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Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

a play for actors and orchestra

by Tom Stoppard and André Previn

Tom Stoppard's provocative and chilling play with music by André Previn, staged with an orchestra in an electrifying new production.

I assure you there is not much in it. Taken as a whole, the sane are out there and the sick are in here. For example, YOU are here because you have delusions, that sane people are put in mental hospitals.

A dissident is locked up in an asylum. If he accepts that he was ill, has been treated and is now cured, he will be released. He refuses.

Your opinions are your symptoms.
Your disease is dissent.

Sharing his cell is a real lunatic, Ivanov, who believes himself to be surrounded by an orchestra. As the dissident’s son begs his father to free himself with a lie, Tom Stoppard’s darkly funny play asks if denying the truth is a price worth paying for liberty.

Olivier Award-winning actor Toby Jones plays Ivanov. His film work includes Oliver Stone's W, Frost/Nixon, and an unforgettable performance as Truman Capote in Infamous.

A co-production with Southbank Sinfonia – Britain’s young professional orchestra.

Read an interview with André Previn and Tom Stoppard in The Times

Read about the play on Wikipedia

View exclusive rehearsal images

Performances times (65 mins, no interval)
7pm (Ends 8.05pm)
8.45pm (Ends 9.50pm)
3pm (Ends 4.05pm)

Tickets £10, £15, £30 No booking fee

An illustrated programme for Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is on sale at £3 from the Bookshop and from the Olivier Bookstall from ushers at performance times. Read an extract and description of contents.

Image (top right): Photo © Corbis