| The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett |
| Posted by: lowwriter 11:43 pm EDT 05/05/23 |
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I just saw one of the best plays I’ve seen in a while, Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art which is currently on view at 59E59.
This is a play within a play about a company rehearsing a work called Caliban’s Day. The play they are rehearsing is about W.H. Auden who is visited by Benjamin Britten and is narrated by biographer Humphrey Carpenter.
We see the actors’ process and hear them discuss their parts and also see the reactions of the playwright and the stage manager and her assistant. And the play they are acting out gives us a look at two celebrated artists who were once friends and are at the end of their lives.
The writing is astute and funny and thoroughly engaging and asks questions about the art of acting and creation.
This production was brought over from London, produced by the Original Theatre, directed by Philip Franks and was revived there in 2018. The acting company from the U.K. in this NY production are all first-rate and several of them did the show in London. Bennett’s play dates back to 2009. |
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