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Read the Review | Auden and Britten: The Facts

“A production so polished that it could open on Broadway as is.”—The Wall Street Journal

“It takes a really refined actor to get away with mischief onstage, and at the Studio Theatre Ted van Griethuysen is offering not one but two sly turns—both as the irascible British poet W.H. Auden and as the prickly thespian playing him.” —The Washington Post

“Delightful…an actorly home run. You’ll have a grand time.”—Washington City Paper

“[The Habit of Art] is an extraordinarily funny, deeply revealing look at the creation of theater from start to finish. Bennett’s sense of humor, as wistful and self-effacing as it is blindingly sharp, is unfailing.”—Washingtonian

“Hilarious, touching, and thought provoking. The entire cast is fantastic.”—MD Theatre Guide

Behind the Real-Life Subjects of The Habit of Art

This fall’s hilarious, runaway hit play, The Habit of Art, takes a look at the foibles and humanity of two great twentieth-century artists: poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. Both have eccentricities to share, including refusing to back down in a tennis match and introducing a particular cocktail to the undergraduates of Oxford . Learn more about each man here.

W. H. Auden

“Along with most human activities, art is, in the profoundest sense, frivolous. For one thing, and one thing only, is serious: loving one’s neighbor as one’s self.”—W. H. Auden

Auden was born in 1907. His father was a psychologist and professor of public health and his mother was a nurse. His mother was a devoted Anglican, a belief system Auden took up later in life.
Although born in England, Auden would live in Germany, Iceland, and China—and serve in the Spanish Civil War—before settling in the United States in 1939. He became an American citizen in 1946.
Auden met writer Chester Kallman in New York in 1939. A devastating fight in 1941, when Auden learned that Kallman was seeing other men, led to a distinctly platonic relationship between the two. However, they lived together until Auden’s death, and collaborated on poems and libretti throughout their lives.
Although his work deals frankly with desire and sexuality, Auden wrote a poem even he considered too filthy to publish. Called “The Platonic Blow” (following an anonymous assignation between two men), the poem was written in 1948 and circulated privately among his friends and fans. Auden soundly denied ever writing it.
Auden got his share of bad reviews, including being called a “complete washout” by poet and critic Hugh MacDiarmid. He is more widely considered both the enfant terrible of English poetry and, according to his obituary in The Times London, “its undisputed master."
Auden lived at Oxford University three times in his life: as an undergraduate, 1924-1928; as Professor of Poetry, 1956-1961; and at the end of his life, 1972-1973, as a poet in residence at his former college. When teaching in the ’50s, Auden was a vibrant presence on campus: handing out advice on love and relationships, and quite famously purchasing a refrigerator for Christ Church’s senior common room so the students could properly chill their martinis, a drink he likely introduced to many of them.
Auden’s poem, “Funeral Blues,” was featured in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA

Benjamin Britten

“Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house —the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house.”—Benjamin Britten

Born to a dentist and amateur musician in 1913, Britten started composing at age five, and continued to compose prolifically throughout his childhood.
Britten met tenor Peter Pears in 1937, for whom he would compose his greatest roles. Romantic and creative partners, the two lived together until Britten’s death in 1976.
Although he composed for traditional choirs and orchestras, Britten was interested in creating music from non-traditional objects. In Night Mail, an early collaboration with Auden, he used sound effects from a toy train and hand-cranked camera to punctuate his score. In his opera Noye’s Flood, which tells the story of Noah and the flood, he used teacups suspended from twine to evoke the sound of the flood.
Along with Debussy and George Gershwin, Britten was voted one of the top tennis-playing composers. Apparently he took the game seriously: “Ben was intensely, remorselessly competitive in an almost sadistic way,” remembers author Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy. “When you were beaten by him at squash or tennis… you literally felt that he’d been ‘beating’ you.”

In 'Habit,' two roles, one man

By Nelson Pressley
Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011

It takes a really refined actor to get away with mischief onstage, and at the Studio Theatre Ted van Griethuysen is offering not one but two sly turns - both as the irascible British poet W.H. Auden and as the prickly thespian playing him.

As Fitz, the actor, van Griethuysen drily lobs questions that function like little grenades aimed at the playwright. "Author," Fitz innocently begins his inquiries about some illogic he detects in the script. When the actor gets his way, a kid stealing candy from a rival couldn't look more satisfied than the beaming van Griethuysen.

Then there's van Griethuysen as Fitz playing the aged, disheveled Auden, sometimes losing his lines but generally being an imperial wit, albeit the eccentric kind who urinates in his own sink.

Such is the play within a play in Alan Bennett's mellow and satisfying "The Habit of Art," which may not hit the rapturous heights of his recent "The History Boys" (gloriously played at the Studio three years ago) but which still gives a good company of professionals lots of delicious insider material to chew on.

The setting is London's National Theatre during a rehearsal for something called "Caliban's Day." A couple of actors are absent, busy with the Chekhov play next door. The director's out of town. The script has been changed: There is now talking furniture. The rentboy hired by Auden is offering more nudity than is called for. The playwright is baffled.

This chaos is fluidly rendered in David Muse's U.S. premiere production, with actors neatly trotting back and forth across the disarray of Auden's book- and junk-strewn quarters (a lovely, sloppy heap designed by James Noone). For high petulance, see Cameron Folmar as the nervous actor playing Auden's biographer and fretting that he's merely a device. The add-on material this actor proposes - an unlikely drag turn meant to bring depth to the character - drives Bennett's play to its looniest moments.

For calm in the storm, there's Margaret Daly as the stage manager, who gamely pitches in with the talking furniture bits. For steam-coming-from-his-ears pique, look no further than Wynn Harmon as the playwright, who can't quite believe what's become of his work.

But then plays will run away from their authors, which is one of the very serious themes Bennett is taking out for a walk in this comedy. "The Habit of Art" isn't an explosive farce, despite the mishaps and shenanigans; as nearly always, Bennett's humor is learned and gentle. And the play's titan, Auden in his twilight, has a bookend figure in the great composer Benjamin Britten.

It seems Britten, known for casting an eye toward his chorus boys, is having trouble with his opera "Death in Venice." Sexuality has already been put forward via the rentboy - the Caliban among these Prosperos - and now Britten wrestles with whether he's repeating himself creatively, overworking his tropes about innocence and corruption, in art and in life.

As Britten's very old pal and onetime collaborator Auden replies to him, Bennett invokes Auden's "The Sea and the Mirror" (a commentary on Shakespeare's "The Tempest") and intones the kind of wise lines that brings sense to both of the play's frames. Bennett is a particularly writerly playwright, and you could call this the play of a lifetime - not meaning it's his best (his career has stretched from his 1960s "Beyond the Fringe" through "The Madness of George III," after all), but meaning that it feels very close to the bone.

He certainly knows what he's giving to performers. Britten is played by the formidable Paxton Whitehead, who also plays an actor named Henry. Whitehead is deeply adrift as Britten and is well-nigh peerless with Henry's punch lines, and the laughs he gets with dialogue casually dropped while crossing the stage to nowhere are gems. It's an example of a well-honed habit, like many detailed in this knowing show, on fine display.

Cast | Artistic Team

Ted van Griethuysen (Fitz) has appeared at The Studio Theatre in The Walworth Farce, Moonlight, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Invention of Love, A Number, The Steward of Christendom (Helen Hayes Award), and The Life of Galileo (Helen Hayes Award) as Galileo, a role he also played in London, both productions directed by David Salter. He was recently seen in the West End in three one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. A member of The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s permanent acting company since 1987, he has appeared in more than 50 productions, including as Philip II in Don Carlos, John of Gaunt in Richard II, Sir Jasper Fidget in The Country Wife, the title role in King Lear, Prospero in The Tempest, Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara (Helen Hayes Award), and as Malvolio in Twelfth Night, also at the McCarter Theatre. He received additional Helen Hayes Awards for Saint Joan and Timon of Athens with The Shakespeare Theatre Company. He spent twenty-five years in New York, appearing on Broadway in Gore Vidal’s Romulus, The Moon Besieged, and Inadmissible Evidence (Drama Desk Award). In 1968, he and his wife Rebecca Thompson founded the Opposites Company, an acting company which believes the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel has something to say to theatre. He has taught acting privately in New York and at Columbia University, the University of South Carolina, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy of Classical Acting.

Paxton Whitehead (Henry) first worked with Alan Bennett in Beyond the Fringe on Broadway when he replaced Jonathan Miller, joining Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. As Artistic Director of The Shaw Festival (1967-1977), he directed and appeared in the North American premiere of Mr. Bennett’s first play Forty Years On. Subsequently, he appeared in Bennett’s Habeas Corpus on Broadway, first as Canon Throbbing, and later in the lead role of Dr. Wicksted. Other Broadway credits include the recent Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest, Absurd Person Singular, My Fair Lady (also at The National Theatre DC), Artist Descending a Staircase, Lettice and Lovage, A Little Hovel on the Side, Run for Your Wife, Noises Off (also at The Eisenhower Theatre), Camelot, and The Crucifer of Blood as Sherlock Holmes. In Washington, he appeared in last year’s All’s Well That Ends Well at The Shakespeare Theatre Company; at The National Theatre in The Devil’s Disciple; and at The Kennedy Center, where he toured with two productions from the Shaw Festival: as an actor in The Philanderer, and as a director with Misalliance. His film work includes Kate & Leopold, Back to School, and The Adventures of Huck Finn, among many others; his television appearances include Mad About You, Frasier, Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Ellen. He has adapted three Feydeau farces into English: The Chemmy Circle, There’s One in Every Marriage, and A Flea in Her Ear.

Margaret Daly (Kay) is pleased to make her Studio Theatre and DC debut in The Habit of Art. She was last seen Off Broadway in the New York premiere of Michael Frayn’s Alphabetical Order with Keen Company. Her other Off Broadway credits include Theophilus North (Keen Company), Is Life Worth Living? (The Mint), All Day Suckers (New Feet Productions), and T.L.C. (New York International Fringe Festival Outstanding Performance Award). She toured with Sir Peter Hall’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest and has appeared at regional theatres across the country, including The Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, The Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and many others. Her television credits include One Life To Live, Mercy, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Nash Bridges.

Matt Dewberry (George) was last seen at Studio 2ndStage as Sweets in Mojo. Other local credits include By Jeeves, Fuddy Meers, and Humble Boy at 1st Stage; Birds of a Feather at The Hub Theatre; Peace at Washington Shakespeare Company; Mulan at Imagination Stage; Go, Dog! Go! and Spot’s Birthday Party at Adventure Theatre; Macbeth at Push/Pull Theatre; and a workshop of Jnside Out at Spooky Action Theatre. He has also performed in both the Source Festival and the Capital Fringe Festival. He received a BFA in Acting from Auburn University and holds an MFA in Acting from The Catholic University of America.

Cameron Folmar (Donald) has appeared on Broadway in The 39 Steps. He has been seen in Washington DC in An Ideal Husband, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Timon of Athens at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. His Off Broadway appearances include Five By Tenn (N.Y. Drama League Nominee for Outstanding Performance), The 39 Steps, The Merchant of Venice, The Jew of Malta, and Waiting For Godot. Regionally, Mr. Folmar has appeared in Scapin at The Denver Center, The Tempest at The McCarter Theatre, and Don Juan at Seattle Repertory Theatre. His television appearances include Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Convictions. He is the voice of Genn Greymane in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Mr. Folmar is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Randy Harrison (Tim) is making his Studio Theatre debut. He appeared in DC as Sebastian in Twelfth Night at last summer’s Shakespeare Theatre Free for All. New York credits include Wicked (Broadway), The Singing Forest (Public Theatre/NYSF), Antony and Cleopatra (Theatre for a New Audience), Edward the Second (Red Bull), A Letter from Ethel Kennedy (MCC), Notes! and Swan!!! with Qwan Company at PS122 and Theatre 80. He frequently performs music in Our Hit Parade at Joe’s Pub. Regionally, he played Andy Warhol in POP! (Yale Repertory Theatre), Tom in The Glass Menagerie (The Guthrie Theatre), and spent five summers at the Berkshire Theatre Festival where his credits include The Who’s Tommy, Ghosts, Waiting for Godot, Amadeus, and Equus. Randy has appeared on television in the film Bang Bang You’re Dead and the series Queer as Folk, both on Showtime.

Alfredo Pulupa (Tom) appeared previously at The Studio Theatre in Gifts of the Magi (1988 and 1989) and Falsettoland, and contributed incidental music for The Bright and Bold Design. His local credits include Les Miserables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Saving Aimee with the Signature Theatre, and PIAF with the Potomac Theatre Project at the Olney Theatre Center.

Sam O' Brien (Charlie) most recently appeared in The Washington Shakespeare Company’s production of Night and Day. He previously performed in The Studio Theatre’s production of Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (voiceover). Sam is a student at the Field School and studies acting at The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.

Lynn Sharp Spears (Joan, u/s Kay) appeared previously at The Studio Theatre in Adding Machine: A Musical and A New Brain, and at Studio 2ndStage in Wonderland Alice and Crack Between the Worlds. Her voice toured nationally in Will Roger’s Follies. Local credits include Man Of La Mancha and Cinderella at The Olney Theatre Center and All’s Well That Ends Well, The Cherry Orchard, and Richard III at Washington Shakespeare Company.

Wynn Harmon (Neil) makes his Studio Theatre debut. He played the Detective in Porgy and Bess on Broadway, which was also telecast on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS. In DC, he appeared in The Heidi Chronicles at Arena Stage, as well as The Alchemist and Love’s Labour’s Lost at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. His Off Broadway appearances include As You Like It, The New Yorkers, and Tibet Does Not Exist. Mr. Harmon’s regional credits include The Constant Wife plus ten Shakespeare plays at The Old Globe; A Moon for the Misbegotten at Long Wharf Theatre, The Alley Theatre and Hartford Stage; Hamlet at Pioneer Theatre Company; The Way of the World at Huntington Theatre Company; Silent Edward at La Jolla Playhouse; God of Carnage at Hartford TheaterWorks; Our Town at Two River Theatre; Pure Poe (a one-man show) and Dr. Faustus at Capital Repertory Theatre; and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Westport Country Playhouse. His television credits include Trevor Babcock on All My Children, and his film credits include Mark in Paper Cranes.

Will Cooke (Ralph, u/s Henry)appeared previously in Studio 2ndStage in That Face, and understudied McKeever in The Studio Theatre’s production of The Solid Gold Cadillac. His local credits include All’s Well That Ends Well with The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Burn your Bookes with Taffety Punk, as well as productions with Vpstart Crow and the Virginia and Baltimore Shakespeare Festivals. He holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MFA from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting.

Leo Erickson (Brian, u/s Fitz) most recently played Darwin in Darwin in Malibu with the Washington Stage Guild. Mr. Erickson previously appeared at The Studio Theatre in The Solid Gold Cadillac, Guantanamo, The Life of Galileo, A Class Act, and Prometheus. Performances at other area theatres include Passion Play, a cycle at Arena Stage, Dog in the Manger and Major Barbara at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Voysey Inheritance and Mary Stuart at Center Stage, Big Love at Woolly Mammoth, and leading roles at Rep Stage and The Olney Theatre Center. His regional work includes Cyrano in Cyrano De Bergerac; George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Honeyman in A Walk in the Woods. His international work includes Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms at the Sibu Theatre Festival (Romania) and the Merlin Theatre (Budapest).

Artistic Team

David Muse (Director) has been the Artistic Director of The Studio Theatre since September 2010. He has directed six shows at The Studio Theatre, most recently Venus in Fur, Circle Mirror Transformation, and Reasons to Be Pretty. His Studio and 2ndStage productions of Blackbird, Frozen, and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow earned ten Helen Hayes Award nominations and received four. Muse is a former student of The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and performed on the Milton stage in Blue Heart in the 1999-2000 Season. Previously, he was the Associate Artistic Director at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he directed six productions, including Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar. Other recent directing projects include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at Arena Stage, The Bluest Eye at Theatre Alliance, and Swansong for the New York Summer Play Festival. He has helped to develop new work at numerous theatres, including New York Theatre Workshop, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Geva Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Mr. Muse has taught acting and directing at Georgetown University, Yale University, and The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting. A three-time Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Direction, he is a recent recipient of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist and the National Theatre Conference Emerging Artist Award. Mr. Muse is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.

James Noone (Setting) has been a scenic designer in New York since 1983, and a member of USA Local 829 since 1986. During this time he has worked for some of New York’s most prestigious theatre companies, including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theatre, and Roundabout Theatre Company. Off Broadway, he designed the original productions of Terrance McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Three Tall Women, and the long-running solo shows Full Gallop and Fully Committed. Other Off Broadway shows include Cowgirls and Breaking Legs, the original production and recent revival of A Bronx Tale, the first revival of Boys in the Band, and the musical Ruthless. Broadway productions include Jekyll and Hyde, A Class Act (Tony nomination, Best Musical), and multiple productions for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre. Outside of New York, he has designed for national tours, operas, and at many regional theatres. He has been head of the Scenic Design department at Boston University since 2001. Awards include The Drama Desk (multiple nominations), American Theatre Wing Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, and the LA Ovation Award.

Nancy Schertler (Lighting) has designed the Broadway productions of Fool Moon and Bill Irwin’s Largely/New York (Tony nomination), and the Off Broadway productions of Hilda, The Regard Evening, Texts for Nothing, and Falsettoland. Locally, Ms. Schertler has designed over sixty productions for Arena Stage, including Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune directed by David Muse. Other regional credits include Scapin, directed and starring Bill Irwin; Boleros for the Disenchanted and After the War for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco; and The Three Musketeers and The Sisters Matsumoto at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Opera credits include world premieres of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Shadowboxer, Clara, and Later the Same Evening, a joint project commissioned by the University of Maryland and the National Gallery of Art.

Alex Jaeger (Costumes) has designed costumes for Eclipsed and the world premiere of Jon Robin Baitz’s The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. At The Studio Theatre, his credits include Circle Mirror Transformation; The Solid Gold Cadillac; Grey Gardens; The History Boys; Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; Caroline, or Change; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Black Milk; The Russian National Postal Service; A Class Act; and The Cripple of Inishmaan. Other credits include Speed the Plow, November, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (also at The Huntington Theatre) for American Conservatory Theatre; Mauritius, Goldfish, and Mrs. Whitney for the Magic Theatre; Two Sisters and a Piano for the Public Theater; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Romeo and Juliet, Handler, Stop Kiss, and Fuddy Meers for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Servant of Two Masters and Man of La Mancha for Utah Shakespearean Festival; and All My Sons, Skylight, Play Strindberg, and True West for South Coast Repertory Theatre. Mr. Jaeger has received a Los Angeles Ovation Award, an LA Drama Critic’s Circle Award, three Drama-Logue Awards, four Back Stage Garland Awards, and a 2005 NAACP design award nomination for his work.

