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William M. Hoffman's AS IS Opens at Finborough Theatre Tonight

By: Aug. 06, 2013
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The first London production since the 1987 UK premiere of William M. Hoffman's As Is opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season tonight, 6 August 2013 directed by Andrew Keates.

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New York City, 1985.

Rich, a young writer who is beginning to find success, is breaking up with his longtime lover, Saul, a professional photographer. However Rich's idyll with his new lover is short-lived when he learns that he has contracted the terrifying new disease AIDS and returns to Saul for sanctuary as he awaits its slow and awful progress.

In a mosaic of brilliantly conceived short scenes, some profoundly moving, some brightly humorous, As Is captures the pathos of Rich's relationship with friends and family, the cold impersonality of the doctors and nurses who care for him and the widely diverse aspects of New York's gay community. A heartbreaking and unsparing examination of a deeply felt human relationship shattered by a mindless, destructive disease.

Blending humour, poignance and brilliant theatricality, As Is was a revolutionary and groundbreaking play of its time, and is still sadly urgently relevant as the number of gay and bisexual men being diagnosed with HIV in the UK reached an "all-time high" in 2011, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

As Is was the winner of the Obie and Drama Desk Awards, one of Time Magazine's 'Best Plays of the Year' and nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. It was originally produced by The Circle Repertory Company Off-Broadway in 1985, and subsequently transferred to Broadway. It was televised in 1986, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It now receives its first London production since the 1987 UK premiere at the Half Moon Theatre.

The cast of As Is includes Tom Colley as Rich, who recently finished playing Galileo in both The Hampstead Theatre and West End productions of The Judas Kiss, and David Poynor, best known for playing Lockwood in The National Theatre, Wyndham's Theatre and touring productions of The History Boys. Other cast members include Jordan Bernarde (Roland in Da Vinci's Demons), John Hastings (Can I Be Straight With You - Theatre503), Tom Kay (A Woman Killed With Kindness - National Theatre), Clare Kissane (The New Statesman at Trafalgar Studios, and New Boy for which she won Best Actress at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival), Paul Standell (Vieux Carré - Kings Head and Charing Cross Theatre) and Anna Tierney (Tull - Octagon Theatre, Bolton).

Playwright William M. Hoffman is the author of As Is, which earned him a Drama Desk Award in 1986, an Obie, as well as Tony and Pulitzer nominations for best play. He also wrote the libretto to The Ghosts of Versailles (music by John Corigliano), which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1991, played there again in 1996. Hoffman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment Awards, ASCAP and Fund for New American Plays awards, two grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Erwin Piscator Award. In 1992 his television work brought him an Emmy nomination and he received a Writers Guild award. Hoffman has written critically for theNew York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, and Vogue. In 2001 he premiered a masque, The Cows of Apollo, with composer Chris Theofanidis, at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. This year he completed the libretto for Morning Star, for the Cincinnati Opera. Other works include Chico de Jazzzz, Cyberian Nights, The Stench of Art, and an adaptation of Carlo Gozzi's Blue Monster, and Cornbury: The Queen's Governor). Hoffman is the host and Artistic Director of Conversations With William M. Hoffman, seen on CUNY-TV. He is Professor of Theatre at Lehman College and is currently completing Memoirs of an Ex-Boy.

Multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates will be directing his third production at the Finborough Theatre following ROOMS - A Rock Romance, and last year's sell-out production of Passing By by Martin Sherman. Most recently, he directed and developed the award-winning professional world premiere of A Winter's Tale, written by Howard Goodall, Nick Stimson and himself. Andrew first came to attention after his acclaimed production of Bent in 2010 at the Landor Theatre, which then transferred to the Tabard Theatre for a further run. Recent productions include The Thing About Men and The Hired Man (both at the Landor Theatre), Conjugal Rites (Courtyard Theatre) and Just So (Tabard Theatre). His work has received many award nominations, including Best Director for Bent, Best Director for Just So, Best Entertainment for Just So and most recently, winning Best New Musical for A Winter's Tale and Best Musical Production forThe Hired Man in the OffWestEnd Awards. Andrew is the founder and artistic director of Arion Productions Ltd.

Arion Productions Ltd
Arion Productions Ltd was formed in 2012 with the primary goal of presenting theatrical pieces based on artistic merit alone, whilst encouraging the development of new creative/production professionals. At the Finborough Theatre, Arion previously produced a sell-out run of Martin Sherman's Passing By in 2012 and the European Premiere ofROOMS: a rock romance (2013). Other work includes the professional world premiere of Howard Goodall's A Winter's Tale - A New British Musical at the Landor Theatre.

