Video: First Look at Scenes from the Canadian Premiere of MY NIGHT WITH REG

David Mirvish is delighted to present the Studio 180 Theatre production of MY NIGHT WITH REG, by Kevin Elyot, directed by Joel Greenberg. MY NIGHT WITH REG plays February 10 to 26 at the Panasonic Theatre.

The story begins in the summer of 1985. Old friends and new gather to party through the night. What they don't realize is that their world is about to change forever.

MY NIGHT WITH REG originally premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 1994. It received critical and popular acclaim, immediately recognized as having captured a pivotal moment in the life of a community at the edge of a precipice. It transferred to the West End for a very successful season and won that year's Olivier Award for Best Comedy. It was revived by the Donmar Warehouse in 2015, again receiving raves from the critics and playing to sold-out houses. The revival also transferred to the West End for another successful season.

Despite, the play's status as a classic of contemporary British drama, it has not often been produced in North America. This Studio 180 Theatre production is the play's professional Canadian premiere.
The Story

Critic Charles Spencer in THE TELEGRAPH in his review of the 2015 revival describes the action of the play best, so we defer to him:

"The action is set at the new London flat of the house-proud Guy who, at the beginning of the play, has invited two of his former university friends, now in their mid-thirties, to a housewarming party. He has always held a torch for John, a rich, languid public school type, but poor Guy but has lived a life of almost complete chastity. The play is set in the mid-Eighties when anxiety about AIDS was at its peak. The one person you would put money on not getting infected is Guy. As one of his friends puts it, he is so fastidious that he even wears Marigold-brand gloves when masturbating.

Needless to say Guy's hopes of romance come to nothing, for John has just begun an affair with Reg, the long-term partner of his best friend Daniel, the other guest at the housewarming bash.

One of the play's great counterintuitive strengths is that we never actually meet Reg, but just hear about his sexual adventures with a host of partners. Indeed almost everyone in the play, it transpires, has slept with this lothario with the exception of the unhappily celibate Guy.

I don't want to give too much away, as surprise is of the essence here, but the drama's four-year time span is structured with formidable skill, and turns on a sixpence between laughter and piercing moments of deeper feeling. At Guy's London flat, old friends and new gather to party through the night. This is the summer of 1985, and for Guy and his circle the world is about to change forever. Deliciously funny and bittersweet, MY NIGHT WITH REG captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself."

MY NIGHT WITH REG is directed by Joel Greenberg and stars Tim Funnell, Alex Furber, Martin Happer, Jeff Miller, Gray Powell, Jonathan Wilson with lighting design is by Kimberly Purcell, set & costume design by John Thompson and sound design by Garth Helm.

ABOUT THE CAST:
Tim Funnell - Bernie

For Studio 180: Debut

Elsewhere: Grey Gardens, Reframed (Acting Up Stage); Anything Goes (Drayton Entertainment); Life After (Life After Collective); The Nether, The Big Sleep, And Then There Were None (Theatre Aquarius); City of Angels (Theatre by the Bay); Dee Snider's Rock and Roll Christmas Tale (Starvox Entertainment); Colours in the Storm (Grand Theatre London, Spring 2017). UK/West End: Tonight's the Night -The Rod Stewart Musical; Billy Elliott the Musical (West End and US/Canadian tour); An Inspector Calls, Twelfth Night, She Stoops to Conquer/ALaughing Matter (National Theatre). TV: Lawmen (American Heroes), Camp X (Yap Films), See No Evil (Discovery Channel), Handsome Devils (Slice TV), Think You Can Shrink? (Web Series), Treasures Decoded (History Channel). Training: The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Tim would like to thank everyone at Studio 180 and Mirvish Productions for inviting him to be part of this wonderful piece. Twitter: @timfunnell

Alex Furber - Eric

For Studio 180: Debut

Other credits include Albert Narracott in Warhorse (Mirvish Productions); Brighton Beach Memoirs, Marathon of Hope (Drayton); Jitters (Soulpepper); Gilbert Blythe in Anne & Gilbert (National Arts Centre); Red (Sudbury Theatre Centre); Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Macbeth (Shakespeare Bash'd); Lion in Winter, The Rainmaker (Watermark); Romeo and Juliet (Theatre New Brunswick); Taming of the Shrew (Theatre By The Bay); Romeo and Juliet (Resurgence). Film/TV: Reign, Murdoch Mysteries, Mayday, Flashpoint, The Conspiracy. Alex graduated from The National Theatre School of Canada. Twitter: @alexfurber

MARTIN HAPPER - Benny

For Studio 180: The Normal Heart

Most recently: Engaged and A Woman of No Importance(Shaw Festival). In Toronto: Arcadia (Shaw/Mirvish), The Happy Woman (Nightwood), Theory (SummerWorks) and A Boy Called Newfoundland (TheatreSmash). Elsewhere: Eleven seasons at Shaw, including Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher, world premiere of Michel Marc Bouchard's The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt, Arcadia, Lady Windermere's Fan, and tours of Belle Moral (National Arts Centre) and Saint Joan (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); One Man Two Guvnors, The 39 Steps, Age of Arousal (Arts Club); Clybourne Park (Sterling Nomination - Citadel Theatre); The 39 Steps (Chemainus Theatre Festival); Thy Neighbour's Wife (Theatre NorthWest); Canadian premiere of Vincent in Brixton (Theatre Network); two seasons with Free Will Shakespeare Festival. TV: Mayday, Murdoch Mysteries, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, The Eleventh Hour, Breaker High. Upcoming: Dracula and The Madness of George III (Shaw).

