“A great night of passion”
This production was performed at The Rondo Theatre, Bath
In his cleverly crafted play, Peter Nichols invites his audience to consider different aspects and faces of passion and the way people interpret them. James is an art restorer; for much of the play he is working on a Victorian depiction of Christ’s Passion on the Cross. Eleanor, his wife, is a chorister. Her rehearsals and performances for Mozart’s Requiem or Bach’s St Matthew Passion give James and Kate the opportunities they need to conduct their passionate affair. The feelings and passions aroused in Eleanor by her husband’s infidelity lead to the play’s tragic climax.
Throughout Passion Play Peter Nichols challenges us to make judgments as to what arouses passion, how much we should rely on passionate feelings, whether passion can ever be sustained, and if in the end it is irrevocably linked to grief and heartbreak. Whether it is James’s outpouring in Act 2 about Bernini’s sculpture of St Theresa:
Anyone who has ever watched their partner in the act can see that’s a woman coming…
or Eleanor’s declaration:
I love church music and oratorio. Hundreds of people singing together is the nearest we may ever come to Heaven on earth…
or Kate’s erotic adventures in America:
Amusing, with all the other drivers peering through the smog at me on this truck driver’s lap…
Cast:
Rehearsal Photographs:
