8 Hotels (NHB Modern Plays)

By Nicholas Wright

Celebrated actor, singer and political campaigner Paul Robeson is touring the United States of America as Othello. His Desdemona is the brilliant young actress Uta Hagen. Her husband, the Broadway star José Ferrer, plays Iago.
The actors are all friends, but they are not all equals. As the tour progresses, onstage passions and offstage lives begin to blur. Revenge takes many forms and in post-war America it isn't always purely personal – it can be disturbingly political too.
Based on true events, Nicholas Wright's play 8 Hotels was first staged at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2019, in a production directed by Richard Eyre.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788502504

Nicholas Wright

Nicholas Wright is a leading British playwright. His plays include: an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's novel The Slaves of Solitude (Hampstead Theatre, 2017); an adaptation of Pat Barker's novel Regeneration (Royal & Derngate, Northampton, 2014); Travelling Light (National Theatre, 2012); The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre, 2011); Rattigan's Nijinsky (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2011); The Reporter (National Theatre, 2007); a version of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin (National Theatre, 2006); an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials (National Theatre, 2003-4); Vincent In Brixton (National Theatre, 2002; winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play); a version of Luigi Pirandello's Naked (Almeida Theatre, 1998); and Mrs Klein (National Theatre & West End, 1988). His writing about the theatre includes Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century, co-written with Richard Eyre.

Book preview

UTA

UTA. My first impression of Paul was that he took up half the room. I mean the personality of him. His eyes were alive, his confidence bounced off the walls and his smile was bright enough to light a fire. He was also incredibly smart. I thought, ‘He ought to be a politician.’ Later, when I saw him speaking at a rally, I realised that he already was one.

It started like this: Peggy had brought Joe and me for Paul to look us over for her production of Othello: Joe as Iago, me as Desdemona, Paul as star of the show. Joe and I got Paul’s approval and we played the Shubert Theatre for two hundred and ninety-six performances: the longest Shakespeare run ever known on Broadway, after which we took the play on a coast-to-coast tour. By then, a lot had changed between all three of