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concert celebration without the Three Tenors. So his play doesn’t end, it just stops, and we are left with nothing more than the memory of four performances desperately trying to make bricks despite a distinct lack of straw; if
Harwood has anything new to tell us about singers who have for different
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The setting is a retirement home for musicians. Three elderly former opera-singers, who often worked together, are sitting out on the terrace. Reginald is quietly reading a serious book, but jovial,
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concluded: "Harwood seems to have set out with something sad to say about the ravages of age on a profession which largely depends on staying young, but then to have been sidetracked into a sort of
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give it everything they've got, breathing vitality into a script that could be an inert embarrassment if performed by less accomplished players."
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Is there any chance that these four will ever sing together again? A gala concert is about to take place at the retirement home to celebrate
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and one is not. But the play eventually moves to an uncertain conclusion when they don costumes and lip-synch to their own retro recording.
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They are about to be joined by newcomer Jean, who was a major star in her day and to whom
Reginald was once unhappily married.
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Wilfred is chuckling about sex, as he regards Cissy, lying back and listening to music through her headphones.
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he seems, like his characters, to have abruptly and irretrievably forgotten what he was going to say. And the
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as Jean. Following a four-month run it closed on 8 January 2000.
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A regional tour from June to August 2010 enjoyed success with
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The play was adapted as a film by
Harwood himself in 2012.
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236:reasons lost their voices and yet are now
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331:, Guildford, by Sheila Connor (2010)
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53:8 September 1999
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101:, was first directed by
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97:The play, presented by
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107:Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
445:Plays set in England
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356:The Daily Telegraph
345:, 10 September 1999
311:The Daily Telegraph
282:, Buckinghamshire.
211:The Daily Telegraph
119:Noël Coward Theatre
103:Christopher Morahan
440:Plays about actors
192:Critical reaction
123:Sir Donald Sinden
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76:Original language
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154:Gwen Taylor
144:as Reggie,
425:1999 plays
419:Categories
286:References
57:1999-09-08
36:Characters
26:Written by
266:as Jean,
185:Rigoletto
111:Guildford
400:Review:
270:as Reg,
115:West End
71:, London
408:Variety
402:Quartet
324:Quartet
322:Review
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182:" from
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39:Reggie
291:Notes
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59:)
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