LOYALTIES
by John Galsworthy
Directed by Phil Willmott
Designed by Nicky Bunch
Lighting by Hansjorg Schmidt
Costume Design by Nell Knudsen
Presented by The Steam Industry
and the Finborough Theatre
Cast in order of appearance
Charles Winsor - Marcus Webb
Lady Adela - Sarah Everard
Ferdinand De Levis - William Ludwig
Major Canynge - Christian Olliver
Margaret Orme - Kerry Skinner
Captain Dancy - Perri Snowdon
Mabel - Kate Steavenson-Payne
Inspector Dede - Peter Leafe
Treasure - Mike Aherne
Robert - Paul Agar
Edward Graviter - Paul Agar
Gilman - Mike Aherne
Jacob Twisden - Richard Franklin
Ricardos - Peter Leafe
Other characters played by members of the Company
**** Four Stars Time Out
**** Four Stars
The Guardian
**** Four Stars The Financial Times
25 April - 20 May 2006
“Loyalties come before everything.”
“Ye-es; but loyalties cut up against each other sometimes, you know.”
In the aftermath of the First World War, a wealthy young Jew goes to a weekend house party where he is robbed of a large sum of money by one of the guests – who then close ranks behind the culprit, a dashing but impoverished English war hero... As the victim is forced to seek the truth, the loyalties of religion, class, ethics, prejudice and honour clash headlong in a searing indictment of the latent racism underpinning the British upper-class.
Originally produced in the West End in 1922, the original production ran for more than 400 performances. The multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre has become well known in recent years for its rediscovery of unjustly neglected drama and now presents the first London production of Galsworthy's modern classic in nearly 75 years.
John Galsworthy (1867-1933), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is today best known for The Forsyte Saga, but was also a leading dramatist of social reform in such plays as The Silver Box, Strife, The Skin Game, The Mob and Justice – which led the Home Secretary Winston Churchill to institute a major prison reform. In 1924, he founded PEN, the international writers organisation.
Director Phil Willmott returns to the Finborough following his acclaimed 25th anniversary production of Trelawny of the ‘Wells’. He is Director of The Steam Industry whose many productions have included Agamemnon, Androcles and the Lion, Oedipus, and The London Nativity at The Scoop amphitheatre on The South Bank. Willmott has also recently directed the 2004 company of Fame at the Aldwych Theatre, Around the World in Eighty Days at Liverpool Playhouse and on tour, Master Harold… and the boys at Liverpool Everyman, Rent in Dublin, Pal Joey at Nottingham Playhouse, Kiss of The Spiderman and Britain’s first large stage production of Angels in America at Sheffield Crucible.
REVIEWS FOR LOYALTIES
“Phil Willmott's excellent revival”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Phil Willmott’s graceful and impeccably detailed production”
Lucy Powell, Time Out
“Willmott’s production is gripping and pacey”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Willmott's production...confirms that Galsworthy's shockingly neglected plays are eminently revivable social documents"
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“The play compels.”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
"The Finborough has also rediscovered an absorbing play written by John Galsworthy in 1922....meticulously brought to life in Phil Willmott's production"
Susannah Clapp, The Observer
"Galsworthy's elegant and finely paced script"
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
“Willmott’s clear, lean production is alive to the play’s well-considered complexity…this is a valuable revival.”
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com
"This timeless piece by Forsythe Saga author John Galsworthy is given a long overdue and flawlessly executed showing"
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
"It's good to see a theatre sticking up for the often patronised Galsworthy."
Susannah Clapp, The Observer
“Rarely performed plays are often neglected with good reason; but Phil Willmott’s revival of John Galsworthy’s 1922 work demonstrates something of the skill and scope of the playwright better known for his novel The Forsyte Saga. Loyalties is a cracker: humming with modern resonance, it’s as tense as a thriller, and as thoughtful as the Ibsen problem plays it in some respects resembles…There’s barely an unflawed character or a moral certainty here.”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
"I saw the play with a packed house who seemed, like me, to relish Galsworthy's portrait of the poisonous worm inside the woodwork of English society.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“A post-war and elegantly directed morality play, an odd mixture of The Merchant of Venice and The Moonstone.”
Zoe Green, The Stage
“Perri Snowdon’s lost-boy Dancy is affecting”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Perri Snowdon’s arrogant, dashing Mr Dancy is wholly convincing”
Lucy Powell, Time Out
“Kerry Skinner impresses as a brittle but brainy bored socialite”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
"Kerry Skinner is impressive"
Susannah Clapp, The Observer
“Richard Franklin is excellent as Dancy’s grave, silky lawyer”
Sam Marlowe, The Times
“Richard Franklin is well cast in the role of a reluctant representative of the British justice system.”
Zoe Green, The Stage
“William Ludwig is utterly convincing”
Zoe Green, The Stage
"A fiery performance from William Ludwig"
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
“Kate Steavenson-Payne…manages to bring pathos to an otherwise ugly situation.”
Zoe Green, The Stage
“Christian Olliver shines as the divided Major Canynge”
Lucy Powell, Time Out
“There are spot-on performances from the 10-strong cast, including William Ludwig as the inflexibly courteous De Levis, Perri Snowdon as the risk-addicted war hero, Marcus Webb as the lantern-jawed host, and Sarah Everard as his softly beguiling wife.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Nicky Bunch's set brilliantly recreates a feeling of oak-panelled solidity within the tiny space of the Finborough.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
"Loyalties is totally gripping from start to finish, and yet another triumph for the Finborough and the multi-talented director Phil Wilmott."
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
