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The Lady from the Sea tells the story of the second wife of Dr Wangel, who is played by Malcolm Storry. In the play, she is suffering from rapidly changing moods and these are something that a husband is very much trying to understand. The lead character, Ellida Wangel, is played by Joely Richardson and she is following in the footsteps on the stage of both her sister, and her mother, Vanessa Redgrave.
The character also feels that she is a bad mother and is unable to provide enough care to her daughter, who is now an adult. Her life is not a particularly happy one and in many ways she seems quite unsatisfied. In the play a stranger comes to visit the town and he is a sailor who offers to take her away.
The play tells the story of her torment about deciding whether she should stay with her family and be loyal, or leave for ever with the sailor. In many ways she is tormented by it, but in others she seems to enjoy agonising over the decision that she has to make.
The costumes in this play are of particular note and there are many changes throughout the play which are very well done. The stage is set very simply and it is an open stage with a simple wooden deck. The set designer, Simon Higlett has created an excellent backdrop of the sky which wraps around the stage and shifts colour throughout the production.
This play was written by Ibsen in the late 19th century and it is something which is very poetic. The translation of the play has been very well done and the artistic direction of this production is exceptional. The action moves forward nicely and all of the actors perform very well.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Howard Panter from the Ambassador Theatre Group and Artistic Director Christopher Luscombe announced that they will kick off the first season of the new Theatre Royal Brighton Productions by launching the comedy Dandy Dick which will open on July 3rd at the Theatre Royal Brighton. The play will star Nicholas Le Prevost and Patricia Hodge with direction by Christopher Luscombe. This will be just one of the many classics that will soon tour the nation.
Luscombe stated that they are delighted to bring Dandy Dick to the Brighton Stage given the fact that it was written over a century ago in Brighton and especially thrilled that it will be the first production at the new theatre. He added that it is a treasure that does not get as much time on the stage as it should and therefore it is a unique charm to be able to bring it to more modern audiences.
The play was written originally in 1887 and tells the story of the respectable Augustin Jedd who regularly preaches against the evils that come from gambling and horseracing. However, his slightly wayward sister Georgiana visits and somehow gets him to risk everything at the horse races. From here the play turns into utter mayhem which makes it extremely fun to water and runs the gambit including romance, mistaken identity, and even a runway horse.
In the lead role of Georgiana is Patricia Hodge who has spent a great deal of time in theatre, film, and television. Nicolas Le Prevost who has been in plenty of theatre including a role in My Fair Lady that got him nominated for an Olivier Award will take on the role of Dean. T eh lat time Dandy Dick was seen on the play was in 1987 with a national tour that starred Margaret Courtenav and Sir Anthony Quayle.
After the play opens at the Theatre Royal Brighton the show will head out across the UK making stops in Woking, Richmond, Bromley, Aylesbury, Glasgow, Manchester, York, and Birmingham and then finally end up in London at the end of the run. It will be produced by Evanna White, Adam Speers, and Howard Panter for the Ambassador Theatre Group.
Popularity: 1% [?]
The Witcher is going to come to the West End this year as a musical stage show. Publishers have called it one of the most controversial pieces to be seen on the West End stage yet and will premier at the London Duchess Theatre at the close of September before it takes off on a world tour that will begin at the start of 2013.
Actors that are under consideration for the lead as Geralt include Josh Holloway from Lost, Robbie Savage the footballer, and Russell Crowe. Christina Hendricks and Isla Fisher look like they will be going for the role of Triss, the female lead although Gerri Halliwell may also be attempting to steal the female lead as well.
The news of the play coming to the West End comes very close to April 17th; which is the release date for The Witcher 2 game on the Xbox 360 platform. The original Witcher tells the story of Geralt who is a monster slayer that happens to have supernatural abilities. Geralt is accused of assassinating King Foltest leading him to head out on a quest to find the real murderer and clear his name.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Josie Rourke chose The Recruiting Officer for her first venture as the new Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse. George Farquhar’s play, originally penned in 1706, has all the best aspects of a Restoration comedy without the heartlessness of many others about the same time period, and Rourke has chosen well.
