''Lawrence After Arabia'' is a 2016 play by the British playwright Howard Brenton, centred on

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...

and his 1922 retreat from public life at the home of his friends

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and his wife

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. Its premiere production ran from 28 April to 4 June 2016 at the

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...

, in which Lawrence played a leading part.

Cast

* T.E. Lawrence -

Jack Laskey Jack Laskey is an English actor best known for his theatre work and his role as DS Jakes in the ITV drama series '' Endeavour''. He is the third son of Michael Laskey, a poet. Laskey trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Telev ...

Jeff Rawle Jeffrey Alan Rawle (born 20 July 1951) is an English actor. He is known for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom ''Drop the Dead Donkey''. He also portrayed Silas Blissett in ''Hollyoaks'' from December 2010 until 2012. Rawle ret ...

* Charlotte Shaw -

Geraldine James Geraldine James, OBE (born 6 July 1950) is an English film and television actress. Biography Early life and family James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father and an alcoholic mother, who had been a nurse. She failed her ...

* Lowell Thomas - Sam Alexander * Prince Feisal - Khalid Laith *

Edmund Allenby Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a senior British Army officer and Imperial Governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in the First World War, in which he led th ...

- William Chubb * Blanche Patch -

Rosalind March Rosalind March is a British TV, film and stage actress. Born in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, March began her career in 1979, when she played Madge in several episodes of the series ''The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game''. Throughout the ...

*Mohammed Abdullah - Kai Spellman.

Critical reception

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' found it "intriguing, richly researched but underpowered"; while ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' noted "A quiet, but highly topical, masterpiece...clever and engaging...the skill of the play is that it doesn’t make you think; it lets you think"; and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' found it "Fascinating...it feels as if we have been given a magic window to see what really happened to Lawrence after Arabia."

References

External links

''Lawrence After Arabia'' - Hampstead Theatre
2016 plays English plays Plays set in the 1920s Plays set in the 1930s Plays set in England Biographical plays about military leaders Biographical plays about writers Cultural depictions of T. E. Lawrence Cultural depictions of George Bernard Shaw Fiction set in 1922 {{2010s-play-stub