Collaboration

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Previewed 22 May 2009, opened 27 May 2009, closed 29 August 2009 at the Duchess Theatre in London

Ronald Harwood's play Collaboration in London at the Duchess Theatre starring Michael Pennington.

Collaboration begins in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as composer Richard Strauss and writer Stephan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. But Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march. Is it possible to keep artistic aspiration and political action separate? How fine is the line between collaboration and betrayal?

The cast features Michael Pennington as 'Richard Strauss' and David Horovitch as 'Stefan Zweig'. The production is directed by Philip Franks with original music by Matthew Scott, designs by Simon Higlett, lighting by Mark Jonathan and sound by John Leonard.

Collaboration plays in repertory with Ronald Harwood's play Taking Sides. Written as companion pieces, separate plays designed to complement each other, Collaboration and Taking Sides both explore the fine line between collaboration and betrayal during the Second World War. Both productions come into London's West End following two successful seasons at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2008 and 2009.

"Brilliant - and devastating. They're the only words that do justice to the experience of watching Ronald Harwood's latest play, Collaboration, in tandem with a fresh revival of his 1995 hit, Taking Sides. Harwood gives us richly absorbing accounts of two very different musical maestros yoked together in historical notoriety by their apparent complicity with the Nazis - despite the recorded endeavours of both men to save Jews from the Holocaust... Michael Pennington is mesmerising as Strauss... He's matched for precision by David Horovitch as a twitchy Zweig." The Daily Telegraph

"Michael Pennington brilliantly captures the obsessiveness of Strauss, David Horovitch's Zweig moves perfectly from deference to defiance, and there is exemplary support from Isla Blair and Martin Hutson... Collaboration offers an exploration of a timeless political dilemma." The Guardian

"[ Collaboration] is Ronald Harwood’s best play. Like his next best play, Taking Sides, it’s about the moral entrapment of a famous musician in Nazi Germany. Richard Strauss was a jewel in the Nazis’ cultural crown — until he chose the Jewish writer Stefan Zweig as his librettist. Their relationship is lovingly and brilliantly sketched: Strauss , an excitable old lion, Zweig, an exquisitely polite, cautious, inward-looking Jew — two inspired, self-absorbed neurotics collaborating in mutual admiration." The Sunday Times

Collaboration in London at the Duchess Theatre previewed from 22 May 2009, opened on 27 May 2009 and closed on 29 August 2009 (plays in repertory with Taking Sides).