The Cast
Jordan Bernarde | Brother and other roles.
Trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes Dick Whittington (Torch Theatre, Milford Haven), The Passion, Little Dogs (Frantic Assembly and National Theatre Wales), No Word of a Lie (National Theatre Wales), Measure for Measure and Two Princes (Clwyd Theatr Cymru),The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Sea Plays (The Old Vic Tunnels), Fragments of Ash (Edinburgh Festival), Flyboys and Muscle (Tour), Romeo and Juliet (Italian Tour) and Blasted/Saved (Tour for Volcano Theatre Company).
Film includes The Gospel of Us and Clobber.
Television includes Da Vinci's Demons, Passion in Port Talbot..., It Has Begun and First Light.
Radio includes Pink Mist, Past Master and Sherlock Holmes.

Tom Colley | Rich.
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre includes The Judas Kiss (Hampstead Theatre and Duke of York's Theatre),Othello's Revenge, Ajax and Hippolytus (Tour for Altitude North Theatre Company) andThe Wind In The Willows (Theatre503).
Film includes The Silver Goat and Salting the Battlefields
Television includes Call The Midwife, The Science of Attraction and My Spy Family.

John Hastings | Marty and other roles.
Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes Can I Be Straight With You? (Theatre Renegade at the Bush Theatre),Polythene (Theatre503), Macbeth (Tour for Young Shakespeare Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Italian Tour), Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest(Tour).
Film includes Love Me Do.

Tom Kay | Chet and other roles.
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Theatre includes A Woman Killed With Kindness (National Theatre), The Tempest andThe Taming of the Shrew (Tour).

Clare Kissane | Hospice Worker and other roles.
Theatre includes The New Statesman (Trafalgar Studios), Mountain Language (Royal Court Theatre), The Little Dog Laughed, New Boy and The Bird Sanctuary (Project Arts Theatre, Dublin), The Tempest (English Shakespeare Company), Everyman - An Immorality Play (Riverside Studios), Stand Up and Be Counted (Tour), The Bird Sanctuary (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Wake Up And Smell The Coffee (New End Theatre), New Boy and Ines De Castro (Greenwich Playhouse), A Slight Accident(European Tour), Newsrevue (Canal Café Theatre), The Maids (Moscow Art Theatre) and The Taming of the Shrew (Wakefield Opera House).
Film includes Killing Me Softly and Parks.
Television includes The Tunnel, That's English, EastEnders, This Week and The Last La Rue.

David Poynor | Saul.
Trained at Drama Centre.
Theatre includes The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Peter Pan (US Tour and Kensington Gardens), Touched (Salisbury Playhouse), The History Boys (National Theatre, National Tour and Wyndham's Theatre) and Cause Celebre (Criterion Theatre, Coventry).
Film includes Missing.
Television includes Doctors and Brum.

Paul Standell | Pat and other roles.
Trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes Mysterious Skin (The Drill Hall) and Vieux Carre (King's Head Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre).

Anna Tierney | Lily and other roles.
Trained at Drama Centre.
Theatre includes After The Rainfall (Tour for Curious Directive), Tull (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Promise (Rosemary Branch Theatre), Old Earth (Jericho House), Without External Ignition (Theatre503), Brightest and Best (Half Moon Theatre), Blast and King Lear (Iris Theatre Company, St Paul's Church, Covent Garden), Married Sex (Etcetera Theatre), Cure for a Cuckold (Wanamaker Festival, Shakespeare's Globe) and Romeo and Juliet (Japan Tour).
Film includes Me Without You.

The New York press on the original production of As Is
"Wonderful....frightening....remarkable....Broadway's most moving and immediate experience. William M. Hoffman's writing is stiletto sharp." New York Post
"Death-defyingly humorous" New York Times
"Devastating and unforgettable.....the best play I've seen in ages" New York Daily News

The press on director Andrew Keates
"Andrew Keates directs with exemplary sensitivity and skill" Mark Shenton, The Stage
"Immaculately directed by Keates" Mark Shenton, The Stage
"Andrew Keates direction is elegant and precise...powerfully directed with skill" Georgia Blake, WhatsOnStage
"I've no idea how Andrew Keates gets so much action in such a little space and assembles, a cast of such fine actors" Melvyn Bragg

PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY, 8 AUGUST 2013 AT 7.30PM
PHOTOCALL: TUESDAY, 6 AUGUST 2013 AT 1.00PM-1.30PM

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk



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