Farewell To the Theatre

Directed By: John McSpadyen
Written By: Richard Nelson
Presented By: Tower Theatre Company

Widely regarded as the man who laid the foundations of modern British theatre, Harley Granville Barker was famed both for his Shakespearean productions and his ground-breaking new plays in the early 20th Century. He also lectured at home and abroad, and drew up the first detailed plans for a National Theatre.

Richard Nelson's play finds him in Massachusetts in 1916, embittered and world-weary, amongst a group of British expatriates endeavouring to find their way in an academic, theatre-obsessed community whilst war rages in Europe.

In the course of a day and a night, Granville Barker and his compatriots consider their lives as exiles and artists in a world full of loss, disenchantment and disillusion – but where Art has the power to heal, to liberate, and to bind us together.

Intrigue, lust and betrayal permeate this witty and absorbing study of human nature, as Granville Barker gradually rediscovers his love of the art of theatre and his faith in its centrality to a life well lived.