Northampton revives 'lost' plays

Liz White, Michael Malarkey and Michael Thomson from the productions

Two plays written by two of America's greatest dramatists have been revived by Northampton's Royal and Derngate.

Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams was discovered amongst the playwright's papers in 1999.

The Royal and Derngate's production of Spring Storm will be the first in Europe.

Eugene O'Neill's play Beyond the Horizon won the Pulitzer Prize in 1920 but has been largely forgotten since then.

Premiere

Laurie Sansom has directed both plays for the Royal and Derngate. "Spring Storm is the real coup for us," he says. "It has never been performed in Europe and it is one of Tennessee's 'lost' plays."

In the rehearsal room. The cast are in both plays, which run in repertory

Both dramas were written when the playwrights were learning their trade. Eugene O'Neill was in his early 30s when Beyond the Horizon - his first full-length play - opened. It was a sensation on Broadway and had a successful run in London's West End.

Spring Storm is set in 1937 and was written when Tennessee Williams was in his mid-20s and a playwriting student at Iowa University.

Youth

Laurie Sansom says they both have the universal theme of families seen through the eyes of young men: "At the heart, they're about young people deciding what they're going to do with their lives."

Liz White, who acts in both productions, is delighted to have the chance to perform in two 'lost' plays. "It's wonderful to do something by such brilliant writers," she says. "Both writers have such an amazing list of plays to their names; these plays will now be on that list."

Both plays were part of the Royal & Derngate's Young America season.