A Series of Talks Hosted by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Michael Pennington in conversation with Philip Franks. This year playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker is Writer in Residence at the Freud Museum, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Timberlake Wertenbaker is an acclaimed and prolific playwright whose works have been performed and studied all over the world. Her play Our Country's Good is an A level text and won the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year award in 1988. She is also a translator, translating and adapting plays for performance from French (examples include Marivaux's False Admissions, Anouilh's Wild Orchids and Racine's Phedre) and from classical Greek (examples include Sophocles' Elektra and Euripides' Hippolytus.) Her recent translation of Racine's Britannicus received rapturous reviews at Wilton's Music Hall. She is using her residency at the Freud Museum to complete her latest play, The Suicide of Colonel A. Ajax inspired by Sophocles' Ajax. Timberlake is organising The Grating Tool, a series of conversations between herself and leading theatre practitioners probing how they create complex characters. Timberlake will ask how actors and directors explore the physical and mental makeup of a character on stage. How does an actor enter into the psychology of a character, particularly in a new play? What physical manifestation, including habits or tics do they come up with and how is this used in the performance? What do they read, particularly when acting a disturbed character? Where do they find this in themselves? How are actors affected by the personalities they inhabit? Doors open 5.30pm, for a promptly 6pm start.