Richard Curtis Abandoned His Only Play on Advice of His Partner

Richard Curtis has revealed that he spent 15 years writing a play, but it has never been staged because his partner, Emma Freud, said it was good enough, according to The Times.

The script for Mr & Mrs Jones has come to light as part of a charity auction to benefit the Good Chance Theatre in east London, which supports refugee artists. Some 60 first edition scripts with handwritten annotations have been donated by industry figures such as Sir Tom Stoppard and the Prima Facie writer Suzie Miller.

Mr & Mrs Jones is about two famous actors dealing “first with retirement and then their comeback”, and was inspired by his parents’ life together after his father retired from a “pretty hefty” job at the consumer goods giant Unilever.

“I still think it’s not bad, but my fiancée, Emma, said, ‘You clearly haven’t been to the theatre since 1972’, so I put it in a drawer,” said Curtis. “It was meant to star a pair like Brian Cox and Judi Dench and has a beginning, middle and end.”

Inspired by his parents, Curtis began writing the play in about 2008, and finished it last year as he started “to think about and experience some kind of retirement”.

Curtis was speaking as an annotated script for his film Love Actually is also being auctioned online as part of a charity auction to benefit the Good Chance Theatre in east London, which supports refugee artists. 

The auction, Out of the Margins, brings together over 50 of the world's leading playwrights, who have each jotted anecdotes, memories, reflections and thoughts in the margins of their iconic text. 

These unique annotated objects - whether rare first edition hardback or special script from the rehearsal room - offer each lucky owner a slice of theatre history, something to treasure forever, while giving the reader a glimpse into the person behind the play script, standing as an intimate testimony to the artist's own journey. 

The proceeds of the auction will go towards Good Chance's work bringing diverse communities together, co-creating art and theatre with refugee artists,

The Out of the Margins exhibition runs from 21st – 28th September at Christie’s in London, is completely free, and the charity auction is currently live online at theauctioncollective.com  with bids being accepted until - 6 October 2023.

Photo Credit: Guy Bell