His best-selling children’s books are often adapted into hit plays and musicals, but now Roald Dahl’s personal life has inspired a new drama. John Lithgow, best known for the TV comedy “The Third Stone from the Sun,” will star in “Giant,” written by Mark Rosenblatt and directed by Nicholas Hytner, at London’s Royal Court Theater this autumn. “author.
““I’m delighted to be performing at the Royal Court, where I’ve seen so much great work dating back to the late 1960s,” said Lithgow. “There’s no better place to unveil the Mark Rosenblatt Order An amazing new drama. “
“Giant” is set in 1983, shortly before the publication of Dahl’s novel “The Witches,” which had drawn criticism for anti-Semitic views expressed in the media. In an interview with the New Statesman that year, Dahl said: “There is a quality in the Jewish character that does arouse hostility… Even villains like Hitler will not provoke them without reason.” In 2020, the Dahl family and The Roald Dahl Story Company issued an apology for the “lasting and understandable harm” caused by such comments.
Rosenblatt’s play takes place one afternoon at the Dahl household. According to promotional materials, it offers “a complex portrait of a charismatic icon” and “explores with dark humor the difference between thoughtful opinion and dangerous rhetoric.” “Giant” is the feature debut of Rosenblatt, a writer-director whose short films include “Ganef,” which explores the effects of trauma and is inspired by the aftermath of his family’s survival of the Holocaust. Inspired by stories.
“‘Giant’ was my first work,” Rosenblatt said. “When I was scratching my hair at the kitchen table writing this book, I never imagined it would be on this landmark stage. premiere, and with such a high caliber of cast and creative team. It is completely surreal and exciting to be part of David Byrne’s first season. I really hope that Giant will be a success for the Royal Court audience. Come for a night of theater that’s unsettling, funny, urgent, and provocative.”
In 2021, the royal court itself was at the center of an anti-Semitism controversy over offensive stereotypes in the play Courage, which featured a character named Hershel Fink manipulative billionaire capitalist. It changed the character’s name and later apologized for the “pain caused during production.”
Two-time Tony Award winner Lithgow starred in the farce “The Inquisitor” at London’s National Theater in 2012 under Nicholas Hytner’s tenure as artistic director. Giant was previously developed for the Bridge Theater with Hytner’s London Theater Company. The cast includes Elliot Levey as Dahl’s publisher Tom Maschler.
In 2023, it was revealed that hundreds of changes had been made to Dahl’s best-selling story, removing language deemed inappropriate. Since then, his novels have continued to inspire stage and screen productions, including the blockbuster Wonka, a prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Timothee Chalamet; Wes Anderson’s short Henry The Amazing Story of Shug; and the National Theatre’s musical The Witches. The Giant Crocodile debuted at the Leeds Theater in December and will move to the Regent’s Park Open Air Theater later this year.
On Monday, Giant was announced as part of the first season of the Royal Court’s new artistic director David Byrne, who was appointed in 2023 and previously ran the New Peep Show Theatre. Diorama theatre). Byrne said: “This is more than just a season, it’s a statement of intent for the future: a new generation of bold voices telling big, messy stories; world-renowned artists colliding with rebellious new talent to ignite our stages Some unmissable plays.” Half of the seats downstairs in the Jerwood Theater, the theatre’s main space, will be on sale for £22.50 or less throughout the season, with all tickets for Monday night performances costing £15.
New plays this season include Ben Whishaw’s Margaret Perry’s adaptation of Maggie Nelson’s prose poem “Brute,” directed by Katie Mitchell; Stewart Pringle; Pringle’s comedy The Bounds, set in the medieval world of football; Emteaz Hussain’s Suicide Squad, about a sex abuse scandal; Tife Kusoro’s G, which explores the friendship of three black boys; Oliver Forsyth Oliver Forsyth’s Brace Brace examines the aftermath of a hijacking.
ECHO (Every Cold Hearted Oxygen), produced in partnership with London International Theater Festival Nassim Soleimanpour and Omar Elerian, features a different performer each night stage, presenting a script they had never seen before. Ciara Elizabeth Smyth’s disturbing comedy Lie Low (previously staged at the Abbey in Dublin and Traverse in Edinburgh) will also play at the Royal Court on; Sabrina Ali’s Dugsi Dayz, a Breakfast Club-style comedy about a British-Somali girl in detention, will also be staged at the Royal Court, having previously played in London Theater staged. Rich Mix and Edinburgh Fringe.
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