at the Queens Theatre in London and later same year at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York. Rattigan himself saw the play as his masterpiece and predicted in a letter to a friend that it would be "read by some future theatre historian in fifty years time and hailed as "the best work of a fashionable contemporary dramatist””. Recently parts of that prediction came true with the revival of the play for the first time in over forty years in Maria Aitken’s critical acclaimed production.
A little incident involving a theatregoer’s ringing mobile phone in the middle of one evening’s performance was described by Michael Simkins as follows:
“When it [the interrupting phone] rang for a third time, Suchet merely stopped speaking, mid-sentence, whereupon he allowed the phone to ring on and on while he stared into the middle distance with a look of infinite regret and disdain etched on his face.
The phone continued to ring. Suchet's stare became even more sorrowful, even more resigned, even more disdainful. After an agony of fumbling, it eventually stopped. A half smile, and Suchet seamlessly continued from the very syllable he'd left off at. He'd neither come out of character nor had to improvise off the script and yet the integrity of the piece had been perfectly suspended. Electrifying stuff.
If I'd been the unfortunate miscreant, I would have thrown myself into the Thames after such a gracious shaming.” - read the whole of Simkins article here - and here (in a slightly different context).
The Press wrote:
Mike Howard for The Argus, November 3rd 2004: "Suchet is mesmerising. He bursts on to the stage… and dominates the play through to the end. You dare not take your eyes off him"
Jo Kerrigan for Irish Examiner: "(Suchet) holds the auditorium breathless, from his first entrance to his final, enigmatic exit… pure theatre"
The Financial Times: "Rattigan is never less than a master-craftsman and Suchet is, thrillingly, a master-actor"
Roderick Swanston, Online review London: “David Suchet is perfect, almost creepily compelling as the corrupt tycoon, Gregor Antonescu”
Lizzie Loveridge, Curtain up: “From the moment Suchet in his camel hair coat enters, he commands the stage”
The ticket company See's PR site for "Man and Boy"
Terence Rattigan's official website
David Suchet and Ben Silverstone as Gregor
Antonescu and Basil/Vasily
Jennifer Lee Jellicorse and David Suchet as
Carol Penn and Gregor Antonescu
19th August 2007 © All rights reserved
Last updated December 2010
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Playbill upper right corner provided by Diana. It still has the late Fritha Goodey's name on it...
