The End of the Affair
Novel to be performed at Devonshire Park Theatre from Tuesday 2 – Saturday 6 June
A stunning adaptation of Graham Greene’s award-winning novel The End Of The Affair plays at the Devonshire Park Theatre from Tuesday 2 – Saturday 6 June produced by Brighton based company Talking Scarlet.
The year is 1939 and Britain is at war. Against this backdrop, a tumultuous, passionate, illicit and sexually liberating love affair is about to begin that will carry a tragic price tag.
Maurice Bendrix, a rising writer meets Sarah Miles, the wife of a civil servant in London just before the outbreak of World War 2. Bendrix is loosely based on Greene himself, and he reflects often on the act of writing a novel. Sarah is based loosely on Greene’s mistress at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.
Bendrix and Sarah fall in love quickly but he soon realises that the affair will end as quickly as it began. The relationship suffers from his overt and admitted jealousy.
He is frustrated by her refusal to divorce Henry, her amiable but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Bendrix’s flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed. After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation.
Later, Bendrix is still wracked with jealousy when he sees Henry crossing the Common that separates their flats. Henry has finally started to suspect something and Bendrix decides to go to a private detective to discover Sarah’s new lover.
However, when the private detective steals her diary, Bendrix learns that Sarah’s decision to end the affair is not for the reasons he imagined.
Other works by English novelist Graham Greene include The Third Man, The Quiet American, Travels With My Aunt and Brighton Rock.
The End of the Affair plays at the Devonshire Park Theatre from 2 – 6 June. Tickets priced £15.50 – £21.50. Book via Box Office on 01323 412000 or online at eastbournetheatres.co.uk