AuthorFlorian Zeller
Florian Zeller is a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. He came to prominence with his third novel, The Fascination of Evil, which was awarded the Prix Goncourt (an esteemed French literary prize). His 2012 play, The Father, won the Molière Award for Best Play and was subsequently translated into English by Christopher Hampton. The English translation garnered critical acclaim both on Broadway and the West End, and was adapted into the 2020 film of the same name. Zeller and Hampton shared the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for their work on the film. Zeller's 2017 play, The Truth, won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy, and his subsequent plays include The Height of the Storm (2018), The Mother (2019), and The Son (2019).
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Andre is a man facing persecution from all sides, and he refuses to take it any longer. First some girl, a “helper” -- whom he doesn’t need at all -- steals his favorite watch. Then his daughter Anne, a scheming woman who worries too much, tries to take his flat away -- the beautiful flat he’s had for over thirty years, in which he is still quite capable of living, thank you very much! His daughter Elise, the one he actually loves… where is she? She never comes to visit. Anne’s husband -- or lover -- Pierre, with whom she is moving to London -- or staying in Paris -- threatens Andre with violence if he will not cooperate, and to top it off, strangers keep entering Andre’s flat, telling him that they are his friends and family, telling him that he doesn’t live in his flat anymore. However aged he may be, Andre knows that he is a powerful man, a man of authority, and he will find some way to assert it. After all, he still has all his faculties…. Doesn’t he?
In a darkly humorous and deeply poignant translation by Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller’s The Father is a tragi-comic mystery, a sobering and realistic family story, and an unsentimental, emotionally intense look at the world through the eyes of a man experiencing dementia, a dramatic illustration of the physical losses which occur along with the mental ones. The play was considered as 'the most acclaimed new play of the last decade' and won the Moliere Award for Best Play in 2014. The play has subsequently been made into a film starring Anthony Hopkins.
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