The Low Road – Review

Clive Hirschhorn reviews Bruce Norris’s new play The Low Road at the Royal Court Theatre

Dominic Cooke, the artistic director of the enterprising Royal Court, has chosen, as his farewell production, a new play by American playwright Bruce Norris, whose previous play at the Court – Clybourne Park (2010) garnered a slew of awards for all concerned. It was one of the company’s biggest hits ever, as a consequence of which it was revived in New York where it won a Pulitzer Prize as well as the Tony award. Here it won an Olivier as well as winning the Evening Standard award for best new play.

While it is unlikely that The Low Road, Norris’s latest offering, will walk away with the same kind of honours, it’s an appropriate finale to Cooke’s tenure at this address. For like Cooke himself, it’s bold, it takes risks and has something to say. And while it is too long by at least a half an hour and unravels somewhat in its last fifteen minutes, I also found it an exhilarating romp. And often very very funny.

If racial hypocrisy was the backbone of Clybourne Park, capitalism (and its intendant evils) is the main signpost on this particular road. And just as, constitutionally, it is the right of every American to protect himself by owning a gun, it is equally the right of every American to improve his lot by accumulating as much money as he can, regardless of who gets hurt in the process. Well, isn’t it?

I have no idea what Norris’s views on America’s gun-culture are, but his play leaves you in no doubt what he thinks about the excesses of financial greed. And although what he is saying is hardly innovative or earth-shattering, he has chosen a deliciously engaging way of saying it.

The time is 1759, the place Massachusetts. A foundling, whose father we are led to believe is one G. Washington of Virginia, is left on the doorstep of a local brothel, is given the name Jim Trumpett (Johnny Flynn) by the establishment’s madame (Elizabeth Berrington) and grows up to be obsessed with money, the making of it, and the best use to put it to.

Ownership is the main item on his capitalistic agenda and it extends to buying a slave called John Blanke (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), whose initial appearance and manner turn out to be very deceptive indeed.

The picaresque adventures they share both individually and in tandem, drive the narrative, with Brechtian-like interjections from a droll narrator (Bill Paterson) who moves anachronistically from the past to the present with a wry, knowing humour. One scene even takes place in the present: at a global conference on the pros and cons of capitalism.

The period vernacular in which Norris has chosen to express his characters’s thoughts and feelings works very convincingly, and a dinner party scene in act two, in which Jim has elevated himself to the status of financial adviser to a well-connected New York business man (John Ramm) who, much to Jim’s irritation has forged a strong bond with Blanke, crackles with tension from start to finish.

But the ending and the coup d’theatre it involves, struck me as too contrived. It’s meant to close the play with an exclamation mark but does just the opposite.

Cooke directs this vigorous piece with, well – vigour, the performances, notably from Johnny Flynn and Bill Paterson, are most engaging, while the rest of the large cast – some 20 of them in all – give boisterous accounts of themselves.

Its flaws notwithstanding, this is a fitting finale for one of the Royal Court’s best-ever artistic directors. May he thrive in whatever he chooses to do next.

CLIVE HIRSCHHORN

Reprinted by kind permission of This Is London

LINKS

Royal Court Theatre

Royal Court Theatre: Spring-Summer 2013 Season

Dominic Cooke announces his final season as Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre today (Monday), after nearly seven years at the theatre’s helm. The season includes writers from his first year at the Court, such as Bruce Norris, Polly Stenham and Anthony Neilson, alongside new plays by Anders Lustgarten and Polish writer Anna Wakulik.

• Anders Lustgarten’s If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep opens in a production without décor, directed by Simon Godwin.
• Dominic Cooke directs Bruce Norris’ third play and first commission for the Royal Court, The Low Road.
• Polly Stenham returns to the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs with her third Royal Court play No Quarter, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
• Anna Wakulik’s new play A Time To Reap, translated from Polish by Catherine Grosvenor, is directed by Caroline Steinbeis.
• Anthony Neilson writes and directs a new play in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs to conclude the season.
• The Rough Cuts programme explores our relationship with the internet in a series of experimental readings and works in progress.

Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court said:

“This season is my last as Artistic Director. It includes plays by three very different but equally original writers whose work I programmed at the start of my time here. It’s a pleasure to welcome Polly Stenham, Bruce Norris and Anthony Neilson back to their London home.

“They will be joined by two equally unusual talents making their Royal Court debuts. Anders Lustgarten grapples with the complex question of national debt; who is responsible and who should pay? Anna Wakulik gives us a witty and vivid account of the Polish diaspora in London. In April I hand over to the brilliant Vicky Featherstone and the Court begins what promises to be a thrilling new chapter in its history.

“In the mean time I hope you will join us in Sloane Square for an eclectic and provocative group of plays by some of the World’s most exciting writers.”

In the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, the first recipient of the Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award, Anders Lustgarten, opens his first play at the Royal Court as a production without décor looking at the politics of global banking. Dominic Cooke’s final production as Artistic Director will be Bruce Norris’ new play The Low Road – a fable of free market economics. Bruce Norris’ The Pain and the Itch in 2007 was the first play Dominic directed in his first season in charge.

In the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, the season also echoes Dominic Cooke’s first year in post, with new plays from Polly Stenham and Anthony Neilson, both of whom were programmed in 2007 with Stenham’s debut That Face and Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia. Stenham’s third play, No Quarter, is an anarchic twist on the drawing room drama and Anthony Neilson’s play, currently untitled, will be created in the rehearsal room. Polish writer Anna Wakulik’s A Time To Reap about abortion and the Catholic church is the latest play to come out of the Royal Court’s extensive international work and will be Anna’s first production in the UK.

Tickets for the new season are on sale from tomorrow to Friends and Supporters (Tuesday 6 November) at 12pm online and by phone. It will be on general sale on Friday 9 November at 12pm. Tickets available online at www.royalcourttheatre.com or from the Box Office on 020 7565 5000.

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 20 February 2013, 7pm

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 March 2013, 7pm

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 16 January 2013, 7pm

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 February 2013, 7pm

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 10 April 2013, 7pm

 

 

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
A production without décor
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 20 February 2013, 7pm

“I believe that open markets and free enterprise are the best imaginable force for improving human wealth and happiness. And I would go further: where they work properly, they can actually promote morality.”
David Cameron, Jan 2012

As the financial world issues its shock treatment, what happens when the City’s agenda is taken to its ultimate conclusion?

Anders Lustgarten’s passionately argued new play explodes the ethos of austerity and offers an alternative.

Anders Lustgarten won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award in 2011 which is given annually by Pinter’s widow, Lady Antonia Fraser, to support a new commission at the Royal Court.

His first produced play A Day at the Racists about the workings of the British National Party premiered at the Finborough Theatre in March 2010. Since turning to playwriting in 2007, he has completed writing attachments at Soho Theatre, National Theatre and Bolton Octagon. He read Chinese Studies at Oxford and alongside his writing, he works as a political activist across the world, focusing on the actions of multi-national corporations in developing countries.

Simon Godwin will direct. Associate Director at the Royal Court, his credits include NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood, The Witness by Vivienne Franzmann, Luke Norris’ Goodbye to All That, Anya Reiss’ The Acid Test, and Nick Payne’s Wanderlust.

His other credits include A Kind of Alaska and Krapp’s Last Tape, Faith Healer and Far Away at Bristol Old Vic, The Winter’s Tale for Headlong and the Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Mister Heracles at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. As Associate Director of the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton under Artistic Director Rupert Goold, Simon directed seven main stage shows.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep will be presented as a production without décor in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. A regular fixture at the Royal Court on Sunday evenings in the 1960s, a production without décor gave an emerging playwright the opportunity to have their play showcased on the main stage, in a full production but with minimal setting.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep is part of the Royal Court’s Jerwood New Playwrights programme, which aims to discover and support the next generation of world class playwrights, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep
By Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Simon Godwin
Fri 15 Feb – Sat 9 Mar 2013
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday Matinees 2.30pm (from 23 Feb)
Thursday Matinees 2.30pm (from 7 Mar)
Press Night Wednesday 20 February, 7pm
Post-Show Talk Tuesday 5 March
Captioned Performance Wednesday 6 March, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance Saturday 2 March, 2.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £28, £20, £12
Mondays all seats £10 (available in advance to Friends and Supporters subject to availability and on the day of the performance from 9am online)
Concessions £5 off top two prices* (available in advance for all performances until Saturday 23 February inclusive and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
25s and under £8* (available on £20 and £12 tickets)
School and HE Groups of 8+ 50% off top two prices (available Tuesday-Friday, plus matinees)
Groups of 6+ £5 off top price (available Tuesday-Friday)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 March 2013, 7pm

“Tis one thing to admit the inescapable cruelty of nature, friend, but quite a different one to encourage it.”

A young entrepreneur sets out on a quest for wealth with priceless ambition and a purse of gold.

A fable of free market economics and cut-throat capitalism.

Bruce Norris’ previous credits include Clybourne Park, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and received the Tony Award for Best Play. It opened at the Royal Court in September 2010 to critical acclaim before transferring to the West End. His other credits include The Pain and the Itch at the Royal Court, The Infidel, Purple Heart and The Unmentionables. The Low Road is Bruce’s first commission at the Royal Court.

Artistic Director of the Royal Court Dominic Cooke directs. His recent credits at the Court include In the Republic of the Happiness, Ding Dong The Wicked, Choir Boy, In Basildon, Chicken Soup with Barley, for which he was nominated for an Evening Standard Award, and the multi award-winning production of Clybourne Park for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. Credits elsewhere include The Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre, as well as adapting and directing Arabian Nights and Noughts and Crosses at the RSC.

Bruce Norris’s The Pain and the Itch was the first play directed by Dominic in his inaugural season and The Low Road will be the final play he directs as Artistic Director of the Royal Court.

The Low Road
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Dominic Cooke
Thurs 21 March – Sat 27 April
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.30pm
Saturday Matinees 2.30pm (from 30 Mar)
Thursday Matinees 2.30pm (from 18 April)
No performances Friday 29 March or Monday 1 April
Press Night Wednesday 27 March, 7pm
Post-Show Talks Tuesday 9 April and Thursday 25 April
Captioned Performance Wednesday 24 April, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance Saturday 20 April, 2.30pm
Age Guidance 14+
Tickets £28, £20, £12
Mondays all seats £10 (available in advance to Friends and Supporters subject to availability and on the day of the performance from 9am online)
Concessions £5 off top two prices* (available in advance for all performances until Saturday 30 March inclusive and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
25s and under £8* (available on £20 and £12 tickets)
School and HE Groups of 8+ 50% off top two prices (available Tuesday-Fridayn and all matinees)
Groups of 6+ £5 off top price (available Tuesday-Friday)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 16 January 2013, 7pm

“You were brought up on mythology. That’s why you’re all stuck, all angry, a prince in the wrong story. A prince with a black eye.”

Fleeing a world he has rejected, Robin finds solace in his music and the sanctuary of his remote family home. But as his kingdom begins to crumble around him, how far will he go to save it and at what cost?

Polly Stenham returns with an anarchic twist on the drawing room drama. Following That Face and Tusk Tusk, her new play asks what is the right way to live?

Polly Stenham’s debut play That Face, written when she was just 19, received its world premiere in 2007 at the Royal Court, having been developed through the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme, before transferring to the West End. She went on to win both the Evening Standard’s Charles Wintour Award and Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright as well as the TMA Award for Best Play. Her second play Tusk Tusk played to sold out houses and critical acclaim in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in 2009.

Jeremy Herrin is Associate Director at the Royal Court. His credits at the Royal Court include Hero, Haunted Child, The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off the Endz, The Priory, Tusk Tusk, That Face and The Vertical Hour. Credits elsewhere include This House at the National Theatre, Children’s Children (Almeida), Absent Friends (West End), Uncle Vanya (Chichester), Death and the Maiden (West End), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), South Downs (Chichester and West End).

The production will be designed by Tom Scutt, with lighting by Philip Gladwell and sound by Fergus O’Hare.

No Quarter
By Polly Stenham
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Fri 11 Jan – Sat 9 Feb 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 19 Jan)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 17 Jan)
Press Night Wednesday 16 January, 7pm
Post Show Talk Wednesday 6 Feb
Captioned Performance Tuesday 5 February, 7.45pm
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 19 Jan incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 27 February 2013, 7pm

“For the briefest of moments, you feel sure that your life has a meaning.
It makes you feel smaller and bigger at the same time.”

From a forested Polish village to the blinding lights of London, A Time to Reap looks at one woman’s story against the mountain landscape of an evolving nation and one of Poland’s hottest political topics – abortion and the Catholic Church.

Anna Wakulik is an exciting new Polish voice with a crop of political provocations.

