1963 Oxfordshire - an ageing heavily accented painter seeks the help of a psychoanalyst to look into the causes of his sudden partial paralysis which seems to have no physical origins. Memories of some forty years earlier transport him back to his homeland of the Balkans and Hungary of 1914, to his youthful political zealotry, to the fervour for independence, to a planned act of enormous international consequence and an actual act of grave personal cost. What emerges is Sandor's devastating experience, the intensely personal yet massively political story of a man who was in Sarajevo on that Summer's day in 1914 when Archduke Ferdinand drove into town and when a single event took place that was to shape the twentieth century. Based on actual events, The Cause explores themes of urgent contemporary resonance, of nationalism, fanaticism, youthful zeal and its exploitation by those with an extremist agenda. By illuminating events of the past, The Cause sheds a stark light on the present.| 1 Mar 16 to 26 Mar 16 | Jermyn Street Theatre Inner London, Greater London Performance Details => Venue archive |
