In Praise of Love, originally entitled After Lydia, is the first part of a 1973 double-bill play by the English playwright Terence Rattigan (the second half being Before Dawn, a burlesque of the opera Tosca).
Rounding out the cast are Mark, a best-selling popular novelist and a friend of Sebastian's, who has long carried a torch for Lydia, and Joey, the couple's 20-year-old son, himself an aspiring writer, who is in rebellion against his father's overbearing manner and professed Marxist views.
[1]The original London production, at the Duchess Theatre, was directed by John Dexter, and starred Donald Sinden as Sebastian and Joan Greenwood as Lydia.
[3][4] It ran for 131 performances, and was described by The Sunday Times critic as “the most piercing exposition of love under great stress that I have ever seen on the stage.”[5] The subsequent New York production, directed by Fred Coe, which dropped the much-panned 2nd-act play Before Dawn, starred Rex Harrison in the role based on himself (Sebastian) and Julie Harris as Lydia.
[4] In 1976, the play was filmed to great acclaim, with Alvin Rakoff directing for Anglia Television, and with Kenneth More and Claire Bloom in the lead roles.