A Bright Room Called Day

"This age wanted heroes. It got us instead"

Inspired by his despair at the re-election of Ronald Reagan in 1984, New York graduate student Tony Kushner produced a work that continues to sharply divide it's audiences and is guaranteed to leave you reeling. Set during the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930's Germany, this play examines personal beliefs being tested in the face of iminent danger. Kushner has since gone onto become one of the most vital voices in American Theatre, but this early work remains maybe his most affecting piece.

The work is a natural fit for Southwark Playhouse, who have a strong tradition for erring on the side of challenging productions. The director is Sean Harcombe, whose previously helmed the company's The Illusion, itself another work by Kushner, this time an adaptation of the famous Corneille play.

Tony Kushner is an American playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for his acclaimed Angels in America, an exploration of the gay experience in America which Kushner subsequently himself adapted into an equally celebrated HBO miniseries, starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep.

What is A bright Room Called Day About?

In 1932 Berlin, a group of left-leaning artists and activists gather for a party as the Germany outside the windows is seduced by the promise of Hitler's Nazi Party. This part of the play centres on Agnes, who is determined not to leave her apartment even as her friends desert her one by by. This action is juxtaposed with the story of Zillah Katz, a fiercely liberal art Critic in 1980s America, who decries the Reagan government as an analogously dangerous force as Hitler's fascists. With these two scenarios, A Bright Room Called Day explores the strength of people's personal convictions and beliefs in the face of an overwhelming political ethos.