OTHERWISE ENGAGED

‘Simon Gray’s Otherwise Engaged is incomparably his best play to date: adult and literate, scathingly funny but ultimately disturbing.’  Frank Marcus, Sunday Telegraph

With his wife away, Simon Hench, successful publisher and avid Wagnerite, is looking forward to a long, luxurious listen to his brand new record of Parsifal. But the sex problems of his unprepossessing lodger and his brother’s desire to share his anxiety over his prospects for an Assistant Headmastership turn out to be just the beginning of a string of interruptions which increasingly draw Simon himself into a vicious vortex of accusations and recriminations.

Otherwise Engaged won the 1975 Evening Standard and the New York Drama Critic's Circle Awards for Best Play.

	PRODUCTION HISTORY     Otherwise Engaged was first presented on 30th July 1975, at the Queen’s Theatre by Michael Codron. The cast was as follows:     SIMON – Alan Bates DAVE – Ian Charleson STEPHEN – Nigel Hawthorne JEFF – Julian Glover DAVINA – Jacqueline Pearce WOOD – Benjamin Whitrow BETH – Mary Miller      Director: Harold Pinter Design: Eileen Diss

Julian Glover and Alan Bates in Otherwise Engaged/Photo: John Haynes

Alan Bates was replaced in the role of Simon Hench in the same production at the Queen's Theatre by Michael Gambon, and the rest of the cast remained the same. The role was then taken on by Hywel Bennett.     US premiere of Otherwise Engaged    Selected other productions    Simon Gray on Otherwise Engaged     Belgian TV production

Harold Pinter, from his introduction published in Simon Gray:Plays 1 (Faber, 2010):

In Otherwise Engaged Alan Bates inhabited the other side of the coin. Simon Hench sees his obligation as one of self-protection. He will not allow himself to be known. He defensive mechanisms are almost perfect (almost but not quite). His lethal wit is of another kind to Butley’s. He trips people up and lays them bear with a consummate delicacy, out of apparent compassion for them, as it were. The play is quite beautifully shaped. Alan Bates was again brilliant and Nigel Hawthorne uproarious as his brother Stephen.

Philip Purser, writing in the Sunday Telegraph on 31st July 1977, after the original production of Otherwise Engaged had been running for two years:

"Last night a play by Simon Gray called 'Otherwise Engaged' had been running in the West End for two years, which breaks no records (after all, 'The Mousetrap' has been with us for 24 years) but is remarkable - even significant it has been argued - for an uncomfortable comedy whose hero spends his time shrinking from any involvement with his fellow human beings... In a painstaking analysis of the piece in New Society a few weeks ago Colin Ludlow concluded that its appeal, the quality that has kept it running, lies in the secret longing of the audience to opt out in the same way. 'Within the characters on the stage they see not themselves (that would be too painful) but something of the society in which they move, and for which they feel much the same distaste as Simon displays... Simon's detachment and cynicism become extremely attractive." Or to adapt the words which New Society used in its title to the contribution, has Simon Gray defined for all time the Hero of Our Time?"

PUBLISHING INFORMATION Otherwise Engaged is now available as a Faber Contemporary Classic in Simon Gray: Plays 2. To order a copy on special offer at 25% discount please contact Faber using code GRAYPLAYS. Or check out the plays section of our bookshop.    Otherwise Engaged is also available in the following editions:    Key Plays (Faber and Faber 2002 ISBN 0-571-21634-X) Plays I(Methuen 1986 ISBN 0-413-40420-X) Otherwise Engaged(Samuel French UK)

LICENSING INFORMATION

For UK and Worldwide professional rights please contact Judy Daish Associates at rozzy@judydaish.com. For UK and Wordwide amateur rights please contact Samuel French at www.samuelfrench-london.co.uk. For amateur rights in the USA and Canada, apply to Samuel French Inc at www.samuelfrench.com.