Taking Sides at the Duchess Theatre
| Booking to: | 22 August 2009 |
| Valid performances: | Monday-Thursday evening and Wednesday matinee |
| Group size: | 8+ |
| Group rate: | Best available for £25.00 |
Show Details
Collaboration and Taking Sides, two critically-acclaimed, subtly linked plays written by award-winning playwright Ronald Harwood that explore the fine line between collaboration and betrayal during the Second World War will transfer from the Chichester Festival Theatre to the Duchess Theatre on 20 May.
Taking Sides, first seen in 1995 deals with an investigation into the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who remained conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich. Furtwängler, played by Michael Pennington, was prized by Hitler and became the cultural jewel in his crown.
After the war he became the target for vigorous interrogation by the crude, apparently uncultured Major Steve Arnold, who had witnessed the horrors of Belsen.
Michael Pennington also plays composer Richard Strauss in Harwood's new play Collaboration. The play opens in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as Strauss and writer Stefan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. However, Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march.
Ronald Harwood said "It is no exaggeration to say that one of the great highlights of my professional life was to learn that Taking Sides and Collaboration were transferring from Chichester to the Duchess Theatre, London. Of all West End playhouses, the Duchess is one of the very few theatres able to hold audience and actors in an intimate embrace. It is, I believe, the ideal home for these plays which deal with the conflict between art and politics and the agonizing personal and moral choices that had to be faced by the protagonists. But those choices have still to be made by us, now, and the question how would we have behaved lies at the heart of both plays".
Taking Sides, first seen in 1995 deals with an investigation into the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who remained conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich. Furtwängler, played by Michael Pennington, was prized by Hitler and became the cultural jewel in his crown.
After the war he became the target for vigorous interrogation by the crude, apparently uncultured Major Steve Arnold, who had witnessed the horrors of Belsen.
Michael Pennington also plays composer Richard Strauss in Harwood's new play Collaboration. The play opens in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as Strauss and writer Stefan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. However, Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march.
Ronald Harwood said "It is no exaggeration to say that one of the great highlights of my professional life was to learn that Taking Sides and Collaboration were transferring from Chichester to the Duchess Theatre, London. Of all West End playhouses, the Duchess is one of the very few theatres able to hold audience and actors in an intimate embrace. It is, I believe, the ideal home for these plays which deal with the conflict between art and politics and the agonizing personal and moral choices that had to be faced by the protagonists. But those choices have still to be made by us, now, and the question how would we have behaved lies at the heart of both plays".
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