Sweet Nothings

Scottish playwright David Harrower has translated Arthur Schnitzler’s fin-de-siècle drama Liebelei into contemporary, idiomatic English. Luc Bondy directs the play with fabulous cast including Natalie Dormer (Anne Boleyn in The Tudors), Tom Hughes (Cemetery Junction) and Warwick Arts Centre favourite Hayley Carmichael (Told by an Idiot). “a performance of award-winning quality.” Birmingham Post

“Beautifully done” Birmingham Post

“The performances throughout are as impeccable as the production.” The Guardian

Two young upper-class men “collect” love affairs and try to have fun without problems or strings; it is the eve of a big war, a period when people want to put their minds off things, to live for the day and celebrate the moment, which is not always possible. Fritz, the protagonist of the play, collects moments that radiate the perfume of eternity. His friend Theodor arranges for an affair with a sweet-natured suburban girl to help Fritz forget the vicissitudes of his liaison with a married society lady. Already the first scene is imbued with the fear of death, since the lady’s husband has challenged Fritz to a duel. The party the friends so desperately want to enjoy does not get going. The flirtation with sweet Christine almost becomes a serious love story – a development that was hardly intended and now collides with Fritz’s affair with the upper-class woman. The inherent dynamics of this conflict cause a catastrophe that leads to Fritz’s death in the duel, and Christine, who has truly fallen in love, is left all alone. It is only three days after her lover’s death that she learns how he died in a duel – for another woman.

Arthur Schnitzler, an acquaintance of Freud, was the chronicler of Vienna in 1900. His La Ronde caused great outrage when it was first published in 1903 and still creates scandal today. It also provided the inspiration for David Hare’s The Blue Room and Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut was based on Schnitzler’s Dream Story.

David Harrower’s many plays include the Olivier Award-winning international hit Blackbird.

Luc Bondy made his British theatre debut at the Young Vic in 2004 with the world premiere of Martin Crimp’s Cruel and Tender. His controversial new production of Tosca recently opened the New York Met Opera’s 2009/10 season and his exceptional career includes productions of Salome (Royal Opera House, La Scala), Don Carlos (Royal Opera House) and Waiting for Godot (Vienna Festival). He has been director of the Vienna Festival since 2001.

“Luc Bondy’s production invests the action with the qualities of dance: it’s sometimes dreamy, sometimes painfully precise. The movement is sublimely achieved, and the relationships quickly seem plausible – tense in all the right places.” London Evening Standard

“… the most thrilling revival on the London stage.” The Stage

“Brilliant, intensely deliberate and eerily stylish” The Independent

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