Alpha Beta

“You know… when a structure has lost its essence but retained its shape, the geologists call it: a Pseudomorph. A false shape. That’s our marriage.”

The first major revival of Ted Whitehead’s Alpha Beta since 1972, directed by Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director Purni Morell.

Mr and Mrs Elliot have imprisoned themselves within a domestic incarceration of marriage, family and society’s twitching curtains. Battling through their self-made entrapment for the sake of the kids, they soon begin to destroy each other through an ugly routine of rows, affairs and suicidal blackmail.

Written with a controlled irony and an underlying compassion for its tormented characters, Ted Whitehead's bold and unflinching play asks questions about the choices we make to fit in with social conventions – questions that are just as relevant now as they were in 1972.

Originally performed at the Royal Court and West End with Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts, this new staging directed by Purni Morell and designed by Verity Quinn, will take the Finborough Theatre back to its original use, transforming the space into a domestic living room where the brutal examination of a disintegrating marriage will take place.

“I came galloping by and swept you off your feet... and then we got married and lived miserably ever after. That’s the new conclusion, that, to the old fairy tale.”