Hamilton The Slaves of Solitude

stage version
ISBN: 978-1-78001-980-2
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 96 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Modern Plays

'I don't know how I became so filled with hate. I find it shocking that I did. Somebody said to me that war affects us in all kinds of ways, and that drinking is only one of them. Perhaps hating people is another. Perhaps sex is too.' 1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, a place as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war effort now consists of a thousand petty humiliations, of which the most burdensome is sharing her daily life with the unbearable Mr Thwaites. But a breath of fresh air arrives in the form of a handsome American lieutenant and things start to look distinctly brighter. Until a new boarder moves into the room next to Miss Roach's - outwardly friendly, she soon starts upsetting the precarious balance in the house. Nicholas Wright's play The Slaves of Solitude weaves a fascinating blend of dark hilarity and melancholy from Patrick Hamilton's much-loved story about an improbable heroine in wartime Britain. The play premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2017.

Patrick Hamilton was one of the twentieth century's greatest novelists and dramatists, whose significant contribution to literature has often been overlooked. Born in Hassocks, Sussex in 1904, Hamilton spent his early years in Hove. His first novel, Monday Morning was published in 1925, quickly followed by Craven House (1926). Among his novels are The Midnight Bell (1929), The Siege of Pleasure (1932), The Plains of Cement (1934), Hangover Square (1941), The Slaves of Solitude (1947) and The Gorse Trilogy, which is comprised of The West Pier (1952), Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse (1953) and Unknown Assailant (1955). Hamilton's trilogy 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1929-34) was adapted into a successful BBC Four series in 2005, directed by Simon Curtis. His plays include the psychological thrillers Rope (1929) - on which Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope was based - and Gaslight (1938), which gave rise to the term gaslighting: a form of psychological abuse in which a victim is manipulated into questioning his or her sanity. Hamilton died in 1962 of liver and kidney failure, after a long struggle with alcohol.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hamilton, Patrick