stage re-Waughed
BY ALEX MAYHEW-SMITH
EVELYN WAUGH's classic novel .about Catholicism and the upper classes, Brideshead 'Revisited, has been adapted for the stage for the very first time.
The play, which stars old stalwart Nigel Davenport as Lord Marclunain and ex-Fast.enders star Toby Walton as Sebastian Flyte, will be doing the rounds of provincial theatres from next month. Brideshead Revisited was acclaimed by the literati, though scorned in progressive Catholic circles, when published by convert Waugh during the Second World War. The book tells the story of a charmingly raffish aristocratic family, the Bytes, and the effect that they have on a jejune Charles Ryder.
The author described the theme of his novel as "memory"; a memory closely connected with "the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters."
Auberon Waugh, the author's son, was noncommittal about the production. "I might go to it", he said, "I don't know if it will work as a stage play, one hopes the best for it."
Director Charles Vance, told the Herald that Brideshead would provide "the kind of challenge I love. The television series was more concerned with sexuality than the book was. I've tried to recreate the original text of the book", he says.