Love in Idleness

Trevor Nunn returns to direct Rattigan's class comedy

Catch Love in Idleness in the West End - See tickets for the Apollo Run here here.

Legendary director Trevor Nunn makes a welcome return to The Menier Chocolate Factory this spring, with not one, but two plays! Helming two successive productions, Nunn will kick off with Terence Rattigan's Love in Idleness, an explosive family comedy-drama set in post-war Britain, which was first performed in 1946 at New York's Empire Theatre. Also known as O Mistress Mine to American audiences. An idealistic Labour-leaning 18-year old boy returns from evacuation to Canada during the war, only to find that his widowed mother has taken up with a snobby, Tory-supporting upper class man. Originally starring the iconic acting partnership of Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, their performances were widely acclaimed, despite the plot being toned down in anti-war sentiment.

All is definitely not fair in love and war, as Olivia's son Michael returns to a supposedly jubilant post-war Britain, where he finds that she is now the mistress of Tory cabinet minister Sir John Fletcher, and enjoying her new status in society life. Disgusted with his mother's actions, he tries to reason with her - only to fall foul of John's authoritarian snobbishness and viciousness. Michael is forced to choose between love of his mother, and love for his own personal beliefs. The cast stars Eve Best, Edward Bluemel, Helen George and Anthony Head