Details

The White Witch has been called in. Two years after the death of Henri Matisse, a Leningrad art gallery has received a painting purporting to be one of his lost works. Their experts are stumped and with official embarrassment growing, the gallery has been forced to invite Valentina Nrovka, an ex-pupil of Matisse, to pass judgement on its authenticity. With Valentina comes her daughter Sophia, a dowdy schoolteacher miserably married to one of The Party's rising stars. In the tense hour that they share at the gallery, it becomes clear that the mother's judgement and intervention are critical to the fate of more than just a painting. This masterful short piece, from one of Britain's greatest living playwrights, opens a brief window into a lifetime's mess of opportunities missed, opportunities to be seized, love, cowardice and hopelessness.

Cast/Performers

Martin Hutson, Ophelia Lovibond, David Rintoul, Penelope Wilton

Creatives/Company

Author: David Hare
Producer: Menier Chocolate Factory
Director: Richard Eyre
Design: Fotini Dimou
Costume: Fotini Dimou
Lighting: Paul Pyant
Sound: Gregory Clarke