The scene is early 18th century Shrewsbury, a provincial town where ‘recruits’ are more shanghaied than recruited for the Spanish Wars by Captain Plume and his cohorts. The Captain is played with a fine mixture of bravado, lewdness and generosity by Tobias Menzies. He is particularly likeable in his bewilderment as a hard-line heterosexual confronted with Nancy Carroll as his beloved Silvia, disguised as a man.
There is simply no one in the cast who does not shine in his or her role. Mackenzie Crook is perfectly cast as Plume’s devious and unsavoury assistant Sergeant Kite, whose recruiting tactics are downright ruthless. Kite’s performance is highlighted by the scene in which he is disguised as a German fortuneteller whose behaviour is hilariously farcical.
More kudos go to Rachel Stirling as Silvia’s bitchy and affected cousin Melinda, with her fake posh accent and airs, and to Mark Gatiss as Captain Brazen, the epitome of a Restoration fop who is as endearing as he is preposterous.
Altogether, The Recruiting Officer is wholly delightful; there is a dark side to it but the performances under Rourke’s direction offer more humour than angst, and the humour itself is provided much more by pleasure than by malice, as Hazlitt said of the play in 1819.
The intimacy of the prestigious Donmar Warehouse adds to the charm; the plain wooden stage is warmly lit by dozens of candles and there is no elaborate technology involved, just some terrific acting and a marvellous example of ‘period’ comedy. The playwright himself was a recruiting officer in Shrewesbury, so there is a satisfying ring of authenticity to this outstanding production.
Popularity: 3% [?]
The London Paralympics and Olympics could help boost the box office sales in the West End, according to a survey that was conducted by Whatsonstage.com. The poll asked 32,000 theatre-goers that use the website if they would head down to the West End during the Olympics, out of which 70% said they would attend plays at the same rate or even more while the Games were taking place.
Two thirds of those that took part in the poll stated that they believe the Olympics will help boost the amount of people heading out to the London theatres. This is a sharp contrast to a comment made by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the last few months in which he predicted that the Olympics would cause the London theatres to practically shut down.
He claimed that in the wake of all of the excitement, no one will be heading out to the theatres stating that it will be a tough environment for theatre sales. He also stated that advance bookings for the Olympic time frame are right now at only about ten percent of where they usually sit. Some plays have already made room for the Olympics such as Sweeney Todd which begins this month and will go on break until the Olympics close.
Editorial and managing editor of Whatsonstage.com, Terri Paddock, stated that the website survey shows that audiences are optimistic about attending plays and many will likely prove they are serious by paying to attend plays.
Paddock also stated that the West End should not jump to any conclusions because the games are not going to be as threatening to the stage arts as many people fear. Of those who responded in the survey by saying that the Olympics may disrupt their theatre attendance, they added that they could change their mind if ticket prices were reduced, and there were good seats available.
Popularity: 5% [?]
The Hull New Theatre is going to be seeing the return of the musical, Beyond the Barricade, the West End production that has been thrilling audiences in London.
The production sees some of the West End’s best performers put on songs from many of its greatest hits including, The Lion King, Love Never Dies, Phantom of the Opera, Blood Brothers, and The Jersey Boys. This is only a small number of the musicals which feature in the production.
Tickets are currently being sold at the Wilson Centre, which is located on Alfred Gelder Street. It is also possible to visit the theatre’s website and book tickets online, or call directly to the box office.
Popularity: 6% [?]
So Imogen marries Posthumus, going against the wishes of her father. Posthumus is then exiled and there he is told that he has lost the bet that his wife would remain faithful. He plots a reunion, borne out of both jealousy and revenge. Imogen is unaware of any of this and travels to meet him but due to some strange occurrence, she is disguised as a man.
South Sudan Theatre Company was specially formed for the newest country of the world which will perform the play of Shakespeare for the first time in Juba Arabic. Cymbeline offers a very rich framework, which can incorporate both the culture and characterisation of the Sudanese.
