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Ohio Impromptu, written in 1980, opens with a figure clad in black with long whitehair hiding his face and sitting on a white chair at a white table. Thereare two characters, the Reader and the Listener. The Reader, it emerges,is a mysterious messenger from someone now dead and once loved by theListener. The book the Reader reads from tells the story of the Listenermourning right up until the last moment, when the story is told for thelast time and 'there is nothing left to tell'. Throughout, the Listenernot only listens but also regulates his companion's reading by knockingon the table with his hand in an attempt to ensure that this will notbe the final telling of the tale.
'Withnever a word exchanged they grew to be as one.'
– Ohio Impromptu
CharlesSturridge has worked extensively in theatre, film and television bothas a screenwriter and director. His film work include Runners,A Handful of Dust, Aria, Fairy Tale and A True Story.For television he directed SoftTarget, A Foreign Field,Gulliver's Travels, and Longitude.For the stage he has also translated Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull.
OhioImpromptu captures that universally human emotion of losing the oneyou love the most and expresses it in its purest and most terrifying form.
JeremyIrons is a classically trained actor who first came to prominencein the TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. His films includeDavid Cronenberg's Dead Ringersand Barbet Schroeder's Reversalof Fortune, for which he won an Oscar. Other film credits includeThe French Lieutenant's Woman, Kafka,Waterland and Damage.
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