HINT OF LIME PRODUCTIONS, in association with The King's Head Theatre, presents MRS ROOSEVELT FLIES TO LONDON. Written and performed by ALISON SKILBECK, directed by LUCY SKILBECK. The show runs April 14 to May 9 at The King's Head Theatre. Press night April 15 at 7.00pm.
In October 1942,
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the President, takes a dangerous trip to war-time London, to visit US troops, and see how the British, most importantly the women, are coping. In her last days, as the Cuban Missile Crisis pushes the world to the brink of final catastrophe, Eleanor relives her journey, from bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace to midnight factories. She also recalls her life, from unhappy child, to unconventional wife, to becoming, in President Truman's words 'First Lady of the World'.
Coinciding with both the seventieth anniversary of the death of Franklin D Roosevelt on April 12 and the seventieth anniversary of VE Day on May 8, Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London explores the public, and hidden life of one of the most extraordinary women of the 20th century, a woman beset by deep personal insecurities and tragedy, but one who never lost her passionate belief in the strength of the human spirit. Granted special permission to use Eleanor's writings, Alison Skilbeck's new one-woman show is a revelatory portrait of the woman who fought tirelessly for the rights of the underprivileged and did so much to shape the role of the First Lady in the post war era and beyond.
Alison Skilbeck's long and busy career includes London's West End and Fringe, theatre all over the UK, and many tours of Europe, the US and beyond. She began acting at Oxford University, where she read Modern Languages. Career highlights include: spending five years with
Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough, where she created roles in many of his plays; touring Shakespeare all over the USA with Actors From The London Stage as one of five actors playing all the roles, in As You Like It and A Winter's Tale; playing
Harold Pinter in Morocco,
John Dryden in Spain, and
Vaclav Havel in Hong Kong. For Greenwich Theatre, she was in the British premieres of The Dining Room, and The Perfect Party, by A .R .Gurney Jr. For the Godot Company, she performed in
Samuel Beckett's Play, and the solo monologue Enough. She played Enid Blyton in
Michael Frayn's Balmoral for the
Peter Hall Company. Alison has also appeared in numerous television dramas as well as taking on Polly Perks in Radio 4's The Archers. Her critically acclaimed solo show Are There More of You? received 4 and 5 star reviews and toured throughout the UK and Ireland.
Lucy Skilbeck (no relation to Alison) has worked in the West End, on Broadway, the National Theatre, off-West End, London's Fringe and many drama schools as well as directing in the USA and Australia. She is now Director of Actor Training at RADA.
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