The Performer - part 2/2

Available for 71 days

Matthew's Dad never went to the theatre. In fact, as Matthew and his adoring Mum agree, he never goes anywhere much at all, except for up to the City to do his boring job. But when Dad fails to return to domesticity in Carshalton Beeches, Matthew starts to wonder if his disappearance might have something to do with the night he got stuck in London and saw Laurence Olivier in a Terence Rattigan play? When he finally tracks Dad down, he discovers things that at first shock him, then transform his relationship with his Mum, and not for the better. A play about family, father-son relationships and theatre itself, especially English theatre from the 1950s on. Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Terence Rattigan feature heavily, and a number of other theatre figures are evoked too, from Max Miller to Noel Coward to Dora Bryan. A two-part monologue performed by Stephen Fry Written by William Humble Directed by Celia de Wolff A Pier production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2021.