Taking Sides & Collaboration to close 22 Aug 2009

Taking Sides & Collaboration to close 22 Aug 2009

The Chichester Festival productions of Ronald Harwood's plays Taking Sides and Collaboration will end their limited season at the Duchess Theatre on Saturday 22 August 2009. (They were taking bookings to 29 August)

The plays opened in repertoire 27 May 2009, following previews from 20 May 2009, to good notices from the popular press: THE EVENING STANDARD says, "The two plays, seen together like this in elegant productions from Philip Franks, gain strength and depth from each other." THE TIMES says, "Superb performances from Pennington and David Horovitch...see either of these fine plays and you'll get a gripping reminder of just how fragile our freedom, artistic or otherwise, can be." THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Gripping, highly entertaining theatre. ""

Michael Pennington plays both 'Wilhelm Furtwangler' in Taking Sides and 'Richard Strauss' in Collaboration. David Horovitch plays both 'Major Arnold' in Taking Sides and 'Stefan Zweig' in "Collaboration".

Both plays are directed by Philip Franks, designed by Simon Higlett, lighting by Mark Jonathan.

They are produced in the West End by Chichester Festival / Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer for Nimax Theatres, and Duncan Weldon.

In "TAKING SIDES": Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, prized by Hitler as the cultural jewel in the crown of the Third Reich, became the perfect post-war target for interrogation as a Nazi sympathiser. Major Steve Arnold, who has witnessed the horrors of Belsen, is about to cross-examine him.

In "COLLABORATION": The play opens in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as composer Richard Strauss and writer Stephan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. But Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march. Is it possible to keep artistic aspiration and political action separate? How fine is the line between collaboration and betrayal?