On the Rocks

Synopsis

Based on true events, On the Rocks delves into the lives of D H Lawrence, his German wife Frieda and their close friends John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield. The unlikely foursome attempt to set up an alternative existence, shunning the confines of the war-torn cities in favour of communal living in a remote village in Cornwall.

Our Review:

2 July 2008

No, this isn’t the satire by Bernard Shaw set in the cabinet office of Number Ten, though there are odd moments when I wished it were. Instead, Amy Rosenthal’s new comedy is a study in friendship and communal living in Cornwall in 1916. D H Lawrence and Frieda have invited Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry to come and live next door.

Murry had met Lawrence in 1914 but didn’t marry Mansfield until 1918, and the heart of the play is poised somewhere between the publication of The Rainbow and the writing of Women in Love, a novel (and Ken Russell film) directly alluded to when Ed Stoppard as the bearded wonder strips to the buff and invites Nick Caldecott as Murry – easily the most attractive, interesting performance of the night -- to express his manly side and wrestle with him in front of the cottage fire.

While being diligent with her sources, including Mansfield’s wonderful journals, Rosenthal – daughter of the peerless late Jack and his wife [Maureen Lipm...

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Latest User Review

Stuart - 4 August 2008:

Saw this play at the end of its run. I suppose the most fascinating part of it was the play itself. It was obviously well researched and there were some cracking lines. I never really believed that Ed Stoppard was D H Lawrence. It was just too theatrical a performance for my liking.Perhaps it was his accent? Sound performances overall though from the rest of the cast made for an interesting evening. Not sure about that set! Bit plastic.....

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