Grief

a new play by Mike Leigh

4 STARS Independent, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Time Out

'A exquisitely observed, profoundly quiet slice of 1950s suburban life.' The Sunday Times

'Meticulously evocative' Independent

'Manville is magnificent in this broodingly muted family drama.' Sunday Express

'Leigh makes you laugh and laugh - until you cry.' Time Out

'A haunting portrait of loss and loneliness, exquisitely acted throughout and led by a riveting performance by Manville.' Financial Times

'Leigh's meticulous production potently captures the pain that lurked behind stiff upper lips in the England of the Fifties.' Daily Telegraph

'Nobody gets more truthful performances from actors than Mike Leigh.' The Times

'The acting is superb.' Guardian

'Leigh directs with sensitivity.' Evening Standard

'Extraordinarily poignant' Independent on Sunday

 

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?

A devastating portrait of family dependencies and stifling domesticity, Grief is the new stage work by Mike Leigh. His many stage plays include Babies Grow Old (RSC 1974), Abigail's Party (Hampstead Theatre 1977), Goose-Pimples (Hampstead Theatre 1981), It's A Great Big Shame! (Theatre Royal Stratford East 1993), Two Thousand Years (National Theatre 2005) and Ecstasy (1979), which has recently been revived under Leigh's direction at Hampstead Theatre and in the West End.

Mike Leigh is re-united on this project with Lesley Manville - his most frequent collaborator - and with regulars Marion Bailey, Sam Kelly and Wendy Nottingham. He worked with them variously on the films Who's Who (1978), Grown-Ups (1980), Meantime (1984), The Short & Curlies (1987), High Hopes (1988), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Another Year (2010) and A Running Jump (2012).

 

World Premiere

Captioned performance Mon 23 January at 7.30pm
Audio Described performances Fri 14 October at 7.30pm,
Sat 15 October at 2.30pm (Touch Tour at 12.45pm)

Click here to read Mike Leigh's interview with theartsdesk.

Grief finished on: 28 January 2012