Howard Brenton has an interesting writing profile from the controversial Romans in Britain in 1980 and the utterly brilliant Pravda in 1985 to the more recent wonderful local story of Shadow Factory for NST Southampton. Recently, he has displayed an obsessive affection with the Jermyn Street Artistic Director, Tom Littler for the work of Swedish classic author August Strindberg and together they are staging two more adaptions in repertory at the venue. First up is Creditors written with its better known piece Miss Julie in the summer of 1888 in a naturalistic style that was revolutionary for the time. The challenge is how to adapt and rework them for a modern audience to manage dated attitudes and create an engaging piece of theatre. He, director Tom Littler and the cast completely deliver on this creative challenge.
The action takes place in the public areas of a hotel on the coast and is a love triangle between Tekla, her husband Adolf and her unseen former husband which explodes with arrival of suave stranger at the hotel who for eight days resides in room 8 which adjoins the public space. The eighty minutes adaption without interval is a fascinating chess game for three players as they try to manoeuvre each other insecurities to an emotional checkmate with dramatic consequences.
