De Jongh has written a play, Finborough to stage
Nicholas De Jongh, currently Evening Standard Theatre critic has written a play to be staged in Feb 2008 at the Finborough. I wonder what all the other critics will make of it?
Plague over England
“In Autumn 1953, Sir John Gielgud, then at the height of his fame as an actor, was arrested in a Chelsea public lavatory. He pleaded guilty the following morning to the charge of persistently importuning men for immoral purposes. Poised to appear in the West End in a play he was directing and recently knighted, his conviction caused a national sensation – breaking the great taboo of public discussion of homosexuality.
More than just a dramatisation of a scandalous event in one actor’s life, this new play shows how Gielgud’s arrest played a small but distinct part in the battle to make homosexuality legal.
As a companion piece, the Finborough Theatre will present the play Gielgud was performing when he was arrested – A Day by the Sea by N.C. Hunter – for five Sunday and Monday performances in April.“