Drama/ 4 characters, 2 Men, 2 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts
Synopsis:
Pianist and composer Percy Grainger, (“Danny Boy,” “English Country Gardens”) had a very close relationship with his mother, Rose. There were rumours of incest. Percy was one of the world’s greatest eccentrics – he experimented with bizarre music, weird clothes and sado masochism and he also tried to change the English language. Beginning with his childhood in Australia, the play focuses on Percy’s relationship with his mother and its disastrous impact on the other loves of Percy’s life. Percy and Rose move to London when he is a teenager in order to study with the greats. At the outbreak of World War I they move to New York with Percy joining the Army Band as a saxophonist. Rose suffers from syphilis, committing suicide while Percy is touring. With Rose’s death Percy finally manages to find true love.
“The great merit of this play is that it is not just a sensation-seeking nutcracker, but a sympathetic, sensitive study of a man who was not only weak but also strong, who craved affection but felt himself unworthy, who lived his emotional life in the shadow of his mother who, despite her pathological possessiveness, was herself more sinned against than sinning.”
– The Advertiser“The play is a comic tragedy. It entertains, and profoundly saddens. And overall, despite its easily sensationalised themes of flagellation and sexual possessiveness, it treats poor Percy and Rose very well.”
-The Age“You must not miss Percy and Rose. How could you miss the most satisfying theatrical event of the decade?”
-The Sunday Times
Amateur and professional rights:
Rob George
Prospect Productions Pty Ltd.
21 Emma St.
Marino, South Australia, 5049
Playwright’s e-mail: roomoo@ozemail.com.au
Website: www.prospectfilms.com
Ph.: 0882986989
Mob.: 0417804307
About the Playwright: Rob George has had very broad experience as writer, producer, director, script editor, and actor in film, television, theatre, and radio for over 25 years.
Rob is currently in post production on a 52-minute documentaryFearless about 92 year-old playwright Julia Britton. He is also writing a documentary for Film Australia and the ABC. A new play, Lovers and Haters, which he is writing with Maureen Sherlock, is in development.
In 2005, Rob was story editor, script editor, and writer on the ABC’s AFI Award-winning Drama MDA as well as story editing and writing a French animation series, “The Odd Family,” for Timoon Animation and TF1.
Rob’s other credits include writer and producer of the family featureSelkie and he was the originating writer for the 1999 feature film,Passion, adapted from his play Percy and Rose. Passion starred Richard Roxbugh, Barbara Hershey, Claudia Karvan, and Emily Woof.
Rob’s early credits include the International Emmy Award winning family telemovie Captain Johnno which he wrote, the childrens’s TV series “Pals,” and the telemovies You And Me And Uncle Bob and Chase Through The Night which starred a young Nicole Kidman. Rob was also Head Writer on the ABC comedy series “News Free Zone.”
Rob wrote and produced the family mini-series “The River Kings,” directed by Donald Crombie. “The River Kings” has sold to most international territories and has been screened several times on the ABC and the BBC.
Rob’s theatre work includes a dozen stage plays, among them Errol Flynn’s Great Big Adventure Book for Boys, which won a Best Play Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the nationally acclaimed Percy and Rose about the composer Percy Grainger. Other plays include The Humble Doctor, Let’s Twist Again, Les, and Sandy Lee Live at Nui Dat. Rob’s most recent stage play, a monologue, The White Board, was produced at the Bakehouse Theatre in Adelaide in 2000.
Percy and Rose was first produced by The Stage Company as part of the 1982 Adelaide Festival. Later productions by Melbourne Theatre Company, Royal Queensland Theatre Company, and others.