PROJECT SHOWCASE

HowErd’s End

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Podcast: Letting Go of the Layers Tour of the Music for the Modern Theatrical Play

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A note on writing the music

I think the one of most moving parts of the story is the central message of letting go and making the most of the moment. I was wondering how this could be portrayed within music.

‘Howerds End’ is a 2 person play about the comedian Frankie Howerd, who visits his lover Max, at an old age in the form of a ghost. Frankie gives Max kind of permission to move on form him, from regrets and from his former self. The idea of a repeating mantra that unfolds again and again kept on coming to mind, releasing each time and gaining new space and ground. It took the form of a piano motive that starts cold and frigid, but grows, expands, and finds release and warmth as it develops. Repeated layers, upon layers, get lifted like taking off a heavy coat. You can hear that here in this central piece

General Info

Howerd’s End

Written by Mark Farrelly

“Remember the last time someone kissed you and meant it?”

Though Frankie Howerd was and still is “one of Britain’s best-loved comedians”, he was in truth a radical, whose courage and innovation as a performer have too often been obscured by cosy nostalgia. The first stand-up to dispense with conventional punchlines and slick patter, instead he crafted stumbling, surreal streams of insecurity, based on his sense of inadequacy, disappointment and sheer unsuitability to the very job of being a comedian. In his refusal to ‘do’ comedy like everyone else had done, he predated fellow non-conformists such as The Goons, Python and Eddie Izzard.

Howerd’s End is a two-hander exploring both the development of Frankie’s comedy, and the clandestine union which made it all possible: his extraordinary forty-year relationship with his lover, friend and anchor Dennis Heymer, whose existence was strictly guarded from the public in Frankie’s lifetime. More than simply a tribute show about a comedian who outlasted them all, Howerd’s End is also a piercingly honest love story about a relationship that tried to defy every odd – including death.

“I knew Dennis, and I wrote for Frankie – and this play is brilliant” – Barry Cryer

Howerd’s End is touring the UK throughout 2024.

Running time: 80 mins no interval.