Tag: Derek Hutchinson

Theatre Round-up:

Posted on | by Eamonn

Open Court at the Royal CourtThe Royal Court is taken over by writers in Vicki Featherstone’s opening season, as a weekly rep of new plays move into the theatre downstairs. Natasha Gordon, Ferdy Roberts and Angela Terence will all join the Open Court ensemble for its summer season of plays. Nitin Kundra starts rehearsals for The Royal Exchange/Told By an Idiot co production of Too Clever By Half directed by Paul Hunter for the main house this summer whilst Gavin Spokes plays Oliver Hardy in The Watermill’s Laurel & Hardy directed by Paul Foster.  Vincenzo Nicoli heads to the Edinburgh Festival where he plays Bogs Diamond in Lucy Pittman’s Wallace’ s revival of Shawshank Redemption alongside Omid Djalili.

Openings include Sara Powell in Disgraced at The Bush, Geraldine Alexander in Strange Interlude at The National, Molly Logan in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Globe and Jess Murphy in Macbeth also at The Globe. Amy Cudden continues her West End run in One Man 2 Guvnors as does Derek Hutchinson in Cocktail Sticks which completes its run.

Theatre Updates

Posted on | by Eamonn

In Rehearsals:

Reflective-Pictures

Geraldine Alexander returns to The National Theatre in a revival of Eugene O’Neils Strange Interlude with Simon Godwin directing.  Sara Powell will be appearing in Disgraced at The Bush Theatre, a new play by Ayaad Aktar which premiered at The Lincoln Centre, New York and now comes to London with Nadia Fall directing. Daniel Rabin takes on the title role in Oedipus which Steven Berkoff directs for The Spoleto Festival whilst Colm Gormley joins the company of Dancing At Lughnasa with Richard Beecham directing for Northampton and Oxford.  Jess Murphy and Molly Logan, meanwhile,  start rehearsals for The Globe season where they will be performing in Macbeth & Lightning Child and A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Blue Stockings respectively.

Openings:

The Winslow Boy at The Old Vic with Richard Teverson has opened to wonderful reviews. Cocktail Sticks featuring Derek Hutchinson has also received high praise for its West End transfer.  The Low Road has premiered at The Royal Court with Natasha Gordon part of a brilliant ensemble in Dominic Cooke’s ambitious production. Next up, Children of the Sun (Stephen Wilson) and Othello (Scott Karim) both April openings at The National.

Theatre Happenings

Posted on | by Eamonn

Feb UpdateNatasha Gordon starts rehearsals for The Low Road at The Royal Court, Bruce Norris’s new play which outgoing Artistic Director Dominic Cooke will direct.  Opening in the Court’s main house in March, it is preceded by If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep in which Ferdy Roberts appears. Over at The Old Vic,  Richard Teverson starts rehearsals for Lindsay Posner’s revival of The Winslow Boy also opening March. Derek Hutchinson, meanwhile, will transfer to the West End in Cocktail Sticks, as part of the National’s Alan Bennet double bill performing at The Duchess Theatre. Amy Cudden continues in the roles of Rachel/Roscoe Crabbe In One Man 2 Guvnors now playing opposite Rufus Hound at The Haymarket whilst Roger Sloman and Jess Murphy round off their runs at The National in The Magistrate and People respectively.

Out of town Graham Turner continues in Orphan of Zhao at RSC, Stratford and Mark Stobbart takes the role of Issac in The Hired Man , Colchester/Leicester Curve co-production with Daniel Buckroyd directing.  Also Benjamin Davies begins rehearsal with Blackwatch for The National Theatre of Scotland. Msimis Dlamini continues in the UK tour of Soul Sister and Emma Handy opens in Thursday as part of The Adelaide Festival.

Theatre Openings

Posted on | by Eamonn

The Orphan of Zhao has opened at the RSC to high praise. Graham Turner’s heartfelt performance as the country doctor has been singled out by many critics in Greg Doran’s first production as new Artistic Director. The piece is variously described as an “extraordinary theatrical event” (Guardian) “an emotionally piercing marvel” (The Times) and a “gripping production… of an unseen classic” (The Telegraph).

Also opening last week at The Print Room was Lot and His God , the UK premiere of Howard Barker’s take on the Genesis story in which Hermione Gulliford takes the role of Lot’s wife.  The Telegraph writes “Gulliford performs the part mesmerisingly. In a dusty, dirty, dark bar in Sodom she meets the angel Drogheda, who is there to convince her and her husband to flee their home. Gulliford rolls the language around her mouth, easily and playfully and the result lays bare the many layers of meaning and intention in Barker’s script – no easy feat.”

Over at The National Theatre, Alan Bennett’s People featuring Jess Murphy was another opening last week to 4 and 5 star reviews. It now plays in rep in The Lyttelton Theatre alongside Scenes From An Execution (Robert Hands, Jay Simpson) which opened to excellent reviews in October. Previewing now and opening next week is The Magistrate which sees Roger Sloman return to The National in Pinero’s classic. And Derek Hutchinson returns too in another Alan Bennett play Cocktail Sticks which Nick Hytner directs as a companion piece to People.

Looking forward, Lynn Gardner (Guardian) tips Ignorance at Hampstead Downstairs a new play from Steve Waters as one to watch. Daniel Rabin is cast as part of a small-town postwar US community struggling to accept a foreigner in their midst.