Finborough Theatre Presents ACCOLADE From Feb 2

The first ever revival of the controversial play by Emlyn Williams plays for a limited four week season from Tuesday, 1 February 2011 (Press Nights: Thursday 3 and Friday, 4 February 2011 at 7.30pm) at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre as part of RediscoveriesUK, a three month season of rediscovered plays by writers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Will Trenting, famous for his scandalous novels, is about to be knighted - an accolade which will welcome him to the establishment. But Will has been leading a double life and the award turns a spotlight on it. Tales surface of drunken parties, orgies and rough trade, and on the eve of his knighthood Will is accused of a shocking crime. Threatened with blackmail, Will has to decide where his priorities lie. Darkly comic and shocking, Accolade blows the lid off British hypocrisy.

"Williams, a Welsh wizard and a sexual pioneer, is long overdue for public revival...If any dramatist of the post-war period came close to breaking the coded secrecy that surrounded homosexuality, it was Emlyn Williams in a now-forgotten but astonishing play, Accolade" - Michael Billington in his book State of the Nation

Accolade opened at the Aldwych Theatre on 7 September 1950, with Williams himself playing Will Trenting. This will be the first revival since the original production.

Playwright Emlyn Williams, ‘the Welsh Noël Coward', was one of the most successful writers of the 1930s and 1940s. Williams (1905-1987) combined a dazzling commercial instinct with daring, edgy writing that pushed the boundaries of acceptable theatre. His numerous plays include A Murder Has Been Arranged, The Late Christopher Bean, Spring 1600, Someone Waiting, The Morning Star, The Wind of Heaven, The Light Of Heart and Trespass. Williams' greatest works, Night Must Fall and The Corn Is Green , were made into films starring Albert Finney, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. He also worked with Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed as a screenwriter. Productions of his work starred Ethel Barrymore and Gregory Peck, and more recently Ian McKellen, Deborah Kerr, Mathew Broderick and Jason Donovan. Williams' autobiographical comedy The Druid's Rest launched the career of Richard Burton, and was revived for a sell-out Sunday and Monday run at the Finborough Theatre in 2009. Williams' appearances as an actor included Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn and Alexander Korda's unfinished I, Claudius in which he played Caligula to Charles Laughton's Claudius. A lifelong bisexual who came ‘out' ahead of most of his contemporaries, Williams balanced his marriage and family life with a series of flings. The stresses of leading a double life are explored in Accolade. For many years, Williams lived at Dovehouse Street in Chelsea, a short walk from the Finborough Theatre.

Director Blanche McIntyre was the first winner of the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Theatre Directors for which she became Director in Residence at the National Theatre Studio and the Finborough Theatre in 2009. She is currently Associate Director at Out Of Joint. Her last production at the Finborough Theatre, Bulgakov's Molière or the League of Hypocrites, received four stars and was Critics' Choice in The Guardian. Other directing includes Green, and Rock Paper Scissors as part of Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights (Finborough Theatre), Birds (Southwark Playhouse), Three Hours After Marriage (Union Theatre), The Revenger's Tragedy (BAC), Wuthering Heights (National Tour), Dirt (National Theatre Studio), A Model For Mankind (Cock Tavern), The Master and Margarita (Greenwich Playhouse), Doctor Faustus, The Devil Is An Ass (White Bear Theatre), Cressida, The Invention of Love (Edinburgh Fringe); Prometheus Bound (Burton Taylor Theatre). Film includes Lost Hearts. Blanche is a long-term Associate Director for Changeling Theatre Company where she has worked on The Taming Of The Shrew, The Beggar's Opera , Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Assistant direction includes A Dish Of Tea With Dr Johnson (Out of Joint), Can't Pay? Won't Pay! and Meetings (Arcola Theatre), Aladdin (Oxford Playhouse) and Charlie and Henry (New End Theatre).

Patrick Brennan's credits include Henry IV Part 1 and 2, Antony and Cleopatra, In Extremis, Measure for Measure, Edward II, Richard II, Twelfth Night, Macbeth (all at Shakespeare's Globe), Oedipus, The Reporter (National Theatre), The Promise (Orange Tree Theatre), Rainman (National Tour), Electricity (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Shadow of a Gunman (Tricycle Theatre), Snowbound (Trafalgar Studios) and Guys and Dolls (Donmar at the Piccadilly Theatre).

