THE VALUE OF NAMES Will Make its UK Premiere at the White Bear Theatre

Up-and-coming actress Norma (Lyle) is staying with her father, Benny (Kareken), as she begins rehearsing a project. They discover the new director assigned to Norma's show is Leo (Hardy), the man who derailed Benny's acting career by naming his name to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Norma is faced with the choice of giving up a career-making role or hurting her father, Benny has to deal with the possibility that his daughter may work with the man who betrayed him, and Leo has to confront the consequences of his actions so many years ago. The play is funny and fierce.

Following the critical success of his play, "Kunstler" (which was nominated for an Offie Award in the Best Actor Category for Broadway star Jeff McCarthy, who played the title role of William Kunstler at The White Bear Theatre in May 2024) playwright Sweet was keen to bring his most-performed play in the US to the UK for London audiences to experience. Sweet says, "The script started with my becoming aware of the fact that the father of an actor I knew was blacklisted. She told me she had just been cast in a play, and I asked her what she would do if the director in the play had been someone who had given her father's name to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). She told me that the director of her show was in a sandbox during HUAC so it wasn't likely to happen. But that got me started thinking 'what if'. The character of Leo is inspired by Elia Kazan and Jerome Robbins, who both famously named names to the Committee and spent the rest of their lives living with the anger of much of the community among whom they continued to work."

Need more UK Regional Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...