Jeff Miller - Daniel

For Studio 180: Cock, The Normal Heart, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, The Laramie Project

Other theatre includes Hana's Suitcase, To Kill a Mockingbird, Reading the Signs, Liars (Young People's Theatre); Same Time Next Year, Half-Life, Rabbit Hole, Leading Ladies (Sudbury Theatre Centre); Steven Gallagher?s Craplicker (Toronto Fringe 2010); Mike McPhaden?s Poochwater, Sean Reycraft?s One Good Marriage (Theatre Passe Muraille); King Lear (Walking Shadow Theatre); Stones in His Pockets, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Rumors, The Petrified Forest, Moon Over Buffalo (Nipissing Stage); Communicating Doors (Magnus Theatre); The Othello Project (Florida Shakespeare Theater); Love! Valour! Compassion!, Twilight of the Golds (Boston Speakeasy Theater); and The Lisbon Traviata (Boston Triangle Theater). TV credits include roles on Good Witch, The Strain, Man Seeking Woman and Queer as Folk.

Gray Powell - John

For Studio 180: Debut
Selected credits: Arcadia (Mirvish Productions); Engaged, Mrs. Warren's Profession, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide..., You Never Can Tell, Arcadia, Cabaret, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hedda Gabler, Born Yesterday, The Circle (Shaw Festival); The 39 Steps (Lyndesfarne Theatre); This Lime Tree Bower (Cart/Horse Theatre); Other People's Children (Theatre Panik); The Pitman Painters (Theatre Aquarius); Hamlet Project (Necessary Angel); Festen (Company Theatre). Film/TV: ARQ (Netflix), Murdoch Mysteries (CBC), King (Showcase), Train 48 (Global), Fugitive Pieces (Serendipity Point Films), Hollywoodland (Focus Features/Miramax), Kaw (Kaw Productions). Gray is returning for Shaw's 2017 season in Saint Joan and Middletown.

Jonathan Wilson - Guy

For Studio 180: Love, Dishonour, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish; The Normal Heart

Past theatre work includes the Canadian premiere of The Lion King (Dora Award - The Princess of Wales Theatre) and performances in his own play My Own Private Oshawa (Dora/Chalmers Nomination - Tarragon Theatre, New Yorker Theatre). Jonathan was also a writer and performer with The Second City for six shows (Dora Nomination). Other theatre credits include The Drowsy Chaperone, Moonlight and Magnolias (Sudbury Theatre Centre); The Clockmaker (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Possible Worlds, The Duchess (Theatre Passe Muraille); Not To Be Repeated, Medici Slot Machine (Tarragon Extra Space); Cinderella (The Elgin Theatre); This Could Be Love (The Poor Alex); and Annie Get Your Gun (Massey Hall). Jonathan was also writer in residence at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where he wrote the play Kilt (Dora/New York Drama Desk nominations), which has had over 20 productions around the world. TV and film credits include Not To Be Repeated (CTV/The Comedy Network), My Own Private Oshawa (Gemini Nomination - CTV), Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (Pax Network/CTV), Murdoch Mysteries (CityTV), This Is Wonderland (CBC), Life With Derek (Family) and Monk (USA Network), as well as hundreds of voices for animated series including Skatoony, Iggy Arbuckle (Gemini Nomination), Pearlie and Little Bear.

Kevin Elyot - Playwright

Born in Birmingham in 1951, and educated there at King Edward's School and then at Bristol University, Kevin Elyot was an actor before becoming a writer. He won the Samuel Beckett Award for his first play, Coming Clean (1982), staged by the Bush Theatre, London. Subsequent stage work includes a version of Ostrovsky's Artists and Admirers (RSC, 1992), My NightWith Reg (Royal Court Theatre, 1994), which was hailed as "a play of genius" by the Daily Mail, won the Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Comedy and ran for almost a year in the West End, The Day I Stood Still (National Theatre, 1998), Mouth to Mouth (Royal Court, 2001), which also transferred to the West End, and Forty Winks (Royal Court, 2004). Kevin's screenplays include: Killing Time (BBC, 1990), which won the Writers' Guild Award for Best TV Play or Film; an adaptation of The Moonstone (BBC, 1996); the film version of My Night With Reg (BBC, 1997); No Night Is Too Long (2002) adapted from the novel by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) for BBC Films/Alliance. He has adapted six of Agatha Christie's Marple novels as well as three of her Poirot novels, including the show's final episode Curtain. Also 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (BBC, 2005) adapted from the novel by PatRick Hamilton; Riot at the Rite (2005) for the BBC; Clapham Junction (2007), a film for Darlow Smithson and Channel 4, starring Rupert Graves, Paul Nicholls and Luke Treadway; and Christopher and His Kind (Mammoth Screen/BBC, 2011) based on Christopher Isherwood's novel, starring Matt Smith, Lindsay Duncan, Imogen Poots and Toby Jones. He died in June 2014 shortly before the Donmar Warehouse revival of My Night With Reg.

JOEL GREENBERG - Director

For Studio 180: You Will Remember Me, NSFW, Cock, God of Carnage, Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart, Our Class, Parade (director and choreographer), The Overwhelming, Stuff Happens, Blackbird, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, The Laramie Project, The Passion of the Chris. As performer - Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish. Co-founder and Artistic Director.

Other theatre credits include: As director - The Underdogs, What the Butler Saw (Just For Laughs, Montreal); Taking Sides (Centaur Theatre); The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me aTenor, You Can't Take It with You, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Theatre Aquarius); Vanities (The Grand Theatre). As director and choreographer - Ain't Misbehavin' (Dora Award); Forbidden Broadway (Dora Nomination); Bells Are Ringing (Grand); The Golden Land, The Rothschilds (Winnipeg Jewish Theatre). As choreographer - seven productions with Second City in Toronto and Chicago; She Loves Me (Grand). As playwright and director - Drink the Mercury (Dora Award) and The Nuclear Power Show (Chalmers Playwriting Award) for YPT.

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