TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
It was her hair that first caught my attention. Jet black. Glossy. A touch of blue in it. Like starlings' feathers.
Dennis and Gina Woodman, a long-married couple from South London, reflect on their lives together in two interwoven monologues. As they describe their past, and the painful situation in which they now find themselves, a picture begins to emerge of a complex relationship.
By turns dark and comic, To Have and To Hold is an examination of memory, relationships and the complicated realities of love, highlighting the extraordinary drama that lies beneath the ordinary reality of people’s lives.
To Have and To Hold opened at the Hope Theatre (13th and 14th February 2022) and transferred to the Bread & Roses Theatre (29th November-10th December 2022).
Production Credits
Bread & Roses Theatre, Clapham
(November-December 2022)
Cast & Creative team:
Dennis: Mark Steere
Gina: Susan Graham
Writer: Mark Bastin
Director: Finlay Glen
Set and Costume Designer: Ceci Calf
Lighting Designer: Oliver McNally
Sound Designer: PJ Nielsen
Producer: Georgie Polhill
Hope Theatre, Islington
(February 2022)
Cast & Creative team:
Dennis: Mark Steere
Gina: Susan Graham
Writer: Mark Bastin
Director: Finlay Glen
Set and Costume Designer: Ceci Calf
Lighting/Sound Designer: Jasmine Kint
Reviews
Nominated for a Standing Ovation Award by London Pub Theatres
★★★★★ London Pub Theatres "society's expectations are laid bare in this beautiful story about an elderly couple... Director Finlay Glen has perfected the piece with small details."
★★★★★ Fairy Powered Productions "an absolute theatrical masterpiece... expertly designed by Ceci Calf."
★★★★ London Theatre 1 "an assured and hopeful story... gripping."
★★★★ Playhouse Pickings "a raw, honest and touching play about a couple weathering the storms of life... works like a dream with a play made for an intimate setting. Finlay Glen makes full use of space and perspective... A 'must-see' when it returns."
Everything Theatre "a beautifully tender and perceptive portrait of a marriage... Mark Steere and Susan Graham are perfectly cast and, under the direction of Finlay Glen, give conversational and engaging performances that draw us into their domestic world... an entertaining and thoughtful evening in the company of two very interesting characters."
Lost in Theatreland “Director Finlay Glen goes full-throttle into pushing inside the more unsavoury aspects of the material, suggesting the work is less a rosy portrait of a caring and supportive relationship weathering hardships than it is a prolonged psychodrama – a charged and fascinating chronicle of dysfunction.”
