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The Father

The Father
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
Author: Florian Zeller
Translated by: Christopher Hampton
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 67
Pub. Date: 2017
Edition: Acting
ISBN-10: 0822236346
ISBN-13: 9780822236344
Cast Size: 3 female, 3 male

About the Plays:

The Father (English-language version of Le Père) is a full-length drama by Florian Zeller, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton. Andre is an aging man facing persecution from all sides. First a "helper" steals his favourite watch. Then his daughter Anne, a scheming woman who worries too much, tries to take his apartment away. His daughter Elise, the one he actually loves... where is she? The Father is a tragi-comic mystery that is a sobering look at the world through the eyes of a man experiencing dementia, whose daughter desperately tries to care for him, as he fights to maintain his autonomy and identity.

The Father is a funny, sad and poignant roller coaster ride on a fight against dementia that twists and turns with all the excitement of a taut thriller. You can't fool André. But there's definitely something fishy going on. And while he may be eighty years old and apt to forget things, they are only ever small things. He was once a tap dancer who lives with his adult daughter, Anne, and her husband, Antoine. Or was he an engineer whose daughter Anne lives in London with her new lover, Pierre? The thing is, he is still wearing his pajamas, and he can't find his watch. Why do strangers keep turning up in his room? He is starting to wonder if he's losing control. A touching, funny and unsettling mystery, The Father is a deeply moving and unsentimental portrayal of the realities of living with dementia.

Le Père premiered in 2012 at the Théâtre Hébertot in Paris, was a hit in France, and won Best Play 2014 in the Molière Awards (France's most prestigious theatre prize). Christopher Hampton translated it into English as The Father, which premiered in 2014 at the Ustinov Studio of the Theatre Royal in Bath, England, transferred to the Tricycle Theatre, London in 2015. It repeated the success and critical acclaim in the West End of London at the Duke of York's Theatre in 2016 and on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2016. It was nominated for Best New Play at the 2016 Olivier Awards and was The Guardian's pick for Play of the Year in London, and nominated for two Tony Awards in New York, including Best Broadway Play. The play is regularly performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"“…harrowing…an exceedingly ingenious premise…." — The New York Times

"…hugely rewarding…a play that constantly confounds expectations and works almost like a thriller, with a sinister Pinteresque edge… full of guile, particularly in the way it toys with time, yet is also simplicity itself, and is never tricksy. [The Father] constantly makes you question the truth and the nature of reality… an astonishingly unguarded play about the cruelties of love and the limits of patience, and the way child-parent relationships become inverted as old age creeps up and mugs us." — The Guardian (UK)

"…a super-smart, finally heart-breaking play…[an] unqualified triumph…." — The Daily Telegraph (UK)

"…devastating and disorienting… The Father is one of those plays that makes your brain hum with the unique potential of theatre…." — The Independent (London)

About the Playwright:

Florian Zeller is a French novelist and playwright who has been hailed as "one of the hottest literary talents in France" (Independent). He has written five acclaimed novels and eleven plays.

Christopher Hampton is a British playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and a consummate translator and adaptor of novels. He is perhaps most famous for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos), which won an Olivier Award in 1986. He adapted the play for film and won an Oscar for the screenplay. His theatre work includes the stage adaptation of Sunset Boulevard for Andrew Lloyd Webber, which received Tony Awards for both Book and Lyrics. He has translated a wide range of works including classics by Chekhov, Ibsen and Moliere as well as contemporary plays by Yasmina Reza and Florian Zeller. His long list of screenplays includes A Doll's House, The Good Father, Total Eclipse, and The Quiet American.