Tom opened his first season as Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre by directing the world premiere of Howard Brenton’s new play about the life of August Strindberg. His production was nominated for four OffWestEnd Awards including Best Director.
The Blinding Light is about Strindberg’s notorious breakdown in Paris in 1896, which he called his ‘Inferno period’. Abandoning theatre, living a life of squalid splendour, Strindberg practices alchemy. In his hotel room he attempts to make gold from lead by finding the philosopher’s stone, the secret of creation. As his view of reality disintegrates, his first two wives visit him to bring him to his senses. But their interventions spin out of control. And – are they really his wives at all?
This production is a Jermyn Street Theatre commission.