New play about Frankie Howerd announced
- Howerd's End, a play about the career and private life of Frankie Howerd, has been announced
- The "unflinching" script has been written by Mark Farrelly with support from the Frankie Howerd Trust
- Opening in September, Howerd's End will, via flashbacks, explore Howerd's entire comedy career
Howerd's End, a new play about the career and private life of Frankie Howerd, has been announced.
Due to open at the Greenwich Theatre in September, the production is described as a "punchy, passionate, revealing two-handed drama" about the comedian's life.
Howerd's End has been written by Mark Farrelly, who has previously penned stage dramas about the lives of playwright Patrick Hamilton and raconteur Quentin Crisp. His new play has the support of the Frankie Howerd Trust, however it is described as "no hagiography".
The production will be set in the living room of Wavering Down, the Somerset home Howerd shared with his manager and long-term partner Dennis Heymer. The duo are pictured above in the property's large garden.
Through a series of flashbacks, the play explores the development of Howerd's style of comedy - from his first appearance on the BBC radio programme Variety Bandbox in 1947 to his final performances in the 1990s when he had a reinvention as a cult godfather of stand-up.
The play also promises to "shine an unflinching spotlight on the clandestine union which made Frankie's big dipper of a career possible": his extraordinary 35-year relationship with his lover, Heymer, a wine waiter he met in 1958 at the Dorchester Hotel while dining with Sir John Mills.
Howerd was 40 and Heymer was 28. He would go on to become Howerd's manager and anchor, but his existence was strictly guarded from the public, not least because for many years the relationship was illegal and the couple feared blackmail if anyone beyond their immediate circle found out. Sexual acts between consenting males was illegal in England and Wales until 1967.
The producers say: "Howerd's End also shows the other cost of fame - Howerd's neurosis, his unfaithfulness and use of LSD that pushed his career and relationship to the brink of destruction. It also highlights Heymer's struggle: seemingly content with coming second, yet yearning to hear how much he was appreciated, and wondering if the love into which he had deeply fallen was, in truth, unrequited.
"More than simply a tribute show about a comedian who outlasted them all (although we do get to relive some of Frankie's classic routines), Howerd's End is also a piercingly honest love story about a relationship that tried to defy every odd - including death. Above all, the play confronts every human's toughest challenge: letting go."
Speaking about Mark Farrelly's script, Howerd's End producers Climar Productions say: "This play is his most ambitious yet, requiring both actors to play their characters as youths, septuagenarians, and all points between. Mixing stand-up, dialogue and monologue, the play is told from Dennis's point of view and shows Farrelly's characteristic disregard for the fourth wall. It has been created from a process of deep research, workshop, visits to Frankie and Dennis's home, and the support of the Frankie Howerd Trust. However, the play is no hagiography, and is decisive in portraying Frankie and Dennis as they really were: insecure, passionate, lost, funny and very, very human."
Howerd's End will be premiered at the Greenwich Theatre on Tuesday 12th September where it will run for 2 weeks before embarking on a UK tour (dates to be announced). Tickets for the London shows will go on sale on Tuesday (7th March) from greenwichtheatre.org.uk
This play was announced on the day that marks the centenary of the birth of the comedian. Frankie Howerd at 100 feature