2005 Autumn

Duet For One

By Tom Kempinski and Directed by Knight Mantell

Stephanie Abrahams, a famous and talented violinist, finds her whole world turned upside down when she learns she has multiple sclerosis. With her career at an end, and increasing tensions in her married life, Stephanie struggles to find a way to accept her fate and find some happiness and direction in what remains of her life.

This powerful production follows her tortuous, initially defiant then self-destructive route to her final acceptance that her life has changed for ever.

Tom Kempinski wrote the play for his wife Frances de la Tour and it was first performed at the Bush Theatre in 1980. It is a beautifully written piece that will connect you with the horrors that a person of such vitality and talent must face in a situation such as this.

The play was inspired by the tragic life and career of the cellist Jacqueline du PrŽ whose magical rise to the height of her profession was cruelly cut short by multiple sclerosis and who died at the age of only 42.

Credits:

Pip Chapman Biography
Paul Slater Biography Stephanie Abrahams
Dr Feldman