Atlantic Screen Productions Brings A VICTORIAN EYE to Jermyn Street Theatre, Now thru Aug 17
By: BWW News Desk Jul. 30, 2013
Atlantic Screen Productions presents the world premiere of A VICTORIAN EYE by Rory Fellowes. Directed by Maureen Payne-Hahner, the show features designer Tim Dann, lighting designer David W. Kidd, costume designer Lyn Avery. Starring Nigel Dunbar as Sir William Blake Richmond R.A. Produced by Tim Hollier, the show runs today, 30 July to 17 August Jermyn Street Theatre. Press Night 31 July 7.30pm.
During the late years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, Sir William Blake Richmond R.A. was one of the leading English artists of his day. Famed for his pictures of all the prominent families of Britain including the Royal Family, he was lauded as one of the finest portrait painters of his generation. Even now, there are few, if any, great houses that do not have at least one of his paintings on their walls. He was also the chosen artist to paint many eminent men and women of his era, among them Charles Darwin, William Gladstone, Prince von Bismarck, Holman Hunt, Florence Nightingale and Robert Louis Stevenson. In addition to his vast panoramas based on Greek mythology and the many landscapes of his travels in Europe and North Africa, he designed staiNed Glass windows around the country, and was an accomplished sculptor, carving, amongst others, the grave of William and Catherine Gladstone and The Athlete in St. Peter's Square, Hammersmith.
His long and distinguished career culminated in the greatest commission any artist in England might have wished for, the decoration of St. Paul's Cathedral, a masterpiece that took him thirteen years of demanding research and learning, hard labour and intense difficulties of finance and public opposition.
Rory Fellowes, Author: Rory Fellowes began his working life writing fiction and songs but was distracted into the animation industry and spent the next thirty years or so working as animation director. He trained under Ivor Wood, working on the early episodes of The Wombles. In the mid- 1980s Rory earned a reputation for fantastical stop-motion animation with his sequences in Hellraiser 2: Hellbound and Clive Barker's Nightbreed. In the mid-1990s he re-trained in computer animation. Since then he has worked on TV series, commercials, and feature films, as well as returning to writing. This is his first play to be produced on stage in London.
Rory is Creative Director of The Atlantic Screen Group, heading up the company in Ireland. The company has funded the music scores for Great Expectations, On The Road and the ground-breaking Stephen Poliakoff BBC drama series Dancing On The Edge.
Nigel Dunbar, Actor: Nigel was born and brought up in London but now lives in Chicago. Recent stage appearances including Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure in Indiana, and Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice at the Northlight Theatre, Chicago. His many other roles include Osborne in Journey's End; Dr Moreau in Lifeline Theatre's award-winning The Island of Dr Moreau; and Ash in Dealer's Choice.
Maureen Payne-Hahner, Director: Maureen is an accomplished theatre and film director based in Connecticut, whose most recent U.S. credits include: The How and The Why by Sarah Treem, ETOPiA productions and QED by Peter Parnell i/a/w Collaboraction Theatre, Chicago, 2012. Directing credits in Europe include: Copenhagen (Munich, Vienna, Zagreb) Sweet Phoebe, Two Conversations, Dark Pony, Litko and Epilogue (Munich).
Tim Hollier, Producer: Tim graduated in Fine Arts in 1968 and shortly afterwards signed with United Artists Records as a singer/songwriter, releasing albums featuring songs he co-wrote with Rory Fellowes. They have been friends ever since. In 1973 Tim moved into music publishing, an area in which he has proved to be one of the most successful and forward thinking in the business. He co-founded the first film score dedicated company, Filmtrax, in 1983, and subsequently a number of similar companies, culminating in the Atlantic Screen Group, co- founded with Simon Fawcett, a company of which Rory is also a director.
It was Tim's idea to create a play about Sir William, and with his encouragement and unfailing support and effort, it is now a reality.
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