Jonathan Church’s world premiere production of Taken At Midnight by Mark Hayhurst, which ends on 14th March 2015, enters the last four weeks of its run next week.
Returning to the West End after a five-year absence, Penelope Wilton has received critical and public acclaim in the role of Irmgard, the mother of celebrated lawyer Hans Litten who puts Hitler on the witness stand in 1930s Germany with devastating consequences.
Irmgard’s relationship with her son, and her courageous efforts to help him, are at the heart of this compelling new play. Building his reputation on drama documentaries which explore key historical moments, Mark Hayhurst also wrote 37 Days, a major factual drama series for the BBC’s WW1 Centenary in 2014.
In Taken At Midnight, his theatre debut, Hayhurst casts light on a universal theme as the mother of brilliant German Jewish lawyer Hans Litten fights for his release against the seemingly impossible might of the Nazi regime. Fearless and indomitable she confronts his captors at enormous personal risk. The unquestionable love of a mother for her son is put centre stage in Hayhurst’s study of the horrors of pre-war Nazi Germany.
Commissioned by commercial producer Mark Goucher, and written with Penelope Wilton in mind, Taken at Midnight is Mark Hayhurst’s first work for the stage. It was first staged as part of Chichester Festival Theatre’s Hidden Histories season in 2014, and this transfer to the West End foregrounds Hayhurst as a new and distinctive playwright.
Taken At Midnight runs at Theatre Royal Haymarket until March 14th. Click here for tickets.
