Greg Hicks is to appear in a “gripping” one-man show about death, desire and Beethoven, The Kreutzer Sonata, at The Theatre Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella and adapted by Irish playwright Nancy Harris, The Kreutzer Sonata is an “intense, gripping and moving piece of theatre, packed with love, lust, jealousy and murder”.
This complex thriller explores the mind of a man driven mad by jealousy, a disintegrated marriage and the overwhelming power of Beethoven's music. He recounts the moment when he watched his wife, a pianist, perform the famous Kreutzer Sonata with another man and became convinced that the breathless passion of the performance could only mean that they were having an affair.
Hicks has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1976. He was nominated for a 2004 Olivier award in the best actor category for his performance in Coriolanus at the Old Vic and was awarded the Critics' Circle award for best Shakespearian performance in the same role.
For the RSC he has also appeared as Claudius and the ghost in Hamlet in 2013, in the title role of King Lear in 2011, as Leontes in The Winter’s Tale in 2009, in the title role of Macbeth and the Ghost, Player King and the gravedigger in Hamlet in 2004 and as Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor in 2002.
Hicks's performance in The Kreutzer Sonata will be complemented by Hannah Watson (piano) and Justin Wilman (violin) as Beethoven's sonata resonates throughout the play.
Director John Terry said, “it’s an extraordinary opportunity to bring the genius of Tolstoy and Beethoven together in one room, alongside the crisp, modern dialogue of a fine playwright, the talents of an extraordinary group of musicians and an actor of truly national standing.
“This play touches the listener with truth and delicious humour, and has the power to make you shiver like a cold wind blowing through a keyhole. When I first read it, I couldn’t put it down and sat in my car, late for a meeting, utterly unaware of the world around me. I think—I hope—this is the experience the audience will have. Only more so.”
The Kreutzer Sonata runs at the Theatre Chipping Norton from Friday 18 until Saturday 26 September.