THE FATHER

by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton 

19th to 21st September 2024

Broadbent Theatre, Wickenby

André is a man facing persecution from all sides, and he refuses to take it any longer. First some girl, a ‘helper’ whom he doesn’t need at all, steals his favourite watch. Then his daughter Anne, a scheming woman who worries too much, tries to take his flat away – the beautiful flat he’s had for over 30 years, in which he is still quite capable of living.

His daughter Elise, the one he actually loves – where is she? She never comes to visit. Anne’s husband, or lover, Pierre, with whom she is moving to London (or staying in Paris) threatens André with violence if he will not co-operate, and to top it off, strangers keep entering André’s flat, telling him that they are his friends and family, telling him that he doesn’t live in his own flat any more.

However old he may be, André knows that he is a powerful man, a man of authority, and he will find some way to assert it. After all, he still has all his faculties, doesn’t he?

In a darkly humorous and deeply poignant translation by Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller’s The Father is a tragi-comic mystery, a sobering and realistic family story, and an unsentimental, emotionally intense look at the world through the eyes of a man experiencing dementia, a dramatic illustration of the physical losses which occur along with the mental ones.

The 2020 film version of the play starred Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman and garnered two Oscars: Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

In the pipeline for 2025 and beyond:

Brief Encounter 

by Noël Coward 

Educating Rita

 by Willy Russell

The Birthday Party

 by Harold Pinter

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by William Shakespeare

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare