| The Habit of Art | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Alan Bennett |
| Characters | W. H. Auden Benjamin Britten Humphrey Carpenter |
| Date premiered | 5 November 2009 |
| Place premiered | Lyttelton Theatre, London, United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Setting | London, present day; (Caliban's Day Oxford, 1972) |
The Habit of Art is a 2009 play by English playwright Alan Bennett, centred on a fictional meeting between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten while Britten is composing the opera Death in Venice. It premiered on 5 November 2009 at the Lyttelton Theatre at the Royal National Theatre, with the central roles filled by Alex Jennings as Britten and Richard Griffiths as Auden (the latter replacing Michael Gambon, who had to withdraw from the production due to minor ill health).[1] The performance of April 22, 2010 was broadcast to more than 200 cinemas worldwide by NTLive.