A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Grief

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5w, 1m

Mike Leigh

War widow Dorothy lives in a London
suburb with her 15-year-old daughter Victoria and her older bachelor brother
Edwin.

Grief

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 1m
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
1957. War widow Dorothy lives in a London suburb with her 15-year-old daughter Victoria and her older bachelor brother Edwin. More and more isolated from her married friends with their successful children, Dorothy tries to cope with Victoria's increasingly hostile behaviour.

 

But is she doing her best, as she thinks, or is she in fact responsible for what threatens to become an unendurable situation?

History
First performed in the Cottlesloe auditorium of the National Theatre on 21st September 2011
Keywords
  • Time Period 1950s
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

This exquisitely observed, profoundly quiet slice of 1950s suburban life circles around grief of the concealed, Rattigan variety....Leigh meticulously shows us a group of people trapped by middle-class gentility, without ever condescending to them...Be warned, it will take you almost beyond what’s bearable. Sunday Times

 

A haunting portrait of loss and loneliness. Financial Times

 

Leigh’s meticulous production potently captures the pain that lurked behind stiff upper lips in the England of the fifties...be warned: brilliant though it often is, GRIEF casts a potent pall of desolation that lingers long after the show itself is over. Daily Telegraph.

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, at Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School. He has written and directed over twenty stage plays. These include Babies Grow Old (1974), Abigail's Party (1977), Ecstasy (1979), Goose ...
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