Before Sunset
Gerhart Hauptmann
Before Sunset
Schedule of performances
A well-off seventy-year-old falls in love with a twenty-year-old woman. At a time when he no longer expected anything from life – metaphorically, before sunset – he recovers his zest. Life, which had been slowly nearing its end, suddenly regains its charm and beauty. Except that his family sees the relationship to be a threat to them. The children, who are used to being the centre of their father’s attention since the death of their mother, cannot deal with the fact that their place has been taken by a strange, unfamiliar person: that he has not been faithful to the memory of their late mother. They take their father’s new partner for a gold digger who intends to deprive them of their inheritance. They decide to ‘protect’ their father from her and from himself, and so unleash a storm of events that ends in tragedy.
The Clausens "family" portraits which are part of the set design were produced by a Dutch fine art photographer Gemmy Woud-Binnendijk.
Running time: 2 hrs 45 mins with one interval