Alan Bennett’s double-bill Untold Stories will transfer to the Duchess theatre this March following its critically acclaimed run at the National Theatre starring Alex Jennings.
Jennings will reprise his role as the renowned playwright in both Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, two autobiographical recollections that are currently playing alongside Bennett’s new play People at the Southbank venue.
Set to music by George Fenton, Hymn is described as “a memoir of music in childhood” and was originally created in 2001 following Fenton’s appearance in Bennett’s play Forty Years On. The Nadia Fall-directed nostalgic piece brings together Bennett’s memories of concerts at Leeds Hall with instrumental passages and stories of his father teaching him the violin.
Receiving its world premiere at the National Theatre, Cocktail Sticks is a new work that revisits themes and conversations from Bennett’s memoir A Life Like Other People’s. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the hour long piece sees a son talk to his dead father as his mother yearns for a different life.
In its five star review of the double bill, The Telegraph praised the production, saying: “Hymn is enjoyable and touching, [and] Cocktail Sticks strikes me as one of the finest and most moving works Bennett has ever written.”
Jennings returns to the West End following My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a production which earned him one of the three Olivier Awards he has collected during his acclaimed career. A regular face at the National Theatre, the actor has starred in productions at the Southbank venue including Collaborators, The Habit Of Art, Present Laughter and The Alchemist.
Untold Stories will play a 12-week run at the Duchess theatre from 22 March (press night 2 April).