The Private Ear and The Public Eye, by the acclaimed and multi-award winning British playwright Sir Peter Shaffer, will have their first major revival in 50 years, at the Milton Keynes Theatre on 07th – 12th Oct.
The double-bill of two one-act plays was first performed in London’s West End in 1962, starring the young Kenneth Williams and Maggie Smith. The plays then transferred successfully to Broadway in 1963, starring Barry Foster and Geraldine McEwan.
The Private Ear and The Public Eye are intimate one-act plays – both short and bitter-sweet comedies performed as a matching pair on the same night. They give the audience a fascinating window into the turbulent changing attitudes to love in the 1960s through a combination of comedy, pathos and drama.
The Private Ear is set in a musky London bedsit, where reclusive Bob, normally used to giving his full attention to his record collection, calls in a favour from Ted, his slick, confident friend, to help him treat his date, the beautiful but shy Doreen, to a slap up meal. The Public Eye takes place in a swanky London accountancy office, where uptight Charles is confronted by Julian, an eccentric private detective hired by Charles to investigate Belinda, his young wife, whom he suspects of infidelity.
This new national tour of The Private Ear and The Public Eye will star Jasper Britton as Charles, Steven Blakeley in the dual roles of Bob and Julian, Rupert Hill as Ted and Siobhan O’Kelly in the dual roles of Doreen and Belinda.
The Private Ear and The Public Eye at Milton Keynes Theatre from 7th – 12th October
Box Office: 0844 871 7652 or online: www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes
