Last week it was announced that Keira Knightley will star in a West End production of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, and if Ms. Knightley is not enough to entice fans to take a trip to London, now Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss is slated to star alongside Keira, according to Musicrooms.net.
Hellman’s 1934 lesbian-themed play was banned in Boston but opened in Paris to sensational reviews before debuting on Broadway in 1936. It instantly turned Hellman into one of the most famous writers of her day.
The play is set in a girls' boarding school and tells the story of two female teachers whose lives are destroyed when one of their students spreads the rumor that they're lovers.
Acclaimed director William Wyler helmed the 1961 big screen version of Hellman’s play starring Shirley MacLaine as the tortured closeted lesbian Martha Dobie and Audrey Hepburn as her business partner and woman she loves Karen Wright. Hollywood watered down the lesbian undertones so as to be nearly unrecognizable but those reading between the lines could discern the homosexual subtext.
Keira will step into the role of Karen Wright while Elisabeth will play the tortured Martha. And after watching Elisabeth go toe to toe with Jon Hamm's Don Draper on Mad Men this season here's predicting a nomination for an Olivier Award.
The production's director Ian Rickson said the play has timeless themes, especially considering the scrutiny teachers are under in the current social climate. He also said the play is not just a "drama about lesbianism."
He said he considers the play a theater classic deserving of more respect than it has received, suggesting if it had were written by and about men it would have been an instant classic.
“I think it’s because of the gender of the author and the gender of the protagonists. It’s a passionate, important play and I want it to be recognised as a classic, up there with Death of a Salesman and other American major works written by men.”
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