A Separate Peace
by Tom Stoppard

directed by Tony Kingston

This play was chosen as a dramatic counterpoint to FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND. While Footprints in the Sand seriously examines the struggle of a terminally ill man to find meaning and a place in the outside world, Stoppard’s play lightly looks at a perfectly healthy man’s attempt to lock himself away from that world. As stylistic and thematic opposites, both plays throw into question the relationship between the individual and the society he is forced to live in.

A Separate Peace

was originally written for television in 1965 and is a light, enigmatic comedy set in a private nursing home. The smooth running of the home and the peace of mind of its staff is disrupted by the arrival of a patient, John Brown. He is warm, charming and can easily pay for his room … the only problem is that he is perfectly healthy. All he wants is to get away from the outside world. The play follows the desperate, often comic, attempts of the nursing staff to crack the riddle of Brown’s disarming honesty. However, behind the humour, Stoppard poses a key question about the way our society works: why do we feel so uncomfortable about people who want to do nothing – even when they can afford it?