Alan Bennett’s Autobiographical Play Collection Untold Stories to Transfer to the West End

The National Theatre production of Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories, featuring the autobiographical recollections Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, will transfer to the West End’s Duchess Theatre on March 22. The production stars Alex Jennings as Bennett. Untold Stories will open on April 2 and play a limited engagement through June 15.

Directed by Nadia Fall, Hymn is a touching memoir of music in childhood, with words by Alan Bennett and a score by George Fenton. Cocktail Sticks, directed by Nicholas Hytner, revisits the themes and conversations of Bennett’s memoir A Life Like Other People’s, as a son talks to his dead father—meanwhile, his mother yearns for a different life.

Alex Jennings appeared on Broadway in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His London credits include My Fair Lady, Peer Gynt, The Winter’s Tale, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Too Clever By Half. His film credits include The Queen, Babel, The Wings of the Dove, Silk and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Untold Stories is designed by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Tom Snell. Sound design for Hymn is by Mike Walker and by John Leonard for Cocktail Sticks.