The Tamesis
This desire shows no signs of abating. “It’s time to think about: How am I going to spend my last ten years?” Lithgow said. “Over the past few years I have grown into a character actor… an old man dealing with these raw, deadly dilemmas.” noted Churchill, who remained prime minister until he was 80. lithgow plays roger ailes in movie bombshell (2019), Facing sexual harassment charges at age 76; now Dahl has earned a spot on that list.
Although Dahl was beloved as a children’s author, his reputation was marred by controversy over whether a person’s art could be separated from his personality. His books include James and the Big Peach (1961), charlie and the chocolate factory (1964), BFG (1982), and Matilda (1988), beloved by generations. Perhaps more than any other writer, he transformed the morality tales of medieval children’s literature into something more shamelessly clever. His emotions can become savage. Villains tend to be violent and hateful. More seriously, he made anti-Semitic remarks. In 2020, his family apologized for his anti-Semitic views, but he never did.
huge, The show, which won three Olivier Awards last year (including Best New Drama), tells the story of a 1983 lunch at Dahl’s home in the English village of Great Missenden. There, representatives from his American publisher (a fictional character played by Cash) and his British publisher’s managing director Tom Maschler (a real-life character played by Elliot Levy) are meeting with Dahl and his fiancée Felicity “Lissie” Crossland (Rachel Sterling) to try to prevent the catastrophe caused by a book review Dahl wrote about Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
The lunch was imaginary, but the comments and controversial opinions expressed by Dahl are real. “Never in the history of mankind has a race so quickly transformed from pitiful victims to savage murderers,” Dahl wrote in a quote from the play. A wave of anger erupted. exist Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl (2010), his biographer Donald Sturrock describes how even Crosland was appalled by Dahl’s excesses. “His rhetoric, while sympathetic to the Palestinians, ultimately got the better of him,” Strock wrote.
first draft huge The play was written before the attacks of October 7, 2023, but ongoing hostilities in the Middle East make the play’s historical arguments – about the rights of Israel, the rights of Palestinians – seem eerily relevant. The show’s strengths, however, have less to do with its topicality and more to do with its nuanced examination of bigotry, Dahl’s generosity and wit, and his rage and viciousness. “What enables a person to transform the world into literature, drama, or music is not the ability that makes them a decent human being,” Hytner said.
“It’s an incredible role,” Lithgow said. “Like red meat… Rumor has it that Dahl didn’t actually like children. But, whether he loved them or not, he was keen to entertain them.” For Lithgow, the starting point was the recognition that Dahl’s life was riddled with tragedy: his father died when he was very young; He was sent to boarding school, where he was abused; his first wife, actress Patricia Neal, suffered a stroke and he nursed her back to health. One son suffered brain damage in a freak accident and his seven-year-old daughter Olivia died from complications from measles. In Lithgow’s words, “these terrible, terrible losses” shaped his worldview.
