Bowman play next

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 11

Bowman play next

Edward Bowman’s “Questions of Loyalty” — a double bill— will be the next production in the Court Theatre’s New Zealand play season.

The play, directed by Annette Facer, will open on March 26.

Edward Bowman won a scriptwriting competition run world-wide by the “Observer” five years ago for his play, “Salve Regina”. “Questions of Loyalty”, written more recently, is in two sections. The first, and shorter, is “John”, and in it a woman contemplates her relationship with her husband. In the longer section, “Iscariot”, Judas puts his views both as a participant in the story of Christ and as a representative of the Jewish people. Mr Bowman describes this as “an attempt to project an overlay of the real Iscariot —as I see him —on top of the shadow picture of the biblical Iscariot — as he sees himself”.

The leading roles are played by Catherine Wilkin, who has worked for Mercury and Downstage Theatres

since she played the role of Charlotte Corday in Mervyn Thompson’s production of “Marat-Sade” several years ago; and Barry Empson, who has appeared in several Court Theatre productions. Background music for the

play has been composed by John Cousins, and Peter Lees-Jefferies has designed the, settings, which emphasise the abstract nature of the themes by giving the actors a simple, floating plane on which to work.