Mrs. Orwell, Southwark Playhouse

This September, after a successful run at the Old Red Lion, Mrs. Orwell will be transferring to Southwark Playhouse this September.

‘So what you want, in a nutshell, George, is a mistress, housekeeper, nurse, literary executor and mother for Richard?’

This scathing line, delivered by Sonia Orwell née Brownell, distills the heroine’s uncomfortable choice between marrying one of Britain’s most renowned but also complicated authors, and seeking her own fortune.

Mrs. Orwell, a new play by Tony Cox, chronicles the last chapter of George Orwell’s life, and Sonia’s experience of it. Lying in a hospital bed, and aware that he is gradually dying of tuberculosis, Orwell makes a pragmatic decision to propose to Sonia, a young assistant magazine editor – but the union is to be purely practical, and therefore platonic.

Sonia must decide between a man who has decided that she is his only hope for continuing his life and work, and continuing her own life, which involves a passionate affair with painter Lucian Freud.

Cressida Bonas returns to the London stage to play the lead role, having last starred in one-woman show An Evening with Lucian Freud at Leicester Square Theatre in 2015.