As William Nicholson’s breakthrough play is revived in Chichester, he explains how his former hometown influenced his new film
“Hope Gap is very pretty and rich in an interesting way. You have to walk across the Downs and down some very steep concrete steps to get there, and leave before the tide comes in as it fills the whole place.” This remembered childhood haunt gives the title to William Nicholson’s cinematic reworking of his award-winning play The Retreat From Moscow. Hope Gap stars Bill Nighy, Annette Bening and Josh O’Connor of The Durrells fame. The original play was a three-hander, focusing on the disintegration of a long marriage played out when the couple’s grown-up son comes home to visit. Those three parts are still at the heart of the film, but William, who was born in Seaford but now lives in Lewes, has expanded the cast of characters and taken it out of the couple’s kitchen – incorporating not only Hope Gap but also the town of Seaford itself. “In a way I felt I had unfinished business with the play,” he says of The Retreat From Moscow, which was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2004, five years on from its premiere at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre. “I thought I could do it better. Whoever I sent the script to said yes, so I knew I had something very strong. It’s a film for adults, it’s not going to be a blockbuster but a niche film. It’s exciting seeing what really good actors can do. Annette really took it over. And Bill is remarkable – you can watch him thinking, which in film is really important.
この記事は Sussex Life の May 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Sussex Life の May 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
