|
|
 |
| |
Ronald Harwood |
Life in the key of Casa Verdi
IMAGINE an old people’s home where every person has the same, special talent; imagine they are all retired opera singers, seeing out their old age with shared, if faded, memories of curtain calls.
Such a place really exists. Based in Italy, called Casa Verdi, it was the subject of a TV documentary a few years back. And the idea was so enthralling, Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning playwright, has used it as the basis for a new play, Quartet, being staged this week by The Tower Theatre Company.
Harwood scooped an Oscar for his screenplay on the Warsaw-based Second World War drama The Pianist and more recently wrote the Baz Luhrman film Australia. “I saw a documentary many years before I wrote Quartet,” he recalls. “It was such a haunting idea, I thought to myself: there is a play in that.” And the idea of ageing singers plays on a recurrent theme in his work which often has musical themes running through them.
“It is not accidental, nor is it done on purpose. It is simply because I love music – it is so central to me.” And he believes it is central to all of us. “It is also a universal language that needs no translation,” he says. “I have used this a lot in my previous works as a metaphor.”
Yet despite his love of music, he admits he is not much of a musician.
“I play the piano, but very badly,” he says. “I used to play duets with my wife, but my daughter was always better than us and distinctly unimpressed.”
DAN CARRIER
• |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