Olivia Darnley's credits include The Rat Trap at the Finborough Theatre, All My Sons (Apollo Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Macbeth (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), As You Like It (Sheffield Crucible), Hay Fever (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Northanger Abbey (Theatre Royal York) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Royal Bath).

Simon Darwen's credits include Fanny and Faggot at the Finborough Theatre and Trafalgar Studios, Love Love Love (Paines Plough National Tour), The Taming of the Shrew (Royal Shakespeare Company Novello Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company), Séance (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company), Playlist (Theatre 503 and Latitude), Shove (Theatre 503) and Playtime (Hampstead Theatre).

Alan Francis's credits include Caledonia and The Wonderful World of Dissocia (National Theatre of Scotland), Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Hotel Play (Royal Court), The Wages of Thin (Old Red Lion), Three Men in a Boat (Theatre Royal York), The Winter's Tale (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh). Television includes Psychoville, Pulling and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression.

Aden Gillett's extensive stage credits include The Little Hut (National Tour), The Price (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh), Amongst Friends (Hampstead Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Bath Theatre Royal), Blithe Spirit (Savoy Theatre and National Tour), Betrayal (Duchess Theatre and National Tour), Design for Living (Theatre Royal Bath), Benefactors (Albery Theatre), Noises Off (Royal National Theatre), Mary Poppins (National Tour) and An Inspector Calls (Broadway). Television includes Midsomer Murders, The Queen's Sister, The Impressionists, Ivanhoe and The House of Eliott; film includes Shadow of the Vampire, The Winslow Boy, The Borrowers and Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.

Emma Jerrold's credits include Moliere at the Finborough Theatre, as well as Macbeth (National Theatre), Like One of Us (The Gate), Miss Julie and When We Are Married (Bristol Old Vic), Party Piece (Windsor Theatre) and Speed-Dating (Jermyn Street Theatre). Television credits include EastEnders and Bad Girls.

Patrick Osborne is a recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was nominated for the annual Spotlight Prize as the best actor from his graduating year in 2010. He has recently appeared in The Soldier's Tale (Barbican). Television credits include My Parents are Aliens.

Graham Seed's credits include Too True To Be Good at the Finborough Theatre. Further stage credits include: Me and My Girl (West End), Design For Living (English Touring Theatre), The Skin Game (Orange Tree Theatre), Confusions (National Tour), A Chaste Maid of Cheapside (Almeida Theatre on Tour) and Journey's End (National Tour). TV and film credits include Wild Target, Midsomer Murders, Band of Brothers, Victoria Wood As Seen on TV, Dinner Ladies, Brideshead Revisited, I Claudius, Gandhi, and on radio, Nigel Pargetter in The Archers.

Saskia Wickham's stage credits include The David Hare Trilogy (National Theatre) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Savoy Theatre). Television credits include Erica Matthews in Peak Practice, Clarissa in Clarissa and DCI Louise Hogg in Blue Murder, The Last Van Helsing, Judge John Deed and Waking the Dead.

The Press on Blanche McIntyre's production of Molière, or The League of Hypocrites at the Finborough Theatre
**** Four Stars The Guardian and The Guardian Critics' Choice
"Michael Glenny's new translation and Blanche McIntyre's production never let us forget that what we are watching is a form of political masquerade... McIntyre's production conveys admirably Bulgakov's mix of satire and seriousness" Michael Billington, The Guardian
"The joy of Blanche McIntyre's richly inhabited production is how well it plays out as theatre today. Bulgakov's 1929 play is full of wonderful theatrical surprises and... McIntyre's cast of ten ably bring its rich canvas of characters into close-up focus" Mark Shenton, The Stage

PRESS NIGHTS: THURSDAY 3 AND FRIDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2011 AT 7.30PM
PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2011 AT 1.00PM-1.30PM

Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Tuesday, 1 February - Saturday, 26 February 2011
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday matinees at 3.00pm (from 12 February 2011). Sunday matinees at 3.00pm.
Prices for Weeks One and Two (1-13 February 2011) - Tickets £15, £11 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £15 all seats. Previews (1 and 2 February) £11 all seats.
£5 tickets for Under 30's for performances from Tuesday to Sunday of the first week when booked online only.
£10 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on the first Saturday of the run when booked online.
Prices for Weeks Three and Four (15-26 February 2011) - Tickets £18, £15 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.
Performance Length: Approximately two hours 15 minutes with one interval.

Nicola Seed has been awarded a Stage One Bursary for New Producers 2010-2011. To find out more information about Stage One and its development programmes, please contact enquiries@stageone.uk.com

 

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