CONFLICT A Love Story
By Miles malleson Directed by jenn thompson
Conflict is a love story set against the backdrop of a hotly contested election. Miles Malleson combines his two great passions: sex and politics. The result is a provocative romance that sizzles with both wit and ideas.
Conflict by Miles Malleson Directed by Jenn Thompson The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street) May 25, 2018 through July 8, 2018 Tue - Sat 7:30PM Sat & Sun 2:00PM Wed 2:00PM: 6/20
Benefit Reading: Liliom By Ferenc Molnár Directed by Jesse Marchese Monday, June 11 7:00PM Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St)
Further Reading:
Black ‘Ell and D Company By Miles Malleson Directed by Matt Dickson
“Entertaining and Exciting.” It’s the Roaring 20’s, London. Lady Dare Bellingdon has everything she could want, yet she craves something more. Dare’s man, Sir Major Ronald Clive, is standing for Parliament with the backing of Dare’s father. Clive is a Conservative, of course, but he’s liberal enough to be sleeping with Dare, who’s daring enough to take a lover, but too restless to marry him. Clive’s opponent, Tom Smith is passionate about social justice and understands the joy of having something to believe in. Dare is “the woman between” two candidates who both want to make a better world—until politics become personal, and mudslinging threatens to soil them all.
“Thoroughly Enjoyable” “I won’t say that it is necessary to be quite so good an actor as Miles Malleson to be a good playwright; but it is obviously a help. Mr. Malleson’s stage experience has enabled him not only to turn his economics to good conversational account, but to hinge excitingly dramatic situations upon them. His argument may not bring converts tumbling into the Socialist fold, but it should at least pave the way to sound and sensible discussion. He avoids political bigotry with the same dramatic skill; and though the play’s sympathies are left rather than right, he gives the old regime a sporting run. Politics are not the only string to his interestingly didactic bow. The other is Love. His frank handling of the relations between the sexes is again so cunning that it is the dramatic, rather than the debatable, aspect that engages one’s interest.” The Observer, 1925
“An Excellent Entertainment.” The play premiered in London in 1925, where critics heaped it with praise: “A skillfully and strongly written piece”, the dialogue “is neat and spare, always natural and often witty;” while complimenting “the expert way in which it is put together.” Conflict was adapted for the movies in 1931, under the title The Woman Between (changed to The Woman Decides when an American movie with same title also was released in 1931.) “There is so much cleverness in this picture that it makes me wish all the more that British produces would avoid such unnecessarily “sexy” subjects,” lamented Picturegoer Weekly.
Monday, July 16 7:00PM Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St)
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