'Albert Speer' explored in David Edgar talk
Posted on 28 November 2002
The talk will take place at 5.30pm in the Dixon Drama Studio, Wentworth College on Thursday 28 November.
Having narrowly escaped hanging at Nuremberg, Albert Speer emerged from twenty years in Spandau prison, as he thought, a changed man. His subsequent publication of accounts of his years as a servant of the Third Reich plunged him into renewed controversy and aggressive interrogation of his actions and motives.
David Edgar's play was premiered at the National Theatre in 2000. It is derived from Gitta Sereny's 720-page Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth, which is partly founded on prolonged conversations with Speer himself.
David Edgar has also written for the National Theatre 'Entertaining Strangers' and 'The Shape of the Table'. Plays by him premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company include 'Destiny', 'Maydays', 'The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs', 'Pentecost', 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', 'The Prisoner's Dilemma', and a celebrated adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'Nicholas Nickleby'. He has also written frequently for television, film and radio and is also a distinguished journalist on political and arts topics.
In his talk, Edgar will explore the play's genesis and its progress to its first performance at the National Theatre.