KILWORTH HOUSE THEATRE LISTINGS

 

 

 

KILWORTH HOUSE THEATRE LISTINGS

8th June – 3rd July

'THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE '

 

 

Date	Time	Price
Wednesday 8th June	8.00pm	£20
Thursday 9th June	8.00pm	£25
Friday 10th June	8.00pm	£28
Saturday 11th June	2.30pm	£20
Saturday 11th June	8.00pm	£28
Sunday 12th June	2.30pm	£22
Sunday 12th June	8.00pm	£25
Wednesday 15th June	8.00pm	£25
Thursday 16th June	8.00pm	£25
Friday 17th June	8.00pm	£28
Saturday 18th June	2.30pm	£22
Saturday 18th June	8.00pm	£28
Sunday 19th June	2.30pm	£22
Sunday 19th June	8.00pm	£25
Tuesday 21st June	8.00pm	£25
Wednesday 22nd June	8.00pm	£25
Thursday 23rd June	8.00pm	£25
Friday 24th June	8.00pm	£28
Saturday 25th June	2.30pm	£22
Saturday 25th June	8.00pm	£28
Sunday 26th June	2.30pm	£22
Sunday 26th June	8.00pm	£25
Tuesday 28th June	8.00pm	£25
Wednesday 29th June	8.00pm	£25
Thursday 30th June	8.00pm	£25
Friday 1st July	8.00pm	£28
Saturday 2nd July	2.30pm	£22
Saturday 2nd July	8.00pm	£28
Sunday 3rd July	2.30pm	£22
Sunday 3rd July	8.00pm	£25

 

 

Box Office:  01858 881939   (Monday – Friday 10.00am – 4.00pm)

or online at www.kilworthhousetheatre.co.uk

 

 

Kilworth House Theatre, Lutterworth Road, North Kilworth, Leicestershire LE17 6JE

 

A Play A Pie and A Pint

 

 

	Welcome to the Top Table at the wedding of
	Craig Ledbetter
	and   Michelle Munro
	at Oran Mor
Master of Ceremonies Father of the Bride Maid of Honour Best Man		David MacLennan Sandy Munro Shilpa Chopra Ross Munro
	~ ~ ~ ~ ~
TECHNICIANS		ANDREW COWAN GARY WILSON ROSS KIRKLAND NIALL McMENIMEN
STAGE MANAGER		ANDY DEMPSEY
DESIGNER   ASSISTANT DESIGNER   TRAINEE PRODUCER		PATRICK McGURN   KIRSTEN HOGG   SARAH MACFARLANE
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER		SUSANNAH ARMITAGE
PRODUCER		DAVID MACLENNAN

Rob Drummond (Writer) Rob's most recent theatre credits include Sixteen (Arches Theatre Festival, April 2008), Bullet Catch (Behaviour festival, May 2009), Hunter(National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly's Transform Caithness project) Mr Write (St Stephen's, Edinburgh Fringe 2009, presented by the Arches and the NTS), Post Show (Arches Live!, September 2009) Allotment (Govan Shopping Centre, NTS new work), and Rob Drummond: Wrestling, at the Arches, winner of a Vital Spark Award.Rob won the Arches Award for Stage Directors in 2008 and has since gone on to Assistant Direct Andy Arnold's production of Defender of the Faith at the Tron and become the National Theatre of Scotland's inaugural Writer on Attachment. In 2008 Rob was also selected for the Playwrights' Studio Scotland's mentoring scheme under the mentorship of Douglas Maxwell. In 2009, Rob was employed as a dramturg, director, writer and performer by the NTS. Rob was one of three winners of the Tron's Open Stage Playwrighting competition for 2010 and also one of the three winners of the BBC Scotland Write Here Write Now sitcom competition. In 2011 Rob wrote, performed and directed his critically acclaimed show Rob Drummond: Wrestling. He currently has open commissions for the NTS and the Traverse. His modern retelling of the Passion will be showing in George Square in October.

 

David Overend (Director) Directing credits include A Work on Progress, Midland Streetand Underneath the Arches (TheArches), Postshow, Demises and The Gyntish Self (Liars) and Salome (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts). David is also Lecturer in Performance at the University of the West of Scotland and visiting tutor at RADA. He recently collaborated with the University of Glasgow and the Arches to complete a practice-as-research PhD.

 

Ross Allan (Ross Munro) trained at QMUC. Theatre credits include: Decky Does a Bronco and Fierce: An Urban Myth for Grid Iron Theatre Company. The Miracle Manand Empty for the National Theatre Scotland. Snow White of the Seven DeWharffs,Sleeping Beauty and Rudolf for MacRobert Theatre Stirling. Gagarin Way for Theatre Royal Bath and Elf Analysis for Oran Mor. T.V credits include: Taggart and Rebus for STV/SMG,  Still Game for Comedy Unit and Me Too! for Cbeebies/Tattiemoon Productions.