Anna Wakulik currently works as literary manager for Tarnowski Teatr im. L. Solskiego in Tarnow, where she is writing new play, Heroes. Her play Krzywy Domek was presented in a public rehearsed reading during the Festival of Contemporary Polish Drama R@PORT in Gdynia in 2010. Other works include Sans Souci at Polish Theatre in Poznan, Helzbieta H. at National Wybrzeze Theatre in Gdansk. The Polish version of A Time to Reap will be performed in Poznan in November 2012. Anna wrote A Time To Reap when she attended the Royal Court Theatre’s 2011 International Residency for Emerging Playwrights. She has been developing the play with the Royal Court ever since.

Translator Catherine Grosvenor’s performed plays include One Day All This Will Come To Nothing (Traverse), Cherry Blossom (Traverse/Polski Teatr Bydgoszcz, 2008) and Gabriel (Oran Mor 2009). She also wrote the Scottish adaptations of Esa Leskinen and Sami Keski-Vähälä’s Continuous Growth and The Overcoat. She prepared the literal translation of Our Class by Tadeusz Słobodzianek at the National Theatre and has worked with both German and Polish writers on the International Residency at the Royal Court.

International Associate Caroline Steinbeis directs. Her credits include Earthquakes in London (UK Tour for Headlong Theatre), Fatherland (Gate Theatre), Charged/Re-Charged (Soho Theatre), Mad Forest at BAC, Mile End (UK Tour), Photo Story (BAC). Her opera work includes: Cosi Fan Tutte (Sadler’s Wells, Bridgewater Hall, Ascoli Festival). Caroline is founder of Strike Ensemble.

The production is designed by Max Jones, with lighting by Anna Watson.

Since 1996 the Royal Court Theatre has travelled the world, running long-term play development projects and building relationships between playwrights, directors, actors and translators. Working with playwrights and theatre artists in 70 countries and in 30 languages, the work is supported by the Genesis Foundation and the British Council.

A Time to Reap is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project.

During A Time to Reap from 12-16 March, the Royal Court will present four rehearsed readings in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from the Royal Court’s long-term project with Georgian and Ukrainian playwrights. Further details to be announced shortly. These readings will be presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project, with support from the British Council.

A Time to Reap
By Anna Wakulik
Translated by Catherine Grosvenor
Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Fri 22 Feb – Sat 23 March 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs: Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm (EXCEPT: Tue 12, Wed 13 and Fri 15, 8.30pm)
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 2 Mar)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 28 Feb)
Press Night Wednesday 27 February, 7pm
Post Show Talk Friday 1 March
Captioned Performance Wednesday 20 March, 7.45pm
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 2 Mar incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Press Night, Wednesday 10 April 2013, 7pm

Why no title?
“Because I want to write from passion, not obligation.
Because I want to write for the actors I’ve cast, not cast for the parts I’ve written.
Because I want to be stupid enough to do the wrong thing when it’s right.
Because risk is everything.
Because everything is changing.
Because I’m doing something else right now.
Because I want to surprise myself.
Because I want to surprise you.
That’s why.”
Anthony Neilson

Anthony Neilson’s play will be created in the rehearsal room with a cast of actors to be announced. Anthony Neilson’s work at the Royal Court includes Get Santa!, Relocated, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (winner Best Production in both the TMA and Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland), Heredity, The Lying Kind and The Censor, which won the Writers Guild and Time Out Award. His other work includes Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong Theatre), Stitching (The Traverse, The Bush – Time Out Off West End Award) and Normal (Edinburgh Festival). His films include The Debt Collector and Deeper Still.

A New Play written and directed by Anthony Neilson
Fri 5 April – Sat 4 May 2013
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS
Monday-Saturday 7.45pm
Saturday Matinees 3.30pm (from 13 April)
Thursday Matinees 3.30pm (from 11 April)
Press Night Wednesday 10 April, 7pm
Post Show Talk Tuesday 23 April
Captioned Performance Tuesday 30 April, 7.45pm
Tickets £20 Mondays all seats £10
Concessions £15* (available in advance until 13 April incl, and all matinees. For all other performances, available on a standby basis on the day)
School and HE Groups of 8+ £10 (avail. Tue-Fri and mats)
Access £12 (plus a companion at the same rate)
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability.

Rough Cuts
17-26 January 2013

Rough Cuts – a regular mini season of short plays, experimental readings and works in progress continue, taking over the Wilson rehearsal studio from 17-26 Jan, exploring our relationship to the internet.

Internet Shorts
directed by Charlotte Gwinner
Four new short plays by Alia Bano, DC Moore, Nick Payne and Penelope Skinner examining and exploring our relationship to the internet. With multiple platforms on which to share our thoughts and say what we think, what is freedom of speech on the internet?

17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Jan at 7pm in The Wilson Studio at the Royal Court
Tickets £8 (concessions £6)
Running time: approx one hour

Searched
A new work in progress by E.V. Crowe directed by Carrie Cracknell. Search technology has more power than anyone cares to notice. One worker is sent to remedy a glitch, that irrevocably changes her position within the new order.

23-26 Jan at 7pm in The Wilson Studio at the Royal Court
Tickets £8 (concessions £6)
Running time: approx 40 minutes

The Studio is supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.
Rough Cuts is supported by the Columbia Foundation Fund of the London Community Foundation.

 

Release issued by: Royal Court Theatre press office

LINKS

Royal Court website

Royal Court in the West End: Constellations at the Duke of York’s Theatre

 

Bruce Norris play Clybourne Park wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, which was staged at the Royal Court theatre last year and is currently playing at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London, has won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The prestigious award for drama was announced alongside the other prizes at a press conference today, 18 April 2011. The prizes will be awarded at a luncheon in late May in the Low Library on the Columbia University campus.

The Prize comes after the play has won every major Best Play award in the UK, including an Olivier Award, Evening Standard Theatre Award and South Bank Sky Arts Award.

The Pulitzer awards committee said that Clybourne Park was “a powerful work whose memorable characters speak in witty and perceptive ways to America’s sometimes toxic struggle with race and class consciousness.”

It beat nominated plays A Free Man of Color by John Guare and Detroit by Lisa D’Amour. Last year’s prize went to Broadway rock musical Next to Normal, with music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey.

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is awarded to a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life. The prize is $10,000.

Clybourne Park is running in London for a strictly limited season at the Wyndham’s Theatre, staring Sophie Thompson and Stephen Campbell Moore, and is directed by Dominic Cooke. Bruce Norris’s bitingly funny satire is about property and racial tensions in America. The first act is set in 1959, when a black family buys a house in a white Chicago suburb. Act two sees the actors take on different roles and the story reverse to the same house but in 2009. The modern-day neighbourhood is now predominantly black, and a white couple are trying to buy the same house.

LINKS

TICKETS: Book tickets to Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre
NEWS: More News on Clybourne Park
AWARDS: Pulitzer Prize for Drama – past winners
AWARDS: The Pulitzer Prize website

Best Play winner Clybourne Park: Save £11 on tickets

Save £11 on tickets to CLYBOURNE PARK at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

Valid Monday to Friday performances

Winner of just about every Best Play award going – including the Olivier Awards and Evening Standard Theatre Awards –  the Royal Court’s sell out, smash hit comedy is now on at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End – but only for a strictly limited season.

The critics hailed it as ‘Shockingly Entertaining’ and ‘Appallingly funny’ as this devastating satire explores the ever contentious themes of race and property ownership from two time periods – 1959 and 2009.

A terrific cast, including Sophie Thompson, Stephen Campbell Moore and Lorna Brown, star in Bruce Norris’s award-winning play directed by Dominic Cooke.

The Independent

The Telegraph

The Times

The Guardian

Save £11 on tickets to CLYBOURNE PARK at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

Valid Monday to Friday performances

LINKS

Book tickets to Clybourne Park
Reviews on Clybourne Park
More news on Clybourne Park

Olivier Awards: National, Legally Blonde

In a star-studded awards ceremony last night, Sunday 13 March, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, the Society of London Theatre held their 35th annual theatre awards ceremony.

Hosted by musicals star Michael Ball and actress Imelda Staunton, the awards celebrate the best of the year’s London theatre.

Big winners last night included the National Theatre, which swept up seven awards for two of its productions: Thea Sharrock’s revival of Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance, which won awards including best revival, best actress for Nancy Carroll and best actor in a supporting role for Adrian Scarborough; and its production of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard, including best director for Howard Davies and best set design for Bunny Christie.

In other subsidised venues the Royal Court picked up three awards, including best new play for Bruce Norris’s comedy Clybourne Park, which is now playing at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End, and two awards for the Donmar Warehouse, including David Thaxton picking up best actor in a musical for Passion.

Roger Allam won best actor for his performance as Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, beating stiff competition from Rory Kinnear, Derek Jacobi, David Suchet and Mark Rylance.

