My Brilliant Divorce

My Brilliant Divorce is a one-woman play by Geraldine Aron (1941-)

The original text

Perhaps Aron's most successful play to date, it tells the story of middle-aged Angela, who attempts to find a new life when her husband Max leaves her for a younger woman.

The play had its premiére at The Druid Theatre in Ireland, November 2001, directed by Garry Hynes with Dawn French. (Repeated 2003, 2007-2010) and the production played at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London in 2003.

International productions

The play has been produced in more than 35 countries world-wide since 2003, including theatres in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Luxemburg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Brilliant_Divorce), for example, lists performances by The Phoenix Players Theatre, Nairobi; Amiral Theatre, Athens; The Apollo Shaftesbury, London; Druid Theatre, Galway; Divadlo Na Fidlovačce, Prague and the Downstage Theatre, Wellington, NZ. Other more recent performances include the American premiére of the play in 2012 (the Bay Street Theater, the Long Wharf, in Sag Harbor, directed by Matt McGrath with TV star Polly Draper), a productions by by SevenThirty Productions and Pat Moylan at The Viking theatre, Ottowa (2014, directed by John P. Kelly with Kate Hurman as Angela), and a tour of Ireland by the Jasango Theatre Company (2014-2015, directed by George B. Miller, with Angela Ryan).

Published as an acting edition by Samuel French, 2003.

Translations and adaptations

For the American premiére of the play in 2012 and the subsequent Canadian one in Ottowa, the play was adapted to make Angela an American woman, living in London.

Translated into French as Mon brillantissime divorce and performed by Michèle Laroque in 2011.

In 2024 an updated version was performed in South Africa.

Performance history in South Africa

2002-2003: Produced by Pieter Toerien Productions, it first opened in South Africa in the Studio Theatre at Montecasino and then played in Johannesburg and the Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town. Performed by Fiona Ramsay, directed by Tim Plewman.

2024: Produced by Pieter Toerien Productions in the updated version, it played at the Studio Theatre at Montecasino (9-27 October) and the Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town (30 October to 16 November). Performed by Kate Normington and directed by Alan Committie.

Sources

http://www.druid.ie/alpha-index/mno

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Aron

https://www.pietertoerien.co.za/product/kate-normington-in-my-brilliant-divorce-2/

http://www.theagency.co.uk/clients/clientdisplay.html?viewListing=MTE3OQ==

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL416128A/Geraldine_Aron

http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/My-Brilliant-Divorce

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/nyregion/a-review-of-my-brilliant-divorce-at-the-bay-street-theater.html?_r=0

http://www.vikingtheatredublin.com/my-brilliant-divorce/

Peter Feldman: Review in Artslink (11/21/2003)[1]

Bruce Dennill. 2024. Theatre Review: My Brilliant Divorce – Couched In Ruefulness, Or To Laugh And Lament pArticipate, October 19, 2024[2]

Faeron Wheeler. 2024. Theatre Review: My Brilliant Divorce starring Kate Normington at Theatre On The Bay. Broadway World South Africa, 5 November, 2024[3]

Go to ESAT Bibliography