Veronika Vorel (Sound) has designed The Way of the World at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Black Pearl Sings! at Ford’s Theatre; Fever/Dream, Eclipsed, and Full Circle at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; I Am My Own Wife at Signature Theatre; Photograph 51, The Odd Couple, Something You Did, and Mikveh at Theatre J; Arcadia and 1 Henry IV for Folger Theatre; and Alice at Round House Theatre. Regionally, she has designed sound for Boleros for the Disenchanted at Yale Repertory Theatre; and Xanadu, Cinderella, Anything Goes, and The Producers for Kansas City Starlight Theatre. She has worked as an Associate Sound Designer at The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Baltimore Center Stage. She was a member of the sound design staff for West Side Story on Broadway and at the National Theatre. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Nancy Krebs (Dialects) is very happy to return to The Studio Theatre for The Habit of Art. This past spring she served as dialect/vocal coach for The Enda Walsh Festival: The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom. Recently, she has coached Two by Barrie and Or, at Rep Stage; Misalliance for The Olney Theatre Center; and Twelfth Night for the Annapolis Shakespeare Company. Other credits include Charlie’s Aunt, Blithe Spirit, Carousel, Lend Me a Tenor, Morning’s at Seven, Oliver!, Doubt, and Of Mice and Men for The Olney Theatre Center; The Woman Who Amuses Herself for Theatre Alliance; and The Crucible, Red Herring, My Children! My Africa!, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Watch on the Rhine, Cripple of Inishmaan, Candida, Betrayal, Sight Unseen, Turn of the Screw, and I Am My Own Wife for Everyman Theatre.

Adrien-Alice Hansel (Dramaturgy) is The Studio Theatre’s Literary Director. At The Studio Theatre, she has dramaturged The History of Kisses, The New Electric Ballroom, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. Previous to joining Studio, she spent seven seasons at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she headed the literary department and coordinated project scouting, selection, and development for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She also served as production dramaturg on roughly fifty new, contemporary, and classic plays there, including premieres by Naomi Wallace, Gina Gionfriddo, Kirk Lynn and Rude Mechs, The Civilians, Craig Wright, Charles Mee, Jordan Harrison, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Adam Bock, and John Belluso. Ms. Hansel is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville and holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Stuart Howard and Paul Hardt (Casting) have cast for Broadway, Off Broadway, and National Tours as well as in Canada and London. In Washington DC, they have cast Oklahoma! and Sophisticated Ladies, and will be casting The Music Man for Arena Stage. This is their first time working at The Studio Theatre.

Synopsis

The Habit of Art takes place in Rehearsal Room Two of London’s National Theatre, but rehearsals quickly fall apart when the director is called out of town unexpectedly. The stage manager tries to marshal a run of the play, though the lead actor isn’t quite solid on his lines and the playwright has shown up and isn’t altogether pleased with the cuts that have been made to his play in his absence.

The play-within-the-play follows an imagined meeting between poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten a year before Auden’s death. Britten has sought out Auden for support as he works on an opera version of Death in Venice, a story that concerns an older man’s obsession with a boy. Former friends and collaborators, it has been 25 years since Auden and Britten last met, and the affections and tensions that marked their relationship are still in play. Auden, open about his own homosexuality, is exhausted by Britten’s insistence on keeping his long-term relationship secret. Britten feels that he is still expected to play a mentee’s role to Auden and Auden’s inexhaustible ego.

As the actors and author struggle with the edges of memory and discipline, Auden and Britten wrestle with their desires, their jealousies, the ephemeral connection between creativity and inspiration, and the many reasons their friendship fell apart.

A Friendship Ruptured

Benjamin Britten met W. H. Auden in 1935 when both were working for the General Post Office Film Unit, which produced documentary films about modern-day life. Auden wrote verse for the films, and Britten composed soundtracks. Auden was 29 and quickly absorbed Britten, 22, into his circle of leftist, pacifist, and predominantly homosexual young writers. Initially dazzled and intimidated by Auden’s talent and persona, Britten eventually chafed against Auden’s air of superiority and ongoing attempts to influence Britten’s work, politics, and personal life. After courting Britten himself, Auden continued to entreat Britten to live and compose beyond his comfort zones.

