One of France’s most successful new plays received its English language premiere last week in Bath. The French play Adieu Monsieur Haffmann by Jean-Philippe Daguerre has been a commercial and critical success in France, and won four Molière Awards in 2018, including Best New Play. It has been one of the longest running plays in France and was recently made into a French movie. Jeremy Sams’s English translation of Jea-Philippe has received some warm reviews after debuting at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio. Check the reviews out below!
The year is 1942. Paris is under Nazi occupation. Jews are being rounded up. Joseph Haffmann, a Jewish owner of a jewellery shop and his long- standing employee Pierre Vigneau change roles as part of a strange deal which could only take place against the background of an absurd and tragic reality. Joseph Haffmann will transfer the ownership of the jewellery store to Pierre, on the condition that Pierre hides him from the Nazis. In return, Pierre insists that Joseph enter into a very unusual arrangement with Isabelle, Pierre’s wife…
Add to that a Matisse painting, an ‘art loving’ Nazi officer and his outrageous wife, and marital difficulties amplified by the bizarre domestic situation, it is no wonder that Pierre is driven to the brink.
Directed by Lindsay Posner, Bath favourite Nigel Lindsay (God of Carnage, Speed-the-Plow) fresh from the hugely acclaimed The Lehman Trilogy in the West End, joins the previously announced stage and screen star Lisa Dillon (Cranford, Bright Young Things); West End stars Josefina Gabrielle (Olivier Award nominee for Oklahoma!, Sweet Charity, Merrily We Roll Along) and Alexander Hanson (The Sound of Music, Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar), and Ciaran Owens (Peaky Blinders, The Windsors).
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Times
“Gripping wartime drama deserves a bigger theatre”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Stage
“Handling its weighty subject matter with humour and sensitivity, this award-winning 2016 play from French author Jean-Philippe Daguerre is equal parts farce and tense, wartime thriller”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Broadway World
“There are a couple of big reveals during the nerve-wracking dinner scene, delivered deliciously by an accomplished cast and admirable direction from Lindsay Posner.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ WhatsOnStage
“Director Lindsay Posner is a terrific director of actors and after Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? earlier this year, he has managed to bring to the Usti another set of great performances.”
⭐⭐⭐ The Guardian
“Leading a seasoned cast, Lindsay is delicately withheld, anguish piercing his apparent affability.
Agency Clients Jeremy Sams and Lindsay Posner are represented by Katie Haines.