Benefactors

Synopsis

Spanning a period of 15 years, this moving, brilliantly written piece traces the intricate relationship of two neighbouring couples. Jane and David are successful, happy professionals while Sheila and Colin are angry, insecure and isolated. Benefactors explores the interplay between politics and architecture, those who help and those who are helped, those who create and those who destroy. Michael Frayn's highly acclaimed play was premiered in 1984 at London's Vaudeville Theatre and won the Olivier Award for Best Play that year. It later played on Broadway with an American case including Glenn Close and received a Tony Award.

Our Review:

26 June 2002

Is there a more chameleon-like writer than Michael Frayn? Or, to put it another less flattering way, a more inconsistent one? Can it be that the same man who wrote the scorchingly funny Noises Off also wrote the psychologically penetrating Copenhagen? And can it be the same man who wrote either of those who also wrote the earnestly didactic Benefactors?

This 1984 play - whose original West End cast included Brenda Blethyn and whose subsequent Broadway company featured (in a different role) Glenn Close - puts the social policy of modern architecture and housing under the spotlight. It follows an architect, David, as his plans to build a new south London housing estate go ever skyward, but are doomed to remain earthbound.

This professional crisis is played out against the background of the shifting personal relationships of two couples to each other and themselves: David and his wife Jane; and their ex-University pal and n...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 31 July 2002:

Great cast, Good performances. Average script...

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