 

Rebecca Benson (Michelle Munro) will graduate from the RSAMD this July and will be working with the National Theatre of Scotland in Edinburgh this August. This is her first time performing for Oran Mor. Previous theatre credits include: Little Otik, and 365. Previous film includes : You Instead

 

Callum Cuthbertson (Sandy Munro) has previously appeared at Oran Mor in  Quartet, Cinderella, Rain, The Shoemaker's Wonderful Wife, Raspberry and Bunnies. He has worked with many leading Scottish theatre companies, including NTS, Traverse, Tron, Dundee Rep, 7;84, Tag, Suspect Culture, Citizens, And The Arches. T.V. includes High Road, Ruffian Hearts, Rab C. Nesbitt, Rockface, Strathblair, Legit, Empty, Dear Green Place, Still Game, Gary; Tank Commander. Film includes Breaking The Waves, How High The Castle Walls, Grockle Dance, At The End Of The Sentence. Callum is also the lead singer/songwriter with Glasgow band Plywood.

 

Anna Nierobisz (Assistant Director) completed an Acting course at Stow College and continued her education at the University of West of Scotland where she graduated from Performance course. Her recent credits as an actress include Like this...at Tron Theatre,Case Histories which will be broadcast on BBC One in mid 2011, a part in a short filmLast Orders screened during Glasgow Film Festival, and roles in music videos for Lonely Boy and Unsinkable Boxer. It is now the second time she works as assistant director at Oran Mor, as previously she assisted Nicola McCartney in directing Bunniesby Kieran Lynn.  

 

Patrick McGurn has worked extensively in film and television for the last ten years, including documentaries, commercials and pop promos as well as feature films.  He has worked over 80 plays at Oran Mor over the last six seasons.

 

Kirsten Hogg is a set and costume designer who graduated from the RSAMD in 2008. Kirsten was selected to be in the Collaborations Team to take part in the Prague Quadrennial Design Festival in June 07. She was also chosen to be part of the Hotel Bloom project in Brussels in 2009 as an artist. As a designer her credits include Scotland During the Blitz and Puss in Boots (Hopscotch Theatre company), Fire Safety Show andGame Over (Kickstart Theatre Company), Bad King Wencaslas  (Wee Stories), Elysian Fields  (Glasgay Festival), We were… In Development  and We were… In a Café (We Were Here) and Hidden (Vanishing Point & RSAMD).

 

Next week's play is I Heart Maths by James Ley, featuring Michael Gray, Isabelle Jossand Matthew McVarish.​

A Play A Pie and A Pint is supported by the National Theatre of Scotland.

Images and details are attached for this week's play at Oran Mor's Lunchtime Theatre. Further details can be found at www.playpiepint.com. Leslie Black Photography

"Good People" is powerful story of working class woman leading life of desperation

“Good People” is powerful story of working class woman leading life of desperation

By Lucy Komisar

Frances McDormand as Margaret, photo Joan Marcus.

The struggles of the working class are starkly depicted in David Lindsay-Abaire’s striking portrait of a handful of friends in Boston’s Southie neighborhood. At a time when economic decisions by the government leave millions of workers in the dust, it’s a political as well as social commentary.

Single mother Margaret (Frances McDormand) has lost her job as a Dollar Store cashier because she was too often late—forced to stay home to deal with a retarded daughter. The father skipped out years ago.

She is desperate for a job, though she will do anything to avoid going to work at the Gillette factory, which seems to represent the lowest depths to which anyone could fall. McDormand gives a searing performance.

Becky Ann Baker as Jean, Frances McDormand as Margaret, Estelle Parsons as Dottie, photo Joan Marcus.

Her friends Dottie (an inimitable in-your-face Estelle Parson) and Jean (Becky Ann Baker) commiserate and join her at church bingo, the highlight and hope of their days. Director Daniel Sullivan treats them with sympathy, without covering over the dreariness of their lives.

Mike (Tate Donovan), a high school boyfriend, escaped Southie and its despair by work and luck, getting into college and medical school. Now, he’s a fertility doctor. It is ironic, since a kid sandbagged “Margie” (with a hard “g”), that making kids makes money for him. She goes to his office and asks him – virtually begs him – for a job.

Tate Donovan as Mike, Frances McDormand as Margaret, photo Joan Marcus.

They both have the same Boston accent, but that’s where it ends. She wears jeans and a brown windbreaker and is a bit coarse in her language. He wears his prosperity. She accuses him of being “lace curtain Irish” and challenges his moving to upscale Chestnut Hill.

The surprise twist occurs after he lets slip that he and his wife are having a birthday party for their child. She virtually invites herself. Later, he disinvites her, saying the daughter is sick. She doesn’t believe him and shows up.

