ABOUT THE PLAY

 

Two of Britain’s most respected actors, Simon Callow (The Mystery of Charles Dickens, Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Ann Mitchell (Tantalus, Widows, She’s Out), appear together for the first time on the West End stage in this brilliantly observed study of human nature. THROUGH THE LEAVES explores the combative sexual relationship between Otto, a thuggish alleged factory worker, and Martha, a self employed tripe-butcher. In this darkly comic study of emotional need - the inarticulate meets the ever-hopeful in a battle of wills over the compromises needed in order to share a life.

 

CAST &CREATIVE

 

Martha - Ann Mitchell

Otto - Simon Callow

 

Author - Franz Xaver Kroetz

Translated by - Anthony Vivis

Director - Daniel Kramer

Designer - Soutra Gilmour

Lighting - Charles Balfour

Sound - Michael Oliva

 

QUOTES & REVIEWS

 

Gripping

The Sunday Telegraph

 

Outstanding

The Observer

​

Brilliant

Metro

 

Astonishing

The Guardian

 

Intelligent, Witty stuff

Time Out

 

A Triumph of Acting

The Times

 

Pretty much Perfection

The Independent

 

High, Haunting Theatre

Evening Standard

 

Ann Mitchell alternates between authority and vulnerability. She shows movingly how much of herself she is suppressing

for his sake... Simon Callow is OUTSTANDING as Otto. He moves slowly, in an over-relaxed way that conveys

that he is a bad lot, as if his limbs themselves were unemployed

The Observer

 

A TRIUMPH of acting... The play is surprisingly sensitive about, among many other things, gross insensitivity,

and unexpectedly GRIPPING about dreary, dull existences... To see Callow slouch bullet-headed across a grotty living-room,

his stomach bursting through his vest, is to see the slob in excelsis... Mitchell’s performance never becomes the least sentimental.

Conversely, it’s hard to feel anything but contempt for bloated, coarse, thankless Otto; yet somehow, Callow wins a little compassion...

It is ugly, stuff, yes, but it has SOMETHING TO SAY TO US ALL

The Times

 

Both Ann Mitchell as Martha and Simon Callow are BRILLIANT at filling Kroetz’s jagged silences: Mitchell’s beautifully

understated performance is full of pathos as her initial excitement and hope falls dully away; Callow simultaneously raffish,

callous and ragingly oblivious. They make this lonely relationship convincing and compelling...

with Kroetz’s play itself engagingly subtle - and powerfully ordinary

Metro

 

A GRIPPING and convincing study of emotional need...

Daniel Kramer’s FINE PRODUCTION features a pair of TERRIFIC

PERFORMANCES... Ann Mitchell is wonderfully sympathetic,

without any recourse to plaintiveness or souped-up

emotion... Simon Callow is an ugly, florid, twisted presence.

Just to watch him lounging back with a cigarette stuck on

his lip is a MASTERCLASS in cheap contempt

The Sunday Telegraph

 

This is an ASTONISHING EVENT.

At a time when style tends to dominate content,

it proves that nothing is more GRIPPING in theatre than

social, psychological and economic truth...

This, you feel, is life lived... THE ACTING TAKES YOUR

BREATH AWAY... The performances remind you that theatre

is never better than when it conveys the texture of reality

The Guardian

 

Simon Callow, partnered by the glorious Ann Mitchell

in this BEAUTIFUL, HEART RENDING PLAY about a violent

demanding, working-class sexual partnership, proves no mean

theatrical beast... Franz Xaver Kroetz’s POETIC CLASSIC has

been SUPERBLY REVISED by new young director

Daniel Kramer. Good for him, lucky for us

Daily Mail

 

Franz Xaver Kroetz’s two-hander is about

cruelty, love, need and endurance...

I was GRIPPED by its POWER, and THE TWO ACTORS

GIVE THE FINEST AND MOST SUBTLY CRAFTED PERFORMANCES OF THEIR LIVES

The Sunday Times

 

HIGH ON RAW TENSION... Daniel Kramer’s

powerfully nuanced production emphasises something fresh

and disturbing about this contemporary German classic...

Soutra Gilmour’s stage-set reflects the depressing shabbiness

of the environment... HIGH, HAUNTING THEATRE

Evening Standard

 

#1 CRITICS’ CHOICE

Soutra Gilmour’s rusty set lends an air of semi-elegant decay

that matches the relationship of the play... Daniel Kramer’s

pacy, unsentimental production lays out the illogic and compromise

of latterday love and lets us draw our own conclusions...

this is INTELLIGENT, WITTY STUFF...

a gentle depiction of harsh truths that stays in the mind

Time Out