In addition to several questions of the military and politics, this play is offering the opportunity for mixing the strong traditions of magic, soothsayers and prophets with caste and class and child abduction in south Sudan.
The question about the morality of sexuality is among the top social agendas in South Sudan which might provide the rich ground for the innovative adaption of this play. Cymbeline is the story of hope and redemption and provides a strong metaphor for South Sudans’s Own Story.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The debut play from Luke Norris was launched at the Young Writers Festival at the Royal Court and is certainly impressive for a first attempt. The play contains a hefty dose of both poignancy and bitterness in the tale of Frank, a 70 year old whose 40 year marriage is blown apart by his affair with an old colleagues beautiful widow.
Frank then suffers a stroke, and the second part of the play deals with the struggle by his grandson David and his lover, Rita, to move Frank from a Council home into private health care which Rita wants to pay for.
This movement is represented in many snappy scenes that were played out on Tom Piper’s slab-like, white design with carpets as well as furnishing at the side, isolating Frank’s wife Iris even more. There is even a thunderbolt represent what has happened to her and David’s mother, Frank’s daughter.
Norris is a young actor who has appeared in The Habit of Art and The Kitchen and he exhibited in Goodbye to All That all the virtues that rookie writers aspire to; brutal scene switches, painful honesty, and a young person’s sense of sadness and isolation, along with the unexpected eloquence of a mature narrative.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Hay Fever is a Noel Coward play that, while now slightly dated, has been revitalised on the West End with a fantastic cast. The play tells the story of a family that you would never want to spend much time with, as they are all entirely self-absorbed and don’t have any social niceties.
The mother of the family is played by Lindsay Duncan who is best known for her appearance in Spooks and Alice in Wonderland. The mother is a retired actress who clearly misses acting and feels that after a year of retirement, she is fully fallen out of the game. Her husband is portrayed by Kevin McNally and he is a novelist.
The couple have two adult children, Sorel and Simon, played by Phoebe Waller Bridge and Freddie Fox respectively. All of the different family members have invited guests to spend a weekend with them and the guests are largely unaware of what they have got themselves into.
The play was written in the 1920s and many of the jokes are now out of date, despite this however, it still manages to get the audience laughing. The production is by Howard Davies and it is fast moving and entertaining. Unfortunately, the script has been interpreted to have too many awkward pauses, they are amusing, but in this case they have been far too overused.
The cast do an incredible job and they are all as good as each other. The way Lindsay Duncan portrays the over-dramatic retired actor is fantastic. Furthermore, the sort of awkwardness that Waller Bridge brings to the role of Sorel is wonderfully entertaining. Jenny Galloway plays the part of the family’s housekeeper and her famous dry sarcasm and comic timing are as present as ever. Other than feeling a touch out of date the play is very enjoyable.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Yes, in a hundred years or so, just about everyone here will be gone and there will be a whole new population; that’s the gist of a comment voiced by Kim, a call girl played by Susannah Fielding in the play All New People. Odds are they’ll still have the same difficulties that today’s crop has, many of which are typified in Zach Braff’s tragi-comedy now playing at London’s Duke of York’s theatre.
When his play opened off-Broadway in New York, Braff was just the writer, but in the UK production he’s also the star. Charlie is having a major mid-life crisis, and in the opening scene he’s literally at the end of his rope, standing on a chair in a ratty old bathrobe with a noose around his neck and a last cigarette in his hand.
The entire play is about 90 minutes of real time during which a few unlikely characters appear at Charlie’s borrowed off-season beach house. First is Emma (Eve Miles), an estate agent hoping to rent the place. Then comes Myron (Paul Hilton), a firefighter/local drug dealer, and finally Kim, hired by Charlie’s friend to cheer him up.
All New People is poignant and funny and ultimately hopeful, as the disparate characters form an odd kinship that becomes almost like family.
Popularity: 2% [?]
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