Passing By

Love isn’t forever. Love is just passing by.

The critically acclaimed Finborough production of the first London revival of Martin Sherman's ground-breaking play Passing By, presented by Arion Productions, transfers to the Tristan Bates Theatre with a brand new cast for four weeks only. Passing By is a charming romantic comedy about the love between two men whose hearts pull them together as their lives pull them apart, from the author of the multi-award-winning Bent (one of the National Theatre’s one hundred most significant plays of the twentieth century), Messiah, When She Danced, Rose and the film Mrs Henderson Presents.

Set in New York in 1972, designer Philip Lindley transports us to a bygone era in this heartfelt portrayal of a revolutionary exploration of intimacy, vulnerability and the human heart. The honesty of the play is inspiring; there is no sense of condescension or apology, but a realistic recognition of a real moment of truth and feeling that is at once heart-breaking and liberating. Martin Sherman’s play, which feels uncomfortably prescient in foreshadowing the future in its portrait of two new lovers facing an illness together, is also more positively a work of quiet but overwhelming power that makes no apology or excuse for the men reaching out to each other and falling in love (Mark Shenton, The Stage).

Simon Callow commented Passing By “was utterly radical in offering no apology or explanation for the affair… The defensive, the reflexive, the self-protective mask was shed, and shy, tender, loving emotion flowed gently round the tiny auditorium.”

Passing By was first produced at Playwrights Horizons, New York City, in 1974, and by Gay Sweatshop at the Almost Free Theatre in 1975. Then in 2012, starring Alex Felton and Steven Webb, Arion Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre, London, revived it to sell-out audiences. This production is supported by Arts Council England.