4 May: The Father

A change of plan!!

I had planned a different play for this month, but after reading it, it is simply too difficult for our group!  A huge cast with lots of comings and goings, and I think I shall put this on hold for now.

And so we are going to revisit a play that I remember us all enjoying when we last read it in 2016: it is one that I have been thinking we should read again.

Le Père is a 2012 play by the French playwright Florian Zeller which won in 2014 the Molière Award for Best Play. It was made into the film Floride (2015).  Zeller is a young writer who has won many awards including the 2011 Molière Award for Best Play for his earlier work, The Mother.  

The play was made into the French film Floride in 2015, and in 2020 Zeller directed the English version, The Father, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, which won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Florian Zeller

This is a moving play about a man suffering dementia, and the affect it has on his life and the lives of those around him.  For those of you who have seen relatives suffer this horrible illness it will no doubt strike a nerve and you might find it quite emotional.

I first heard it on the radio, and found that you are drawn in and are unsure whether and when Andre, the father, is living in the here and now or the past. Another discombobulation is the fact that he is a French man, in Paris, speaking in English. Please don't ask me to explain, but for this play it did seem odd.

The Father played in London to rave reviews, starring Kenneth Cranham and Claire Skinner.