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It''s not that I''m scared to get back onstage. Maybe my friends think that. I think they do . . . But it''s not that at all . . . An actor boards a train from Waterloo, opting for the meandering, romantic route to the West Country for a weekend with an old friend. As the Devonshire countryside slips past the carriage window, his mind''s eye is filled with memories of a happy summer spent there with his late partner and fellow actor, Michael. Richard Nelson''s funny and compelling monologue, written for his friend Paul Jesson, opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in March 2024.
About the author
Richard Nelson's plays include Farewell to the Theatre, Nikolai and the Others, Sweet and Sad, That Hopey Changey Thing, Conversations in Tusculum, How Shakespeare Won the West, Frank's Home, Rodney's wife, Franny's Way, Madame Melville, Goodnight Children Everywhere, The General From America, New England, Misha's Party (with Alexander Gelman), Columbus or the Discovery of Japan, Two Shakespearean Actors, Some Americans Abroad, Left, Life Sentences, Principia Scriptoriae.
He was written the musicals Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (with Peter Golub), James Joyce's The Dead (with Shaun Davey), My Life With Albertine (with Ricky Ian Gordon), the screenplays for the films Hyde Park-on-Hudson (Roger Michell director) and Ethan Frome (John Madden director).
He has received numerous awards both in America and abroad, including a Tony Award (Best Book of a Musical for James Joyce's The Dead), and Oliver Award (Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere), Tony nominations (Best Play for Two Shakespearean Actors; Best Score as co-lyricist for James Joyce's The Dead), an Olivier nomination (Best Comedy for Some Americans Abroad), two Obies, a Lortel Award, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Writers Award.
He is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He lives in upstate New York.
Summary
He told me about some bloke who was sick and then got well - by placing a poem by William Blake in his shirt pocket . . .
Heading for the West Country by train, an actor takes the scenic route from Waterloo to spend a weekend with an old friend. He recalls staying there one summer with his late partner Michael, another actor. Glad to be alive but uncertain of his future, he shares stories and his thoughts about Shakespeare, friends, his career and the trials of his own health.
Richard Nelson's funny and compelling monologue opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in March 2024.
