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

Christine Absalom, Miranda Bell, Robert Calvert, Kate Copeland, Colm Gormley

Creatives/Company

Author: David Hare
Company: Mercury Theatre Company
Director: Sue Lefton
Design: Adrian Linford
Lighting: Robin Carter