About the Play:

The Crimson Hotel is a playlet by Michael Frayn, the Tony Award-winning author of Copenhagen. A critically-acclaimed deconstruction of the Feydau-style farce.

In this absurdist comedy two lovers – a French playwright and his lead actress – escape to a discreet and charming Parisian hotel straight out of Feydeau, but conjured by the playwright from the empty landscape of the desert. As the walls, door and crimson curtains of Room 322 materialize around them, a fumbling of fastenings ensues. But they soon discover they're not the only couple intent on escaping from reality.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

The volume also features the one-act play, Audience, a delightful send-up which holds up a mirror to the outlandish behaviour and comedy inherent in every theatre audience. (Cast: 7 female, 6 male)

About the Playwright:

Michael Frayn has written plays, novels, and screenplays, in addition to being a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and translator of Chekhov. His thirteen plays include Copenhagen, which was awarded the Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards and, in the United Kingdom, the Olivier and Evening Standard awards. His novel Headlong was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Born in London in 1933 and educated at Cambridge, Frayn is married to the biographer and critic Claire Tomalin; they live in London.