After October

‘Listen: things will be different after the play comes on – completely different… Only a few more weeks, Francie, and you’ll see. Your whole life will change. I promise you it will.’

Hampstead, 1936. In a shabby basement flat, aspiring playwright Clive Monkhams dreams of a West End hit and winning Francie’s heart. His bankrupt mother Rhoda, a faded actress, frets about the bills and the fortunes of her penniless daughters while reminiscing about her glory days. Clive’s family and an entourage of bohemian dependants all need him to make it big. With opening night approaching and finances fast running out, everything rides on the success of the play and, for Clive, the future looks all too glittering…

From the acclaimed writer of Absolute Hell and Before the Party, After October is Rodney Ackland’s most autobiographical play, both a bittersweet homage to the theatre and a fascinating portrait of an impoverished family on the brink of a glamorous new life. This rediscovery marks the first Central London production since its premiere in 1936.