The Height of the Storm (Faber Drama) - Softcover

Zeller, Florian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571350585 ISBN 13: 9780571350582

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2018

Synopsis

André and Madeleine have been in love for over fifty years. This weekend, as their daughters visit, something feels unusual. A bunch of flowers arrive, but who sent them? A woman from the past turns up, but who is she? And why does André feel like he isn't there at all?

Christopher Hampton's translation of Florian Zeller's The Height of the Storm was first performed at Richmond Theatre, London, and opened in the West End at Wyndham's Theatre in October 2018.

About this title

Review:

A deeply moving study of love, loss and the unbearable pain of absence...I can't pretend to have got all aspects of this slippery, poetic play, but, as a colleague once said of Pinter, there is a positive pleasure in not understanding everything. What I can say for certain is that Zeller's play penetrates the memory long after one has left the theatre., Guardian

Zeller silkily interweaves layers of time and memory in this elegiac meditation on ageing, frailty and loneliness, fluidly rendered in Christopher Hampton's translation., Evening Standard

Deeply moving. A play that takes us to the edge of what it is to love., The Times

About the Author:

Florian Zeller is a French novelist and playwright. He won the prestigious Prix Interallié in 2004 for his third novel, Fascination of Evil. His plays include L'Autre, Le Manège, Si tu mourais, nominated for a Globe de Cristal, Elle t'attend and La Vérité. La Mère (The Mother, Molière Award for Best Play in 2011) and Le Père (The Father, Molière Award for Best Play in 2014, starring Robert Hirsch and Isabelle Gelinas (Molière Awards for Best Actor and Actress, Prix du Brigadier in 2015). Une Heure de tranquillité (A Bit of Peace and Quiet), opened with Fabrice Luchini, and has since been adapted for the screen, directed by Patrice Leconte. Le Mensonge (The Lie) was staged in 2015 starring Pierre Arditi and Evelyne Bouix and L'Envers du décor opened in January 2016 at the Théâtre de Paris starring Daniel Auteuil.

Christopher Hampton was born in the Azores in 1946. He wrote his first play, When Did You Last See My Mother? at the age of eighteen. Since then, his plays have included The Philanthropist, Savages, Tales from Hollywood, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, White Chameleon, The Talking Cure and Appomattox. He has translated plays by Ibsen, Molière, von Horváth, Chekhov, Florian Zeller (including The Father), Daniel Kehlman and Yasmina Reza (including Art and Life x 3). Musicals include Sunset Boulevard and Stephen Ward, both with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black. His television work includes adaptations of The History Man and Hotel du Lac. His screenplays include The Honorary Consul, The Good Father, Dangerous Liaisons, Mary Reilly, Total Eclipse, The Quiet American, Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina, the last three of which he also directed, and A Dangerous Method, based on his play The Talking Cure. Appomattox was first presented on the McGuire Proscenium Stage of the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, USA, in September 2012 as the centrepiece of a major retrospective of his plays and films. It was subsequently turned into an opera by Philip Glass and premiered at the Kennedy Center, Washington in November 2014., Christopher Hampton wrote his first play When Did You Last See My Mother? at the age of eighteen. Later plays include The Philanthropist, Savages, Tales from Hollywood, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, White Chameleon, The Talking Cure and Appomattox; and numerous translations. Musicals include Sunset Boulevard and Stephen Ward. TV and film: The History Man, Hotel du Lac, The Honorary Consul, The Good Father, Dangerous Liaisons, Mary Reilly, Total Eclipse, The Quiet American, A Dangerous Method, Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina, the last three of which he also directed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0571350585
• ISBN 13: 9780571350582
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80