The Habit of Art
a new play by Alan Bennett
5 STARS 'Another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving.' Daily Telegraph
5 STARS 'Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece.' Independent
Performances from 15 July feature a new cast, which includes Desmond Barrit as W H Auden and Malcolm Sinclair as Benjamin Britten.
Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.
You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.
Alan Bennett’s new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.
‘In the end,’ said Auden, ‘art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one’s living and loving one’s neighbour.’
5 STARS 'Nicholas Hytner's flawless production carries you along in a wave of pleasure.' Mail on Sunday
5 STARS Daily Express, Sunday Telegraph
The Alan Bennett Short Film
The video above is a preview from a specially-commissioned documentary about The Habit of Art which will be shown on More4 this Autumn, and available to buy on DVD. The preview was also shown as part of the NT Live broadcast earlier this year.
The Habit of Art on Tour
The Habit of Art will tour the UK from September - November 2010. View tour dates.