The suburban house is stunning, with a beige living room of brick walls and stuffed furniture (set by John Lee Beatty). The visit is disastrous. Margie is flummoxed when Mike’s wife Kate (a charming Renée Elise Goldberry) asks about her preference in wine. All goes downhill from there. There is a lot more to Kate, but the surprise shouldn’t be revealed in a review.

A friend I took to the show walked out at intermission, saying the play was disrespectful to the working class. It is true that they were made to seem boring and somewhat crude. But Lindsay-Abaire is realistic. Margie struggles in a society that, after a financial collapse provoked by the sleazy practices of the big banks, offers no help to her to get a good job, no social services to babysit her daughter. It’s hard to harvest charm from a life of quiet desperation. The irony of the  message is probably lost at the upper reaches of the Bank of America, which provided funds to MTC to commission this play.

“Good People.” Written by David Lindsay-Abaire; directed by Daniel Sullivan. Manhattan Theatre Club at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY. 212-239-6200. Opened March 3, 2011; closes May 29, 2011.

http://thekomisarscoop.com/2011/05/good-people-is-powerful-story-of-working-class-woman-leading-life-of-desperation/

 

 

Review of Derek Jacobi in King Lear

Jacobi’s stunning “King Lear” is a naturalistic portrayal of Everyman betrayed

By Lucy Komisar

Like the wind and rain storm that swirls around him as he wanders lands he once oversaw, Derek Jacobi blows fiercely in fury at his faithless daughters. His face is red almost to bursting in disbelief. His eyes could sear with their gaze. Yet, in Jacobi’s powerful, dominating portrayal in the Donmar Warehouse production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, this King Lear’s howling anger at how his royal state has been eclipsed is the other side of a royal flaw. It is the mistake of the self-absorbed and powerful who believe the ingratiating lies of their courtiers. And relatives. Both Lear and his loyal Earl of Gloucester (Paul Jesson, quietly moving in his misery) are outmaneuvered by evil progeny.

Derek Jacobi as King Lear, photo Johan Persson.

Michael Grandage’s stunning naturalistic staging of Shakespeare’s Lear turns their tragedy into the quite human foibles of bad judgment and misplaced trust. It could happen to any man. Lear thought of himself as so kind a father, but his petulance and self-centeredness made him easy to manipulate and play for a fool. He is even charmed by the voice of his perfidious daughter Goneril (a cold, calculating Gina McKee). When he demands that he keep a certain number of knights at his daughters’ homes, you see a man not used to hearing “no.”

Once his daughters have his lands, dismiss him and eject him from their homes, Jacobi’s voice changes from hoarse to almost chirpy, the sound of a person without power. He vacillates between half craziness and a kinder, gentler manner. He appears to shrink physically as well as in his psyche; his face seems gaunt. Now he has a sense of reality about authority. He tells Gloucester, “A dog’s obeyed in office.”

Knowledge comes too late. Lear’s famous curse laid on Goneril is that she be infertile or that if she has gives birth, she learn “how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” McKee and Justine Mitchell stifle emotion and are scheming and heartless as Lear’s daughters Goneril and Regan.

But the predators become the prey when they show a sexual interest in Gloucester’s resentful and traitorous illegitimate son, Edmond (Alec Newman). Newman is almost rat-like with his taught body, his piercing flashing eyes.

Derek Jacobi as King Lear, Paul Jesson as Earl of Gloucester, Gwilym Lee as his son Edgar, photo Johan Persson.

The play presents stark dichotomies between good and evil. That gives rise to Shakespeare’s favorite mixing of personal relations and conflicts with hunger for fortune and power. Goneril’s punishment is foreseen as her betrayed husband the Duke of Albany (Tom Beard) tells her, “You are not worth the dust that blows in your face.” Both Albany and Regan’s husband, the Duke of Cornwall (Gideon Turner), seem weak.

On the other side you see the moral winners. Gwilym Lee as Edmund’s half-brother Edgar, feigning madness in exile, is excellent as his caring, sensitive opposite, the true son of his father Gloucester. Michael Hadley is also sturdy as the loyal banished Earl of Kent.

The sense of timelessness — the play dates to 1605 — is emphasized by the black-draped costumes that could be from any era. The backdrop of walls seems colored by irregularly slapped on white and gray paint that sometimes by lighting seems like carved stone. No other set is required. It’s all the more powerful when the drab colors are splattered blood red. Light and steam, forces of nature, come up through cracks in floor boards and walls. (Set and costumes are by Christopher Oram.)

“I am a man more sinned against than sinning,” says Lear, his heart broken. As Jacobi utters it, you can feel his majestic sorrow.

“King Lear.” Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Michael Grandage. Donmar Warehouse at BAM, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY. (2,3,4,5 trains to Nevins Street). 718-636-4100; Opened April 28, 2011; closes June 5, 2011.

http://thekomisarscoop.com/2011/05/jacobis-stunning-king-lear-is-a-naturalistic-portrayal-of-everyman-betrayed/