Cast

Synopsis

Cressida and Julian live comfortably in the English countryside with their elderly odd-job man and friend of the family, Romka. Suddenly the Police arrive. What has Romka done? Is he guilty? Is there a time limit on revenge and punishment? With the handyman we are made to look at questions surrounding culpability, retribution, universal responsibility and the possibility of evil as they are wrung from the flesh and the mind of all the characters.

Directors Notes

Ronald Harwood was born in Cape Town in 1934, coming to England in 1951 and joining Donald Wolfit’s celebrated and idiosyncratic company. His most successful play to date is “The Dresser”. “The Handyman” was first performed in 1996 starring Frank Finlay, at the ‘Minerva’ Chichester. The play takes as its theme, issues arising from World War I1, war crimes, attitudes towards Jews, guilt, responsibility, evil and denial. Cressida and Julian Field, a nouveau-riche couple are sitting in their garden when their peace is shattered by the arrival of a Scotland Yard War Crimes Squad to interview, and then interrogate their Ukranian handyman and friend, a refugee from Russian Communism, brought to England 50 years ago by Cressida’s father. The police have a great deal of evidence against him as a suspected war criminal and the couple appoint a lawyer to defend him. The play gathers great intensity, and touches many issues that opens us up to question our own moral standings. There is justice for man to resolve. Is this man guilty? If so…….