Britten scholar Paul Kildea traces the irreparable break in the men’s friendship to their collaboration on the opera, Paul Bunyan. Auden had convinced Britten to move to the US, which Britten did with his friend and eventual life partner, Peter Pears. Auden and Britten saw the folktale of Paul Bunyan as a way to reinterpret the history of the United States: a giant clears the wilderness of the New World and transforms its citizens from loggers into clerks, Hollywood executives, artists, and farmers. As Bunyan sings: “America is what you choose to make it.”

Although the piece is now recognized for its musical innovation and linguistic dexterity, the premiere production in 1941 was given negative—even scornful—reviews (by critics who seemed at least a little displeased with two Brits reinterpreting the American story), and Britten prohibited any revivals as long as he lived. But in the end, Bunyan did more damage to the two men’s relationship than to their reputations. According to Auden scholar Katherine Bucknill, “Auden felt responsible for having brought Britten to the United States in the first place, and blamed himself for pushing Britten to work too quickly. Britten blamed Auden too. Auden begged for forgiveness, and didn’t get it. It broke Auden’s heart.”

Britten returned to Europe, using the passage to set Auden’s poem “Hymn to St Cecilia” to music. As Britten’s partner Peter Pears recalled years later, “Ben was on a different track [by then], and he was no longer prepared to be dominated—bullied—by Wystan…. Perhaps he may have been said to have said goodbye to working with Wystan with his marvelous setting of the Hymn to St. Cecilia.” Auden and Britten would never work together again.

—Adrien-Alice Hansel

Death in Venice

“Extravagant, unacceptable, and the love literally unspeakable but not unsingable.
It’s made for opera. And made for you. ‘Whereof we cannot speak, thereof one sings.’”
—Auden on Death in Venice, in The Habit of Art

In The Habit of Art, Benjamin Britten attempts to rekindle his relationship with W. H. Auden while composing Death in Venice, his last opera. Based on Thomas Mann’s short story of the same name, the opera treats Britten’s recurrent themes—the individual in society, temptation, and punishment—more directly than his previous work. The opera’s central character is a writer, Aschenbach, who fights but is ultimately destroyed by his desire for a 14-year-old boy. Alan Bennett’s play imagines that Britten’s own chaste (if not wholly innocent) friendships with some of his choir boys are on his mind, and Britten seeks out the company of his old friend as he wrestles with this story, and his own history, of desire and restraint.

Britten composed the role of Aschenbach for tenor Peter Pears, his long-time partner. The opera is considered Britten’s masterwork, praised for its musical complexity and stylistic restraint, as well as its theatrical innovation in casting the boy as a dancer—the audience never hears from the object of Aschenbach’s obsession, but gazes on him as the writer does. According to New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini, the score, “rich with complexity, regret, and ambiguity, powerfully conveys the vulnerability of the ascetic and intellectual Aschenbach as he is overcome by the vision of a beautiful boy, causing him to question every choice he has made and the worth of his art.”

In sharp contrast to W. H. Auden—who spoke and wrote openly about his relationships, dalliances, and flings with men—Britten never publicly acknowledged his relationship with Pears, although the two lived together from 1936 until Britten’s death in 1976. Britten himself characterized Death in Venice to his friend and music critic Donald Mitchel as “everything that Peter and I have stood for.” Mitchell sees in the score “the ideals of order as distinct from chaos, discipline rather than a false freedom, and love rather than an unbridled sensuality that guided [Britten and Pears].” With its interrogation and ultimate vindication of restraint in the face of desire, Death in Venice is widely seen as an allegory for Britten’s life-long relationship with his own passions, desires, and discipline.

Britten denied even the basic needs of his body to create the opera—he was ill when he composed the opera, postponing heart surgery until after he’d completed the piece. He would ultimately suffer a stroke during the surgery and die from complications three years after the opera’s premiere.