In a new production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, a unique rediscovery of The Passing of the Third Floor Back by Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 28 November 2017.
Christmas in London, 1907. Mrs. Sharpe’s squalid Bloomsbury boarding house plays host to some unscrupulous residents. Vivian is being forced to marry a man she doesn’t love, Harry’s musical career is a laughing-stock, Jape is plotting to swindle the next man he meets, while Stasia, the maid, has almost been forgotten. So their lives go on, until the sudden arrival of a mysterious stranger in search of a room…
Described by its author as “an idle fancy”, the mystical and mysterious The Passing of the Third Floor Back was one of the longest running West End and Broadway hits of its time. The original stage production and silent film version starred the greatest Hamlet of his day – Sir Johnson Forbes-Robertson. In 1935, it was adapted for film again to great acclaim, starring silent screen icon Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).
