Whipped Cream with Knives

First performed on Broadway in 1973 and all over the globe since, Trevor Nunn revives this Stephen Sondheim classic. Based on Ingmar Bergman's film 'Smiles of a Summer Night' and featuring the oft crooned 'Send in the Clowns' it brims with Sondheim's dry, sophisticated wit. Alexander Hanson, Hannah Waddingham and Maureen Lipman star in what has been described as a piece that is undoubtedly piquant, poignant and wise.

What is A Little Night Music about?

Set in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th Century, A Little Night Music weaves a tangled web of love and deceit amongst the upper echelons of Swedish society. Frederik Egerman is a prominent lawyer who is in love with his teenage trophy wife of eleven months, Anna, despite her refusal to consummate their marriage. His frustration at bursting point he goes to visit an old flame, the famous actress Desiree Armfeldt, and is soon in her bed. When Desiree's lover, the also married Count Carl - Magnus Malcolm drops in unexpectedly, the situation become decidedly tricky, and the Count takes an instant dislike of Frederik.

The stakes are upped when the Count blurts out his infidelity to his wife, Charlotte, who knows Anne through her younger sister. Charlotte visits Anne and tells her of Frederik's liaison with Desiree. Meanwhile, Desiree, now intent on winning back Frederik, persuades her mother, Madame Armfeldt, to invite Frederik, Anne, and Henrik, Frederik's son from a previous marriage, to her country house for a party. The Count gets wind of this, and intent on not losing Desiree to Frederik, decides to gate-crash. Charlotte goes along too, as she intends to get back at her unfaithful husband by seducing Frederik.

Did you know?

Elizabeth Taylor took on the role of Desiree Armfeldt in the 1977 movie of the same name. The show's title comes from the translation of Mozart's Serenade No 13, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.