The most successful musical of the night was Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre, which picked up three major awards: best new musical, best actress in a musical for Sheridan Smith and best performance in a supporting role in a Musical for Jill Halfpenny.

Other musicals rewarded at the event included We Will Rock You, which won the Olivier Audience Award voted for by members of the theatregoing public, and the Open Air Theatre’s summer production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Stephen Sondheim was presented with an Olivier Special Award for his enormous contribution to theatre, with the award presented by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and legendary actress Angela Lansbury.

Big shows to miss out on awards this year included Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, which failed to pick up any awards despite seven nominations, and End of the Rainbow at the Trafalgar Studios, which was nominated for four awards including best actress for Tracie Bennett in her performance as Judy Garland.

Notable performances during the ceremony included a star turn by legendary American singer Barry Manilow, who also sang a duet with Wicked and Oliver! star Kerry Ellis; current and former stars of The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies – Ramin Karimloo, John Owen-Jones and Sierra Boggess; Emma Williams and Michael Xavier singing Everything We Know from Love Story; Alfie Boe, who is soon to star in Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre, singing Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific; Susan McFadden and the current cast of Legally Blonde; and Adrian Lester paying tribute to Stephen Sondheim by singing Being Alive from Company, along with Angela Lansbury singing a moving rendition of Liaisons from A Little Night Music and 400 students from national drama schools singing Our Time from Merrily We Roll Along.

LISTEN & WATCH AGAIN

BBC iPlayer – Radio 2 coverage

BBC iPlayer – BBC News

LINKS

Olivier Awards – list of winners

Olivier Awards microsite

Olivier Awards – news

Olivier Awards – Binkie Blog’s Picks and Pans

Clybourne Park – Reviews Round-up

Round-up of reviews for Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

A terrific cast, including Sophie Thompson, star in Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris’s award-winning play directed by Dominic Cooke, that gets a well-deserved transfer from the Royal Court into the West End.

This bitingly funny play about property and racial tensions in America sees the first act set in 1959, when a black family buys a house in a white Chicago suburb. Act two sees the actors take on different roles and the story reverse to the same house but in 2009. The modern-day neighbourhood is now predominantly black, and a white couple are trying to buy the same house.

The cast is singled out for special praise, particularly Sophie Thompson, Stuart McQuarrie, Sarah Goldberg, Stephen Campbell Moore, Lucian Msamati and Lorna Brown.

The play is shockingly funny and the critics loved it as much the second time round as the first. The play has been winning every Best Play gong going, including the Evening Standard awards, and is tipped to do well at next month’s Olivier Awards.

See reviews below from the Telegraph, Guardian, Times, Evening Standard and Independent.

Book tickets to Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

Clybourne Park scoops awards

Bruce Norris’s new play Clybourne Park, produced by the Royal Court last year and transferring to the Wyndham’s Theatre from 28 January, has scooped two major best new play awards.

In ceremonies held today in central London, the South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards both presented Clybourne Park with Best New Play gongs.

The Royal Court also picked up two more awards from the Critics’ Circle, both mirroring their wins at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards last year: the Most Promising Playwright Award for Anya Reiss’s Spur of the Moment and Daniel Kaluuya for most promising newcomer for Sucker Punch.

The National, RSC and Donmar Warehouse also did well from the Critics’ Circle awards with Michael Grandage and Thea Sharrock  jointly awarded best director for King Lear at the Donmar and After the Dance at the National respectively.

Other winners included theatre veterans David Suchet receiving a best actor award for All My Sons at the Apollo and Derek Jacobi a best Shakespearean performance award for King Lear at the Donmar. Best musical went to the RSC’s Matilda The Musical based on Roald Dahl’s popular children’s book and best actress was awarded to Jenny Jules for her performance in Ruined at the Almeida.

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards led by Melvyn Bragg, the first to be presented by the Sky Arts channel following ITV’s axing of Bragg’s South Bank Show last year, saw Dame Judi Dench awarded the Outstanding Achievement award. Alongside Clybourne Park’s win, best opera production was awarded to Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg from Welsh National Opera and best dance was Akram Khan’s Gnosis at Sadler’s Wells.

