Show ended
Playwright Peter Nichols died recently aged 92 after a long and illustrious career during which he went in and out of fashion. Joe Egg, about a couple raising a disabled child, was based on Nichols’ own experience of raising a disabled daughter who died aged 11. The play premiered at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, directed by Michael Blakemore, before transferring to the West End where the critic Irving Wardle praised it for having "significantly shifted our boundaries of taste." Times change and it will be interesting to see how Nichols’ black humour is received in more sensitive times. It certainly has an all-star cast with Patricia Hodge plus Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner as the parents struggling to cope.
This black comedy has a fantastic cast. Claire Skinner & Toby Stephens are well known for their film & tv work but both have great theatre pedigree. Together, they play a struggling married couple who’s child, Josephine, has cerebral palsy. Moving & darkly funny, it follows their attempts to cope with the strains of caring for their child.
Peter Nichols’ funny and moving masterpiece, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, is the extraordinary play inspired by the author’s own experience of raising his daughter. A story about family, it shines a light on her parents’ caring for their disabled daughter, affectionately nicknamed “Joe Egg”, and how they live using wild wry humour to keep the family together. This new production brings together some of Britain’s greatest actors including Toby Stephens (Oslo, Lost in Space), Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) as husband and wife, Bri and Sheila, who star alongside Olivier Award winner Patricia Hodge (Miranda, National Theatre’s Money) as Bri’s mother, all making their long-awaited returns to the West End in this new production from leading director Simon Evans (Killer Joe, Arturo Ui). Hilarious and heartbreaking, this vitally important story will pierce your heart one moment, and fill it with warmth the next. With its courageous humour and astonishing honesty, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is the must see play of the autumn.