SPEAKER, playwright and author Brian Freeland will be giving a talk on on ‘Literary Paris’ tonight (Thursday) at Tavistock Guildhall at 7pm.
Brian’s theatre career started in 1959, direct from National Service, and has taken him to 43 different countries including three residencies in the Middle East, eight tours of the Indian sub-continent, and two circumnavigations of the globe.
He has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Scottish Opera, Sadler’s Wells and London Festival Ballet Companies, Nottingham Playhouse, Manchester Library Theatre and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop Company.
Approaching retirement he started to ‘branch out’ - directing; writing scripts and books, and giving talks. He lived in France for several years, and has three talks on French subjects of which Literary Paris is the most recent.
For centuries Paris has been a Cultural Capital and home to emigre artists from all over Europe. Their ranks were swollen at the end of WW1 by American authors, poets, musicians and dancers fleeing prohibition and/or racial discrimination.
This so-called lost generation is at the heart of a presentation which highlights the City of Light’s literary successes, failures and scandals, from Voltaire and Zola to James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway via a Revolution and a couple of World Wars.
Go to https://www.heritageintavistock.org to find out more.