Stanley (play)

Plot synopsis

The play explores the complicated life of British painter Stanley Spencer, who was played by Antony Sher in the play's London and Broadway debuts.

Spencer was a twentieth-century painter whose work attempted to combine the sexual with the divine in contemporary English settings. His paintings frequently showed biblical scenes taking place in ordinary English villages, particularly Cookham, and often depicted or used figures inspired by his friends, relatives and lovers.

Spencer married two different women; he left his first wife, Hilda Carline, an artist who put her ambition aside to make a home for him, to marry Patricia Preece, a defiantly unconventional lesbian who made her reputation as an artist by passing off the works of her lover, Dorothy Hepworth, as her own, and who was incapable of loving him. Much of the play revolves around his passionate attachment to both women.

Awards and nominations

; Awards

• 1996 Evening Standard Award for Best Play
• 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play
• 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor- Antony Sher
• 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role- Deborah Findlay
• 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Designer- Tim Hatley ; Nominations
• 1997 Tony Award for Best Play
• 1997 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play- Antony Sher
• 1997 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play- John Caird
• 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role- Anna Chancellor

References

References

1. (19 July 1998). "Lives Laid Bare / The second wife of the British painter Stanley Spencer wouldn't live with him -- and, it turns out, she didn't paint her own pictures". SFGATE.
2. [http://www.albemarle-london.com/awards/AwardWinners.php?Award_Type=Evening%20Standard%20Awards&Year=1996 Evening Standard Awards] Retrieved on 8 October 2009