Then ‘The Potsdam Quartet’ was directed by Jacques Levy at the Lion Theatre, New York in 1983. It was broadcast with the same cast by the BBC in 1981. Then there was another production in 1980, directed by David Giles, with Clive Swift, Freddie Jaeger, Peter Eyre and Jerome Willis at the Lyric Hammersmith. So the play explores the world of art and humanity, which is at the mercy of a quartet of ruthless power-brokers.ĬM: Have you made any changes to the play since it first premiered?ĭP: I have made a few changes to the dialogue in the various productions, but the structure and the action has remained much as I originally wrote it.ĬM: How often has it been revived over the years? Have you been closely involved with this new production of it?ĭP: The play was originally commissioned by Yvonne Arnuad Theatre, Guilford and performed in 1973. John: “So why are we playing for those bastards in there? They don’t care.”Īaron: “Well, when you’re dividing the world between you, you need a little background music. So ‘The Potsdam Quartet’ explores the often-abrasive and humorous relationship of my fictional String Quartet, while the Political Quartet are vociferously arguing as they divide up the world between them.ĬM: It has an enormously significant historical event as its backdrop – why focus on the quartet rather than the allied leaders?ĭP: I wanted to contrast the lives of my String Quartet, with all their tragi-comic frailties, who are creating beauty by playing great music, with the exploits of the Political Quartet, who are ‘carving up’ Europe between them, and in the process, enslaving half of it. As I wanted to write a play about a fictional quartet, I decided to set it at Potsdam because in the other room there was a quartet of politicians, Stalin, Truman, Churchill and Atlee.
A revival of his critically acclaimed work ‘The Potsdam Quartet’ is on at Jermyn Street Theatre this month, so what better occasion to ask him some questions about the play, his career, and what it’s like to be responsible for the birth of a cult classic…ĬM: What inspired you to write The Potsdam Quartet? Where did the idea come from?ĭP: My father-in-law, Sidney Griller, was the leader of the famous Griller String Quartet, and he told me that he and his quartet played at the Potsdam Conference as part the RAF orchestra. He’s become known for a great deal more than just that, of course, during his career as an actor, playwright and novelist. If you don’t recognise the name David Pinner (though many of you will), then you will definitely recognise his most famous output, because he’s the writer of the novel ‘The Ritual’, the book on which the film ‘The Wicker Man’ is based. Caro Meets Theatre Interview David Pinner: The Potsdam Quartet By TW Editorial | Published on Saturday 9 November 2013
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