Original language English First performance 17 August 1996 Place premiered Royal National Theatre | Date premiered 1996 Genre Drama | |
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Subject A painter wants two wives on the go at once. Dramas Goodnight Children Everywhere, Benefactors, Another Country, Children of a Lesser God, The Life and Adventur | ||
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Stanley is a 1996 play written by English playwright, Pam Gems. The play was premiered at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in London.
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Plot synopsis
The play explores the complicated life of British painter Stanley Spencer, who was played by Antony Sher in the play's London and Broadway debuts.
Spencer was a twentieth century painter, whose work attempted to combine the sexual with the divine in contemporary English settings. His paintings frequently showed biblical scenes taking place in ordinary English villages, particularly Cookham, and often depicted, or used figures inspired by, his friends, relatives and lovers.
Spencer married two different women, each of whom was a gifted painter in her own right. He left his first wife Hilda, a conventional woman who loved him, in order to marry Patricia, a defiantly unconventional lesbian who was incapable of loving him. Much of the play revolves around his passionate attachment to both women.