LINKS

Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2010 – full list of winners

South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2011 – full list of winners

BOOK

Book tickets to Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London

Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards – Winners 2010

Awards announced: 25 January 2011, Prince of Wales Theatre London

Best New Play:
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
Presented by Kate Bassett

The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical (new or revival):
Matilda, A Musical
Presented by Matt Wolf

Best Actor:
David Suchet in All My Sons
Presented by Charles Spencer

Best Actress:
Jenny Jules in Ruined
Presented by Jane Edwardes

The John and Wendy Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance:
Derek Jacobi in King Lear
Presented by Michael Billington

Best Director:
Awarded jointly to: Michael Grandage for King Lear
Presented by Georgina Brown
&
Thea Sharrock for After the Dance
Presented by Claire Allfree

Best Designer: Bunny Christie for The White Guard
Presented by Paul Taylor

Most Promising Playwright:
Anya Reiss for Spur of the Moment
Presented by Ian Shuttleworth

The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer (other than a playwright):
Daniel Kaluuya for Sucker Punch
Presented by Henry Hitchings

New this week: The Children’s Hour

New shows coming to London this week include The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre starring Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss; the Royal Court’s award-winning Clybourne Park to the Wyndham’s Theatre; and Will & Grace star Leslie Jordan in his Trip Down the Pink Carpet.

The Children’s Hour

Lillian Hellman’s classic, controversial play started previews at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday (22 January 2011), with an official opening night on 9 February.

The play is generating much interest but more because of the casting than the subject matter: when the play premiered in 1934 it was swiftly banned in London and Boston for its story of two school mistresses accused of being lesbian lovers by a school girl. Rather, this new production directed by Ian Rickson at the Comedy Theatre is in the papers for its starry casting. Hollywood actress Keira Knightley is back in the venue after her 2009  run in The Misanthrope, and is joined by Elisabeth Moss, aka Peggy from Mad Men, as well as Oscar winning actress Ellen Burstyn.

Ex-Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson will direct The Children’s Hour, following his huge hit with Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem in 2009.

Book tickets to The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre

Leslie Jordan – My Trip Down The Pink Carpet

Hilarious American actor Leslie Jordan brings his outrageous show to London. Best known for his role in Will & Grace, Jordan tells an entertaining collection of true life stories from small-town USA to the pink carpet of Hollywood.

Self-styled as “the gayest man I know”, Leslie Jordan reveals his childhood agonies, dangerous temptations, and revealing celebrity encounters — from Boy George to George Clooney — in his laugh-out-loud show about Hollywood, fame, addiction, gay culture, and learning to love oneself.

Special offer: Save £18.50 on tickets to Leslie Jordan – My Trip Down The Pink Carpet at the Apollo Theatre

Clybourne Park

The Royal Court brings its Evening Standard award-winning play Clybourne Park into the West End for a limited run.

Bruce Norris’ satirical comedy transfers to the Wyndham’s Theatre from 28 January staring Sophie Thompson and Stephen Campbell Moore, and is directed by Dominic Cooke.

Bruce Norris’s hilarious satire explores the fault line between the worlds of race and property, contrasting late 50′s Chicago to the present day.

Book tickets to Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre

COMING SOON

IN ONE WEEK…

Frankenstein starts previews at the National starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller (from 5 February). Lee Mead waves goodbye to Wicked at the Apollo Victoria (5 February).

IN TWO WEEKS…

Shoes the Musical – the hugely successful Sadler’s Wells show – is West End bound at the Peacock Theatre from 8 February. The Children’s Hour gets its official opening night at the Comedy Theatre on 9 February. And The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee starts previews as the Donmar Warehouse from 11 February.

Campbell Moore joins Clybourne Park

Jason Watkins drops out of Clybourne Park; Stephen Campbell Moore to take over

The Royal Court’s West End transfer of hit play Clybourne Park will now star Stephen Campbell Moore, alongside original cast member Sophie Thompson, when it opens at the Wyndham’s Theatre on 8 February.

Jason Watkins was originally cast in the show playing the dual role of Karl and Steve, but has had to drop out of the production due to a family tragedy. The part was originated by Martin Freeman at the Royal Court last year.

Campbell Moore recently starred alongside David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker in All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre and has also appeared in The History Boys. Film work includes the movie of The History Boys and A Good Woman with Scarlett Johanssen.

Recent winner of best play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Bruce Norris’ play is directed by Dominic Cooke, and stars Stephen Campbell Moore and Sophie Thompson alongside Stuart McQuarrie, Lorna Brown, Sarah Goldberg, Michael Goldsmith, Lucian Msamati and Sam Spruell.

Book tickets to Clybourne Park at the Wyndham’s Theatre

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