The Plays: Celestina

(De Rojas (first version) National Theatre)

This was a commission from Richard Eyre at the National. It was to be directed by Nuria Espert, and to have Joan Plowright in the leading role. It was to be the follow on from their hugely successful production of ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’.
I loved working with Nuria, and came up with a script evryone was very enthusiastic about.
The play was cast, a west end transfer was arranged... when Laurence Olivier died. Plowright, as the grieving widow, felt obliged to pull out, and the whole project collapsed.