News Story
A play with only three characters, in a theatre with just over 300 seats. That’s the intimate experience Gabriel Byrne and Geraldine James have in store when they both make their Minerva Theatre debuts this month in the world premiere of Hannah Patterson’s 45 Years.
Adapted from the film of the same name by Andrew Haigh (which in turn was adapted from a short story by David Constantine), it tells the story of husband and wife Geoff and Kate in the week leading up to their 45th wedding anniversary celebrations. As a letter from Switzerland arrives and quietly shatters their world, secrets from the past gradually emerge and their marriage is tested.
When asked what drew her to the part of Kate, Geraldine said,
It’s a very unusual play, an unusual look at a marriage and Hannah’s done an incredible job because it’s a completely believable relationship. I think people will relate to these two very clearly.
Gabriel, who lives in the US, has travelled across the pond to perform in this production because he received the script and said,
The bedrock of the story is very compelling. It looks at marriage, memory and secrets, the things that people keep from each other even in a very long relationship. You keep wanting to know what happens next.
Gillian Bevan completes their cast as the couple’s friend Lena, and both agreed that having such a small company with material this intense requires sensitive direction, which Prasanna Puwanarajah has certainly delivered. “I don’t know that I’ve worked with an actor who has become a director,” says Geraldine.
Prasanna knows exactly what we’re going through, he’s been there himself and knows how actors function
And how do they feel about making their CFT debuts in our much-loved studio space? Geraldine is particularly thrilled to be working at Chichester “because I live fairly near there and I go as an audience member a lot. And in a theatre like the Minerva your audience is right there with you. The audience will make a difference to every performance. It’s fantastic to have that interaction between an audience and the stage.”
Gabriel says that “Chichester has a prestige around the world; most people that I talked to know about it. They may not have been there, but they know about CFT and know of the sister theatre in Canada – at Stratford, Ontario.”
45 Years opens in the Minerva on Friday 12 June and runs until 11 July. Best availability is towards the end of the run.
