Honour

By Joanna Murray-Smith

Synopsis:

“You know, at our age sometimes you’d really rather read the last chapter of your Anne Tyler than handcuff each other to the bedhead.” (Honor, Act 1)

Married for over 30 years, writers Honor and George are apparently fulfilled and satisfied. He is a successful, highly respected journalist, she a contented housewife whose early literary promise has been sidelined by marriage and family life. Into the scene steps Claudia, attractive, intelligent and half George’s age. As her husband succumbs to Claudia’s charms, Honor is caught up in the destructive whirlwind that tears apart her domestic idyll.

Joanna Murray-Smith says: “I wanted to put centre stage a middle-aged woman who has willingly sacrificed her life for marriage and is abandoned at the very point where she should be reaping the rewards of that devotion. It’s a poignant place to be.”

Performed in-the-round, Honour concludes Next Stage’s themed Autumn trilogy of plays by exploring love, desire and loss in one’s mature years. It deals sympathetically with Honor’s devastation, George’s betrayal, their daughter Sophie’s angry bewilderment and Claudia’s duplicity. Honour is not a judgmental play, and with its total realism, taut dialogue and avoidance of cliché, it will hold an audience gripped to the very end.

“A heart-rending, hard-edged, devastating play............It heaves and bursts with a cruel and sensitive intelligence” The Sunday Times

The production is brought to the stage by four outstanding actors familiar to Next Stage audiences: Alison Paine (Honor) and Yvonne Paulley (Sophie) are creating another compelling mother-daughter partnership having appeared together as Mrs Birling and Sheila in An Inspector Calls (2009); John Matthews (George) was Salieri in Amadeus (2009); and Liz Wilson (Claudia) appeared earlier this season as Adriana in The Things Good Men Do (2010). Book early to avoid disappointment.

Pre-show suppers available Thursday - Saturday at 6pm
£15, bookable in advance on 01225 438600. Please see menu below.

The Green Room will be serving light lunches from 1pm before the matinee performance.

Please note that due to the Bath Christmas Market and likely traffic problems the Saturday matinee has been cancelled.

This show was performed at The Mission Theatre, Bath in November 2010.

Supper menu:

Chicken, Ham, Leek and Cranberry Pie
or
Moroccan Spiced Aubergines and Red Peppers
or
Caramelised Tangerines with shortbread
or
Bitter Chocolate Mousse with cherry biscuits
or
Teas and coffees to finish.

Director/s | Cast:

Ann Garner

Director

Alison Paine

Honor

John Matthews

George

Liz Wilson

Claudia

Yvonne Paulley

Sophie

Review/s of Honour:

Review 1: Next Stage's final look at marriage

Bath's Next Stage company takes its third and final look at marriage next week with Joanna Murray-Smith's play about a middle aged man conceiving a passion for a younger woman. Previously this season there have been plays that look at newly young marrieds and then those for whom the instituation has begun to wear a little thin. Now it is turn of the older generation in Honour which opens on Tuesday…click here to read the whole review.

By Christopher Hansford, Bath Chronicle

Review 2: Bath Chronicle Review

George is happily married to Honor, a poet who has given up her career to support his as a journalist and interviewer and their daughter, Sophie is currently at University. Young journalist Claudia arrives to interview George for a book. She is soon in love with his intellect whilst he reciprocates the emotion but with more basic motives. This devastates his wife and daughter. “Who do I look after…click here to read the whole review.