Our September play was “Strangers on a Train”. This was written by Craig Warner and is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.
The play is set in America in the 1950s.
Architect Guy Haines wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam, in order to marry the woman he loves, Anne Faulkner. While on a train to see his wife, he meets Charles Anthony Bruno, a psychopath and alcoholic playboy who proposes an idea to "exchange murders" – Bruno will kill Miriam if Guy kills Bruno's father. Neither of them will have a motive having never met the vicitm, and the police will have no reason to suspect either of them. Guy does not take Bruno seriously, but Bruno kills Guy's wife while Guy is away in Mexico.
Playwright Craig Warner acquired the stage rights to Strangers on a Train in 1995 and wrote both theatrical and radio adaptations of the story. The radio version was recorded and broadcast by the BBC and released on CD in May 2004. A West End production of the play ran from November 2, 2013, to February 22, 2014.
This was a change from the comedies we have often covered this year. It is a dark play with Bruno developing a fixation on Guy, perhaps as the result of latent homosexuality. As this develops, he stalks Guy, even sending letters that damage his professional reputation. During this time Guy loses all his spirit, the basis of his love of drawing and architecture and is driven to commit the murder of Bruno’s father.
Bruno’s relationship with his mother is interesting. It could be a bit of an Oedipus complex. And he is also the centre of her world. She eventually rejects him when she learns the truth. His alcoholism destroys his health, and he is told he can never drink alcohol again or he will die. Having destroyed his own health, his mother’s care and with Guy refusing any sort of relationship, Bruno kills himself in front of Guy.
Joy Shirley
The play is set in America in the 1950s.
Architect Guy Haines wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam, in order to marry the woman he loves, Anne Faulkner. While on a train to see his wife, he meets Charles Anthony Bruno, a psychopath and alcoholic playboy who proposes an idea to "exchange murders" – Bruno will kill Miriam if Guy kills Bruno's father. Neither of them will have a motive having never met the vicitm, and the police will have no reason to suspect either of them. Guy does not take Bruno seriously, but Bruno kills Guy's wife while Guy is away in Mexico.
Playwright Craig Warner acquired the stage rights to Strangers on a Train in 1995 and wrote both theatrical and radio adaptations of the story. The radio version was recorded and broadcast by the BBC and released on CD in May 2004. A West End production of the play ran from November 2, 2013, to February 22, 2014.
This was a change from the comedies we have often covered this year. It is a dark play with Bruno developing a fixation on Guy, perhaps as the result of latent homosexuality. As this develops, he stalks Guy, even sending letters that damage his professional reputation. During this time Guy loses all his spirit, the basis of his love of drawing and architecture and is driven to commit the murder of Bruno’s father.
Bruno’s relationship with his mother is interesting. It could be a bit of an Oedipus complex. And he is also the centre of her world. She eventually rejects him when she learns the truth. His alcoholism destroys his health, and he is told he can never drink alcohol again or he will die. Having destroyed his own health, his mother’s care and with Guy refusing any sort of relationship, Bruno kills himself in front of Guy.
Joy Shirley
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