A rehearsed reading of a new piece of writing inspired by an unfinished play by D H Lawrence will be staged as part of Nottingham European Arts and Theatre Festival (neat16).
Stephen Lowe’s Altitude Sickness explores Lawrence’s life in New Mexico—the only place he ever called home.
Originally called Altitude, Lawrence’s play was written about his host Mabel Dodge Luhan and the company of artists that she attracted to her ranch in Taos. He wrote the first scene of a play in which they were to play themselves. He did not complete the play.
Lowe now gives voice to the world that Lawrence inhabited in the last years of his life. The play highlights his relationship with three remarkable women: his fierce and fiery German wife Frieda, English aristocrat and unrequited lover Dorothy Brett and passionate American doyenne of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan.
There are “theatrical fireworks including madness, sexual obsession, artistic envy and the revelation of a series of painful and comic love stories”.
The cast comprises Tanya Myers (Mable Dodge Luhan), Ulrike Johannson (Frieda Lawrence), Robin Simpson (D H Lawrence), Jim Findley (Tony Luhan) and Ava Hunt (Dorothy Brett).
Directed by Martin Berry, the rehearsed reading of Altitude Sickness will be at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham on Tuesday 17 May at 2 and 8PM.