Erica Whyman, the RSC’s previous (acting) artistic director, makes her programming swansong at Stratford directing a play about a pair of artists who, in their different ways, were committed to the ideals that have motivated Whyman throughout her career (and are held dear by the company’s new co-artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey): that the arts should be useful to society and be of benefit to all.
Mark Ravenhill’s two-hander, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2013, is set in the work room of Benjamin Britten’s home in Aldeburgh, over nine months from 1952 to 1953, when the composer was anxiously working on Gloriana, a “British national opera” to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Under pressure, he has asked Imogen Holst to help him out. Imo has form as a facilitator: she is the daughter of Gustav, and a composer, arranger and educator in her own right.
