Quartermaine's Terms is a play by Simon Gray which won The Cheltenham Prize in 1982.
Plot The play takes place over a period of two years in the 1960s in the staffroom at a Cambridge school for teaching English to foreigners. It deals with the relationships between seven teachers at the school, in particular that between St John Quartermaine and the others. The dominant theme is loneliness, and during the course of the play all of the characters experience the trauma of being or feeling alone. Mark’s wife leaves him; Derek, from Hull, finds Cambridge initially unwelcoming; Eddie is ultimately bereaved by the loss of a partner; Anita’s husband is a philanderer; Henry is trapped in a dysfunctional nuclear family and Melanie is similarly trapped caring for a mother whom she despises. Quartermaine is a painfully lonely bachelor, seemingly with no friends other than his colleagues at the school. Although the play is at times highly comic, it has a very serious theme; and the struggles of each character with their own types of loneliness are moving and sad. Above all, Quartermaine is an increasingly pathetic figure lost in his own confused thoughts – and ultimately deserted. His future as the play closes is poignantly bleak.
Original production It was first staged on 30 July 1981 at the Queen’s Theatre, London. Role Actor St. John Quartermaine Edward Fox Anita Manchip Jenny Quayle Mark Sackling Peter Birch Eddie Loomis Robin Bailey Derek Meadle Glyn Grain Henry Windscape James Grout Melanie Garth Prunella Scales
Director: Harold Pinter Producer: Michael Codron Designer: Eileen Diss Lighting: Leonard Tucker
Critical reception The Stage wrote, "Simon Gray has written the best play of his notable career, a delicate, moving and yet consistently funny piece, eloquently directed by Harold Pinter, which depicts the English penchant for quiet suffering with immense skill."
Off-Broadway The play was staged on 24 February 1983 at Playhouse 91 Theater, New York in a production by Long Wharf Theatre. Role Actor St. John Quartermaine Remak Ramsay Anita Manchip Caroline Lagerfelt Mark Sackling Kelsey Grammer Eddie Loomis Roy Poole Derek Meadle Anthony Heald Henry Windscape John Cunningham Melanie Garth Dana Ivey Producers: John A. McQuiggan & Ethel Watt Director: Kenneth Frankel Settings: David Jenkins Costumes: Bill Walker Lighting: Pat Collins
Critical reception The New York Times called it "a play that is at once full of doom and gloom and bristling with wry, even uproarious comedy. The mixture is so artfully balanced that we really don't know where the laughter ends and the tears begin: the playwright is in full possession of that Chekhovian territory where the tragedies and absurdities of life become one and the same."
TV adaptation
A film was broadcast on BBC Two in 1987, as part of the Screen Two series.
Role Actor Melanie Garth Eleanor Bron St. John (pronounced Sinjin) Quartermaine Edward Fox Mark Sackling Clive Francis Eddie Loomis John Gielgud Henry Windscape Peter Jeffrey Derek Meadle Paul Jesson Anita Manchip Tessa Peake-Jones Oko-Ri Eiji Kusuhara
Producer: Louis Marks Director: Bill Hays
Radio adaptations The play was presented on BBC Radio 3 on 26 May 1991. Role Actor St. John Quartermaine Michael Williams Henry Windscape Peter Jeffery Eddie Loomis Robin Bailey Melanie Garth Marcia Warren Mark Sackling Nigel Anthony Anita Manchip Helena Breck Derek Meadle Jon Strickland Director: Gordon House The play was presented on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 17 June 2006.
Role Actor Quartermaine Michael Palin Anita Francesca Faridany Mark James Fleet Eddie Clive Francis Derek Andrew Lincoln Henry David Yelland Melanie Harriet Walter Producer: Catherine Bailey Director: Maria Aitken
West End revival The play opened at Wyndham's Theatre on 23 January 2013, after brief runs at Theatre Royal, Brighton, and the Theatre Royal, Bath. Role Actor St. John Quartermaine Rowan Atkinson Anita Manchip Louise Ford Mark Sackling Matthew Cottle Eddie Loomis Malcolm SinclairDerek Meadle Will Keen Henry Windscape Conleth Hill Melanie Garth Felicity Montagu
Director: Richard Eyre Producer: Michael Codron
Critical reception The Guardian noted "a rueful social comedy that stands up well to revival and gives star billing to Rowan Atkinson, who reminds us in his first straight play in 25 years that he is a highly capable actor"; while The Daily Telegraph wrote "there’s a delight in watching a playwright so in control of his craft that he holds you riveted in a world where only the silence seems to scream."
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