The Habit of Art

Synopsis

Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

Our Review:

21 October 2010

The older Alan Bennett gets, the grumpier he seems to become. This revered national treasure has shifted his ground from the early Beyond the Fringe days of witty satire to an elder statesman’s pontificating on everything from actors’ neuroses to homophobic intolerance.

He retains the elegant ability to wrap up biting comment in gentle humour, but the emphasis in his latest play is firmly on reflective, philosophical musings rather than laughs for their own sake. It’s a pretty esoteric subject, too – an imagined meeting between the poet WH Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten in 1972 as they both head towards decline and death. It’s framed in the theatrical device of a play within a play, with the set-up of a National Theatre rehearsal room in which a misunderstood playwright is struggling to keep control of his script in the hands of the increasingly rebellious actors.

What really shines in Nicholas Hytner’s impressive production, now on a nine-week national tour, is th...

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