Tom Kempinski's Duet for One at Orange Tree Theatre with music by Oliver Vibrans

Tara Fitzgerald

The plight of cellist Jacqueline du Pré, struck down at the height of her powers, has inspired a variety of works from documentaries to Cathy Marston's ballet The Cellist which premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2020. 

Tom Kempinski's play, Duet for One was similarly inspired. It premiered at the Bush Theatre in 1980 with Frances de la Tour as Stephanie Abrahams and David de Keyser as Dr Feldmann, going on to be made into a film in 1986 with Julie Andrews and Alan Bates.

You see, there’s no God, Dr. Feldmann, but I know where they got the idea; they got it from music. 

A new production of Kempinski's Duet for One opens at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond on 11 February 2023. Directed by Richard Beecham, the production features Tara Fitzgerald as Stephanie Abrahams and Maureen Beattie her psychiatrist Dr Feldmann. There will be a new score featuring live music by Oliver Vibrans.

Vibrans' More Up, a piece for Chamber orchestra and electronics for The Halle, BBC Philharmonic and The Able Orchestra, won an Ivor Novello award and was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society award 2020. His recent work includes Monomyth for the Halle, music for two episodes of Charles Hazlewood’s documentary Reinventing the Orchestra for Sky Arts.

Full details from the Orange Tree website.