by William Saroyan
Directed by Max Lewendel
Presented by Icarus Theatre Collective

[ saroyan centennial season ]
Wednesday, 26 November – Saturday, 20 December 2008
Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm.
Tickets £13, £9 concessions, except
Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats.
Previews (26 and 27 November 2008) £9 all seats.
Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.
Full booking information here
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"In the time of our life, live – so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

Set in 1939 as Europe plunges into war and America remains in the throes of the great depression, Nick’s Pacific Street Saloon Bar, a seedy San Francisco waterfront honky-tonk, is a way-station welcoming lost souls of all kinds. Into Nick's world-in-a-barroom of marble-game machines, drunks, evil vice cops, and comically bad entertainers arrives Kitty Duvall, possibly an internationally renowned Burlesque dancer or possibly a “two-dollar whore” (no one can be quite sure).

While open-hearted, open-handed Joe sets up his flunky, Tom, to woo the angelic Kitty, he also helps a would-be dancer to fulfil his lifelong dream, while we meet a lovelorn young man searching for love at the end of a telephone, a longshoreman with the soul of a poet, slumming society swells, and a boozy old coot with a past that he makes up as he goes along, muttering in the corner about the abyss the world may fall into at any moment…

A rich tapestry of human life, peopled by a profusion of wistful dreamers, pining lonely hearts, and beer-hall-philosophers, and featuring the largest cast ever assembled at the Finborough Theatre.

The first play to win both the New York Drama Critics Circle award and the Pulitzer Prize, The Time of Your Life is a twentieth century American masterpiece.

Saroyan’s best known play, The Time of Your Life was originally produced on Broadway by the Theatre Guild in 1939 with Joe Dowling, Celeste Holm and Gene Kelly. It has been revived three times on Broadway; was filmed in 1948, starring James Cagney; and twice filmed for TV including a PBS production in 1976 with Patti LuPone and Kevin Kline. It was last seen in the UK in a star-studded Royal Shakespeare Company production in Stratford and London in 1983, with John Thaw, Daniel Massey, Zoe Wanamaker, Miles Anderson, and Henry Goodman. The Daily Mail called it “A remarkable play which blazes forth like a brave beacon: warming and full of fire”.

One of America’s most famous writers, William Saroyan (1908-1981) was born one hundred years ago in Fresno, California, the son of Armenian immigrants. His Armenian heritage gives his work a unique flavour, resulting in a very different view of the American experience than his slightly younger contemporaries Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Indeed, in 1991, he was the first and only individual to be jointly honoured by the USA and the former Soviet Union with his own commemorative postal stamps. He sprang to fame overnight in 1934 with his short story about a starving writer trying to survive the Depression, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and his published writings include over 1,500 short stories, plays, and novels including The Human Comedy and My Name Is Aram. His most enduring achievements as a writer date from the late 1930's and early 1940’s when he won a Pulitzer Prize (which he refused on the grounds that “Commerce should not patronize art”), an Academy Award, and The Drama Critics Circle Award. From 1958, he lived mainly in Paris, and continued writing until his death in 1981.

The Finborough Theatre’s [ saroyan centennial season ], celebrating the centenary of the birth of William Saroyan, runs from September-December 2008, and also features rare revivals of two of Saroyan’s other plays – The Beautiful People and Sam the Highest Jumper of Them All.

Director Max Lewendel’s previous productions include Lynn Seifert’s Coyote Ugly which was Time Out Critics’ Choice, and James Graham’s Albert’s Boy with Tony award winner Victor Spinetti (both at the Finborough Theatre); and The Lesson by Eugène Ionesco which has toured to forty venues across the country, transferred to the Assembly Rooms at Hill Street Theatre for the duration of the Edinburgh Festival, then to the Old Red Lion Theatre and finally to Romania where the production won two major awards. Max’s forthcoming productions include two midscale national tours of Nicholas Wright’s Vincent in Brixton, and Shakespeare's Othello.

The Press on Director Max Lewendel
"Max Lewendel's production succeeds by the strength of its acting and the steadily increasing tension." Jeremy Kingston, The Times on The Lesson
"It is impossible not to enjoy Icarus Theatre Collective’s production of Ionesco’s one-act play" Francesca Whiting, The Stage on The Lesson
"Fringe Theatre at its best." Aleks Sierz, The Stage on Albert’s Boy
"This sexy, steamy drama really hits home, especially after delivering the scorpion sting in its tail". Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide On Coyote Ugly

Works of William Saroyan used with permission of Stanford University