The Line is a 2009 play by British dramatist Timberlake Wertenbaker

Timberlake Wertenbaker

- Biography :Wertenbaker grew up in the Basque Country of France near Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She attended schools in Europe and the US before settling permanently in London...

 about the relationship between Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

 and Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon

Suzanne Valadon was a French painter born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts...

. Set in " the intimate, if quarrelsome world of Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...

", at the play's heart are " a leading artist, a protegee and a clash between traditions, lifestyles and eras." The 2009 London production of the play starred Henry Goodman

Henry Goodman

Henry Goodman is a British theatre actor. He trained at RADA in London alongside Jonathan Pryce.In 1988, he played George Green's brother-in-law Cyril in London's Burning. He played character roles in episodes of the popular UK police drama The Bill...

 as Degas and Sarah Smart

Sarah Smart

Sarah Smart is an English actress.Smart was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. Her career started as a child, notably in the television series Woof!. She is best known for a series of well-regarded television roles including Virginia Braithwaite, daughter of a lottery winning family in...

as Valadon.

Wertenbaker has stated that she began with Valadon because someone had given her a biography which she found fascinating. In the biography she came across Degas and the relationship between the two intrigued Wertenbaker.
Valadon called Degas the Master, but Wertenbaker believes he also learned from her. "He loved her drawings and he did imitate them...I think he may also have learned other things from her; that there was another way of living, that there was another way of being that was very attractive.

It's hard to imagine that he spent as much time as he did with her and spoke of her so warmly and wanted to see her so much if he didn't get something from her because Degas was somebody who was very curious and didn't suffer fools gladly."