Otherwise Engaged

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Comedy Opened 31 October 2005, Closed 28 January 2006

Criterion Theatre Piccadilly Circus, London

Richard E. Grant stars in Simon Gray's comedy Otherwise Engaged along with Anthony Head and David Bamber.

Witty, urbane, sophisticated and selfish, publisher Simon Hench (played by Richard E Grant) is a man of taste and discretion, who is accustomed to keeping himself at a graceful distance from the messy distractions of his family and friends. But he has a problem - well, several actually - only he doesn't know it yet.

With his wife away Simon Hench is looking forward to a long, luxurious listen to his brand new recording of Wagner's Parsifal. But the sex problems of his unprepossessing lodger and his brother's desire to share his anxiety over his prospects for an Assistant Headmastership turn out to be just the beginning of a string of interruptions which increasingly draw Simon himself into a vicious vortex of accusations and recriminations... and his usually cool demeanour begins to buckle as life finally catches up with him.

"Extremely funny, excellent revival" The Times

Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged comes into London's West End following a short regional tour. Otherwise Engaged was originally seen in the West End in 1975 in a production that had a hugely successful run of over 1000 performances in London's West End! This production is directed by Simon Curtis and is designed by Simon Higlett.

"A pleasurable and rewarding evening" The Independent

"Simon Hench, an Oxford-educated publisher, intends to spend the afternoon alone with Wagner. Superbly played with sneering arrogance and hard-boiled egotism by Richard E. Grant in flared cords and denim shirt, he takes his new Parsifal out of its sleeve, lovingly places it on the turntable, settles on to his leather sofa in his luxury London sitting room and surrenders ecstatically to the first few bars. Cue the first of a series of interruptions that wreck his plans... Simon Curtis's well paced, exceptionally funny production proves totally engaging." The Mail on Sunday

"Sophisticated and witty, a modern classic of English high comedy" The Daily Telegraph

"Simon Gray should be pleased with this revival. I first thought Richard E Grant was being unrelaxed. Not so. This is a harsh, intelligent, passionately cold performance... The play's flaw is repetitiveness: a series of encounters to show Simon's disengagement. Its strength is its icy even-handedness: it’s hard to like anybody" The Sunday Times

"A terrific final scene of martial discord and rueful black comedy" The London Evening Standard

"Nearly 30 years after it was first staged, Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged comes up gleaming and bilious. Simon Hench, who hurts everyone around him by his emotional detachment, is a publisher who prefers silence to words, but who produces a sheaf of sharp lines... It's the precision of the perceptions, casually thrown out, that keeps Simon Curtis's production buoyant. The designer's name is Simon Higlett. (What is this - simony?) That and some keenly observed performances, in particular from Peter Wight as a rumpled and earnest school teacher and Anthony Head as a full-blown literary s***" The Observer

Please Note: This production is not suitable for children.