Passion Play
Hackney Gazette June 27th, 2002
Double trouble
EVER been in two minds about being unfaithful to your partner?
A middle-aged married man having an affair with a younger woman is not unusual, but Passion Play provides a new perspective on adultery.
Playwright Peter Nichols forces the audience to reconsider their assumptions about monogamy and human emotions.
He takes the story into unchartered corners of the psyche by using: two actors to play one character. One plays the persona the character chooses to present. The other plays a doppelganger, or alter ego, letting the audience know what the character is thinking and feeling.
The device allows director Robert Gillespie to examine the emotional truth of the situation with surprising clarity.
Highbury & Islington Express July 12th 2002
The voice of reason - for cheating
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FALLING in love and living happily ever after - it's what we're all looking for.
Or is it? In Peter Nichols' aptly named Passion Play, monogamy is defined as ownership, forced on us by religion and politics, and adultery is a desirable act which brings us back to nature. But what else would a 50-something man do, regardless of his marital status, when a young, sexy, seductive woman throws herself at him?
You might think adultery has been so done. But you'd be wrong. Nichols' approach of giving the main characters' inner thoughts their own voices is incredibly effective. Four actors play the two main characters - the husband and wife are each shadowed by alter egos who inject honesty and desire into the silent moments of every conversation.
Everything we are afraid to say, or even think, is laid bare, and the truth of relationships, monogamous or otherwise, revealed. The range of emotions covered is an intense rollercoaster. Be warned - this play covers all aspects of adultery, and there will be something in it that rings true for every relationship. It may even plant a seed of doubt in your mind.
So go see it - if you think your relationship is strong enough.
Paula Greenspan