Afterlife is a 2008 play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 by Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn

Michael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...

. It tells the life and career of Austrian theatrical director and actor Max Reinhardt

Max Reinhardt

----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...

, from the revival of the Salzburg Festival

Salzburg Festival

The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

 in 1920, which he helped to re-establish, until his death in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1943. It draws from Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...

's 1911 play Jedermann (based on the sixteenth-century English morality play

Morality play

The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...

, Everyman

Everyman (play)

The Somonyng of Everyman , usually referred to simply as Everyman, is a late 15th-century English morality play. Like John Bunyan's novel Pilgrim's Progress, Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation by use of allegorical characters, and what Man must do to attain it...

), which Reinhardt directed at the Salzburg Festival for many years following its revival in 1920.

Afterlife was first performed in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on 11 June 2008.

The National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 production was directed by Michael Blakemore

Michael Blakemore

Michael Howell Blakemore OBE is an Australian actor, writer and theatre director. In 2000 he became the only individual to win Tony Awards for best Director of a Play and Musical in the same year for Copenhagen and Kiss Me, Kate....

. The cast included Roger Allam

Roger Allam

Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....

 as Max Reinhardt, Abigail Cruttenden

Abigail Cruttenden

Abigail Cruttenden is an English actress.Cruttenden played opposite Sean Bean as his character's onscreen wife Jane in several episodes of Sharpe. The couple wed in real life in 1997 and had a daughter, Evie. Three months later they started divorce proceedings, and divorced in 2000. In 2003,...

 as his mistress (and, later, wife) Helene Thimig, Selina Griffiths

Selina Griffiths

Selina Griffiths is a British actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and has appeared in many plays as a result of this. She is the daughter of actors Annette Crosbie and Michael Griffiths. Her only brother, Owen Griffiths, is a sound engineer at a post production sound...

 as his personal assistant Gusti Adler, Peter Forbes

Peter Forbes

Peter Forbes is a Scottish actor.In the theatre he has appeared in the musical Mamma Mia! at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, Twelfth Night, Richard III and A Midsummer Night's Dream...

 as his man of business, Rudolf 'Katie' Kommer, Glyn Grain as his valet Franz, David Burke as the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese of Vienna....

, and David Schofield

David Schofield (actor)

David Schofield is an English actor who was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Lancashire in 1951. He has appeared in numerous television programmes and feature films during his career.-Early life:...

as Friedrich Müller.