Accolade
by Emlyn Williams
by Emlyn Williams
Accolade is a darkly comic and shocking drama about a novelist facing the consequences of his double life and the exposure of his past on the eve of being knighted.
About The Play
About The Play
THE ENTIRE RUN COMPLETELY SOLD OUT
INCLUDING THE EXTRA MATINEES ON WEDNESDAY 23 AND THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2011 AT 3.00PM
★★★★★ FIVE STARS FINANCIAL TIMES
★★★★★ FIVE STARS FRINGE REVIEW
★★★★★ FIVE STARS WEST LONDON LIVING
★★★★ FOUR STARS TIME OUT AND TIME OUT CRITICS’ CHOICE AND SHOW OF THE WEEK
★★★★ FOUR STARS MUSICOMH.COM
★★★★ FOUR STARS WHATSONSTAGE
★★★★ FOUR STARS THE GUARDIAN
★★★★ FOUR STARS EVENING STANDARD
★★★★ FOUR STARS THE PUBLIC REVIEWS
★★★★ FOUR STARS TNT
THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE – ALTERNATIVE TOP 5 SHOWS
“The reviewers’ cliché “Neglected plays are usually neglected for a good reason” carries the implicit qualifier “…except when the Finborough stages them.” The more obscure revivals presented by this little studio theatre are almost always worthwhile, often impressive and sometimes revelatory. With Emlyn Williams’ 1950 drama, here receiving its first revival, we are well into revelation.” Ian Shuttleworth, FInancial Times
Part of RediscoveriesUK – A three month season of rediscovered plays by writers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Will Trenting, famous for his scandalous novels, is about to be knighted – an accolade which will welcome him to the establishment. But Will has been leading a double life and the award turns a spotlight on it. Tales surface of drunken parties, orgies and rough trade, and on the eve of his knighthood Will is accused of a shocking crime. Threatened with blackmail, Will has to decide where his priorities lie. Darkly comic and shocking, Accolade blows the lid off British hypocrisy.
“Williams, a Welsh wizard and a sexual pioneer, is long overdue for public revival…If any dramatist of the post-war period came close to breaking the coded secrecy that surrounded homosexuality, it was Emlyn Williams in a now-forgotten but astonishing play, Accolade” – Michael Billington in his book State of the Nation
Accolade opened at the Aldwych Theatre on 7 September 1950, with Williams himself playing Will Trenting. This will be the first revival since the original production.