What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
Marylebone Theatre
3/5 based on 1 review (read reviews)- Booking until: Saturday, 23 November 2024
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank description
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is a stimulating new ‘serious comedy’ by Nathan Englander, based on his critically acclaimed 2011 short story and directed by Patrick Marber, who gave us Leopoldstadt. A brilliant production for thoughtful theatre-goers.
With warnings about strong language, sensitive political subjects and drug use, this production covers plenty of things that many people just don’t want to talk about.
Starring Joshua Malina from The Big Bang Theory
The respected US film and stage actor Joshua Malina – who appeared in the Broadway production of Leopoldstadt directed by Marber - makes his London theatre debut as Phil, having already thrilled Broadway audiences with his work on Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, his first Broadway role.
Malina has a great list of screen credits behind him including the role of Will Bailey in The West Wing, Jeremy Goodwin in Sports Night, the US Attorney General David Rosen in Scandal and Caltech President Siebert in The Big Bang Theory.
Seriously hilarious
Nathan Englander’s short story collection hit the bookstores in 2012, winning the 2012 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Apparently he’s been re-writing it ever since, an obsession he admits to.
The set-up is something he feels is increasingly rare in our polarised modern lives, where two best friends on opposite sides of the political, religious, and economic spectrum talk, laugh and cry their feelings out. Does the love they’ve long felt for each other survive their ever-widening differences?
Patrick Marber has loved Nathan Englander’s work since he read the author’s debut short story collection. He is by all accounts very excited about the play, a story that’s both hilarious and deeply serious, an intellectual tour-de-force than manages to be very funny indeed.
