''Lawrence After Arabia'' is a 2016 play by the British playwright

Howard Brenton Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter, often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, and David Hare. Early years Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, so ...

, centred on

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First W ...

and his 1922 retreat from public life at the home of his friends

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

and his wife Charlotte. Its premiere production ran from 28 April to 4 June 2016 at the

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. History The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

, in which Lawrence played a leading part.

Cast

Jack Laskey Jack Laskey is an English actor best known for his theatre work and his role as DS Jakes in the ITV drama series '' Endeavour''. He is the third son of Michael Laskey, a poet. Laskey trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Telev ...

Jeff Rawle Jeffrey Alan Rawle (born 20 July 1951) is a British actor from Birmingham, England. He is known for playing Billy in ''Billy Liar (TV series), Billy Liar'' (1973–1974), and for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom ''Drop the Dea ...

* Charlotte Shaw -

Geraldine James Geraldine James (born 6 July 1950) is an English actress. She has worked extensively on television, on stage and in film. She is known for her role as Marilla Cuthbert in the Netflix series ''Anne with an E'' (2017–2019) and as Queen Mary in ...

Lowell Thomas Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, Television presenter, broadcaster, and documentary filmmaker. He authored more than fifty non-fiction books, mostly travel narratives and popular biographies of ex ...

- Sam Alexander * Prince Feisal - Khalid Laith *

Edmund Allenby Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a senior British Army Officer (armed forces), officer and imperial governor. He fought in the Second Boer ...

- William Chubb * Blanche Patch -

Rosalind March Rosalind March is a British TV, film and stage actress. Born in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, March began her career in 1979, when she played Madge in several episodes of the series ''The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game''. Throughout the ' ...

* Mohammed Abdullah - Kai Spellman.

Critical reception

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' found it "intriguing, richly researched but underpowered"; while ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' noted "A quiet, but highly topical, masterpiece...clever and engaging...the skill of the play is that it doesn’t make you think; it lets you think"; and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' found it "Fascinating...it feels as if we have been given a magic window to see what really happened to Lawrence after Arabia."

References

External links

''Lawrence After Arabia'' - Hampstead Theatre
2016 plays Plays by Howard Brenton Plays set in the 1920s Plays set in the 1930s Plays set in England Biographical plays about military leaders Biographical plays about writers Cultural depictions of T. E. Lawrence Cultural depictions of George Bernard Shaw Fiction set in 1922 {{2010s-play-stub