From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

That Good Night

Play by NJ Crisp

Summary

Play by NJ Crisp

Field	Value
name	That Good Night
writer	N. J. Crisp
characters	5
setting	A villa in Umbria, Italy
premiere	2 April 1996
place	Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
orig_lang	English
genre	Drama

That Good Night is a play by NJ Crisp, written with the intention of it being performed by Donald Sinden and his son Marc Sinden playing the central characters of the father and son. However Marc, who in 1991 had starred in Crisps' psychological thriller Dangerous Obsession, decided to produce it instead and so it became his first play as a Theatrical Producer.

The title is taken from the poem by Dylan Thomas:

"Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Original cast

It opened at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford on 2 April 1996 with the following cast (in order of appearance):

Lucy Fleming as Anna
Patrick Ryecart as Michael
Julie-Kate Olivier as Debbie
Donald Sinden as Ralph
Nigel Davenport as The Visitor

Plot

Ralph is a successful screenwriter, charming, cantankerous, rude and a bully; in his time an avid womaniser and completely selfish. Now in his seventies and terminally ill, he has two final missions: to be reconciled to his long-abandoned son Michael and secretly to ensure he is not a burden to his younger, devoted and second wife Anna as he goes "into that good night". But when Michael arrives at the beautiful Tuscan villa for their first meeting in many years, Ralph wrecks all hope of reconciliation when he picks and loses a fight with Michael's beautiful girlfriend, Debbie. Later, alone, Ralph receives 'The Visitor' whose services he has hired to provide a painless ending, as he goes into 'That Good Night'. But The Visitor plays a devastating trick, causing Ralph to consider the damaged potential that life still holds for him.

Critical reception

Directed by Edward Hall (his first commercial tour), set designed by Michael Pavalka and lighting by Robert Bryan, critics at the time regarded the play as Crisps' finest work and both the production and performances received enthusiastic reviews:

Production

The tour of the play coincided with Sinden's other son, actor Jeremy Sinden, becoming ill and dying of cancer on the 29 May 1996. The proposed West End transfer was cancelled.

Film

The film version, which Marc Sinden and Jo Gilbert co-produced, was shot in Portugal starring Sir John Hurt (in his final performance) and Charles Dance and was released in 2017 and is dedicated to Donald Sinden and John Hurt.

References

"Marc Sinden - A Business called Show". British Theatre Guide.
"British Theatre Guide".
(c. 1996). "The Stage".
(3 November 2020). "That Good Night".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1996-plays plays-by-n.-j.-crisp

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about That Good Night — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report