LONDON, Feb. 5 The National Theater in London has announced the world's longest silent play, running at one hour and 40 minutes, will premier on its Lyttelton Theater stage.
"The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other," by Austrian playwright Peter Handke, is scheduled for a 30-performance run at the venue, beginning Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.
"The point is to explore what's left when you remove language -- and the answer is that there's a huge amount," said James Macdonald, the play's director.
The play features 27 actors portraying 450 characters -- including Charlie Chaplin, Tarzan and the Biblical Abraham and Moses -- wandering through a city square. The work lacks an overarching plot and contains no dialogue, but the soundtrack includes brief snippets of music, recorded screams and the sounds of airplanes and construction.
"It is a great piece of work, challenging and something that we should be doing," a spokeswoman for the National Theater said. "Tickets are selling well -- not like hotcakes, but they are doing well. It is appealing to younger people. We think our more traditional audiences will wait until the reviews."
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