DIVINE GOSSIP a musical comedy.
Paris, 1929. A town made for and by the imagination of disparate artists. A dying Lawrence struggles to make his fortune with the paper-back version of Lady Chatterley, the man later to become known as Orwell dreams of lust and literature, and the rich American Crosby stimulates his poetic vision with a heavy mix of opium and passion. A young girl, with no name that has been remembered, inspires them all but has clear dreams of her own.
Divine Gossip interweaves popular twenties songs with is a clear case of blatant gossip - that fascinating mix of truth and wild speculation.
Divine Gossip was premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Pit Theatre on 12 October 1988, with the following cast:
- ERIC - Linus Roache
- ANGIE/LOUISE - Stella Gonet
- BAILEY - Geoffrey Freshwater
- HARRY - Nicholas Farrell
- CARESSE - Pippa Guard
- LAWRENCE/TED - Sean Baker
- FRIEDA/SAM - Ann Mitchell
- WALTER - Jim Hooper
- OLD WOMAN - Deirdre Doone
- OLD MAN - Arnold Yarrow
- WAITERS - Emma Hitching
- - Helen Sheals
- Philip Day
- Roger Tebb
- Mark Zingale
Directed by Barry Kyle
Designed by Gerard Howland
Choreographer Martin Duncan
Music Director Richard Brown
Magic consultant Ali Bongo
Stage Manager Jonathan Caldicot
DSM Rebecca Henson-Wilson
ASM Jayne Hedley-Boreham'Two consumptive English writers. D H Lawrence at the end of his career and George Orwell at the beginning of his. happen to be in Paris at the same time. There, too, are the rich American poetaster. Harry Crosby. and his sculptress wife Caresse ... From the obsession which the three men have with death, and from their shared belief that rebirth may be miraculously achieved through the love of a woman. Lowe has fashioned a sometimes dazzling, sometimes incoherent, but always fascinating play.'
Divine Gossip is published in Divine Gossip & Tibetan Inroads, Methuen, 1988
Francis King, Sunday Telegraph
