THE TRUTH ABOUT BLAYDS Comes to the Finborough Theatre
Performances run Tuesday, 2 September – Saturday, 27 September 2025.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 30, 2025
A West End and Broadway hit from one of England’s most loved writers, A. A. Milne, now receives its first London production for over 100 years – The Truth About Blayds will open at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 2 September 2025 (Press Nights: Thursday, 4 September 2025 and Friday, 5 September 2025 at 7.30pm).
London, 1921. England’s most loved poet and national treasure, Oliver Blayds, celebrates his 90th birthday. But he hides a devastating secret – he wasn’t the author of the poems that made him rich and famous. When his devoted family learn the truth, they confront the reality of having sacrificed their lives to a fraud, and have to decide whether to tell the world the truth about Blayds
Thought-provoking and wickedly funny, this rediscovered modern classic from 1921 is a compelling examination of the cult of celebrity, betrayal, and the cost of telling the truth.
Dorothy Parker called it ‘a fine and merciless and honest play’, and this rediscovery – directed by West End legend David Gilmore – restores to the theatre one of the most acclaimed playwrights of the era.
Playwright A[lan] A[lexander] Milne (1882-1956) is now best known for his writing for children – Winnie the Pooh (1926), When We Were Very Young (1924), Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). But before his success as a children’s author, he was also one of the most acclaimed playwrights of the period, often compared to J. M. Barrie, Arthur Wing Pinero and Oscar Wilde. He wrote eighteen plays including Mr Pim Passes By (1920) and The Dover Road (1922) which were huge hits in both the West End and Broadway, and his hugely popular and much revived adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, Toad of Toad Hall (1929). He often had several plays running simultaneously in London, New York and other countries with the leading actors of the day: John Gielgud, Gerald Du Maurier, Flora Robson, Irene Vanbrugh, and Leslie Howard.. The Observer noted in 1922 that Milne was ‘steadily monopolizing the theatres of the habited globe for the performances of his plays.’ He was also an Assistant Editor of Punch, and a novelist, much acclaimed for his detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1936) which is still in print. In the 1930s, Milne became a very public defender of pacifism – his Peace with Honour (1934) was one of the best-selling books of the year, and anticipated George Orwell in attacking the evils of totalitarianism. Yet despite the acclaim, A.A. Milne’s theatrical success came to be overshadowed by Winnie the Pooh, much to his annoyance. A.A. Milne died at the age of 74 in 1956, having become estranged from the son he had made famous, Christopher Robin.
Director David Gilmore has directed many West End productions including the original award-winning productions of Daisy Pulls It Off, Lend Me a Tenor, and The Hired Man, all produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. His production of Grease (Dominion, Cambridge and Victoria Palace Theatres) completed an almost unbroken UK run of 25 years, and has also played internationally. Other West End productions include Beyond Reasonable Doubt, starring Frank Finlay; Radio Times starring Tony Slattery; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui starring Griff Rhys Jones; Neil Simon’s Chapter Two starring Tom Conti and Sharon Gless; Rick’s Bar Casablanca; Annie Get Your Gun; the Cole Porter revue A Swell Party; Out of the Blue; Fatal Attraction starring Susannah York; All The Fun Of The Fair; Sinatra at the London Palladium; and Defending the Caveman which won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. At the Finborough Theatre, he directed the first London production for over 75 years of St John Ervine’s Jane Clegg which won an OffWestEnd OnComm Award during lockdown. His countless other productions include Crimes of the Heart and Mandragola (National Theatre), Sir Anthony Quayle in Dandy Dick, Michael Frayn's Noises Off and Steel Magnolias (National Tours) and Noël Coward’s Cavalcade (Chichester Festival Theatre) with a cast of over two hundred. He has worked frequently worldwide including productions in Australia, Europe, China, the USA and Canada. David was Artistic Director of the Nuffield Southampton Theatres, the Watermill Theatre Newbury and the inaugural Artistic Director of the St. James Theatre (now The Other Palace).
Producer Andrew Maunder’s productions at the Finborough Theatre include the world premiere of Robert Graves’ But it Still Goes On, the first London production since 1944 of St John Ervine’s Jane Clegg, the first London productions since the 1920s of Kate O’Brien’s Distinguished Villa, and a triple bill of one-act plays: Gertrude Robbins’ Makeshifts and Realities, and H.M. Harwood’s Honour Thy Father. His most recent production was Sidney Howard’s The Silver Cord (1927) which received its first London production since 1927 in a critically acclaimed sell-out run at the Finborough Theatre in 2024. He also teaches at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of British Theatre and the Great War 1914-1919 (2016), R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End, A Guide (2017) and Enid Blyton. A Literary Life (2021).
Videos