Artist Descending a Staircase

Synopsis

Donner, Beauchamp and Martello, three elderly avant-garde artists, have co-existed for over fifty years. The play opens with Beauchamp and Martello accusing each other of the murder of Donner. In a series of flashbacks, the bickering trio are contrasted with their young counterparts. The pivot is Sophie, loved by each of them in different ways. This is an ingeniously structured, poignant and witty play.

Our Review:

Nancy Groves - 8 December 2009

When Tom Stoppard wrote his 1972 BBC play Artist Descending a Staircase, it “had to be" for radio, he says. He subsequently backed down, adding stage directions for a 1988 production mounted at the King’s Head Theatre. And 20 years later, the play returns to Islington, this time for a month's run at the Old Red Lion. The question is: does it actually work in the theatre?

A murder mystery turned commentary on modern art, it opens with the sound of artist Donner (Stoppard veteran Edward Petherbridge) falling down the stairs of his attic studio – as it turns out, to his death. The incident has been caught on tape by his friend Beauchamp (Jeremy Child), himself an audio-artist, who subsequently points the finger at a third friend, Martello (David Weston) who shares the studio with the other two. Did Donner fall or was he pushed – and if so, by whom and for what reason?

These are the questions that push the play forward, or rather back,...

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