London’s National Theatre will stage the UK premiere of The Confessions, a play by NT associate Alexander Zeldin.
Running in the Lyttelton theatre from 19 October until 4 November 2023, The Confessions is based on interviews Zeldin had with his mother in 2019 and brings a real life to stage, sweeping from Australia in 1943 to London in 2021; it chronicles a tale of self-realisation against the times. Playing out over the tumultuous decades of the second half of the 20th Century, the piece follows Alice’s complex relationships as they become a common thread in this intimate portrait of a life.
Zeldin will also direct the show. Joining Zeldin in the creative team are set and costume designer Marg Horwell, choreographer and movement director Imogen Knight, lighting designer Paule Constable, composer Yannis Philippakis, sound designer Josh Anio Grigg, casting by Jacob Sparrow, Australian casting by Serena Hill, associate director Joanna Pidcock, dramaturgs Faye Merralls and Sasha Milavic Davies, and voice director Cathleen McCarron.
An international collaboration, The Confessions is the inaugural production of Zeldin’s own theatre production companies in the UK and France – A Zeldin Company/Compagnie A Zeldin – and is co-commissioned with the National Theatre, RISING Melbourne and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. The play has already toured to Vienna, Athens, Barcelona and Avignon this year and will continue its European tour into Spring 2024.
