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New Actors Company Returns to Park Theatre with Sunday Readings This Month
By: Tyler Peterson May. 12, 2016
Six rare, fascinating plays, all varied in style, will be performed as readings by a talented ensemble of twelve actors using the traditional, and often lamented, Repertory Theatre model across six weeks. Repertory was once the place where an actor learnt their craft, and produced actors like Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Gary Oldman to name a few. It encouraged variety, versatility and diversity.
In the second season of Sunday Readings in the Park, each actor will perform a varied array of roles: from soldiers, lovers and aristocrats to beggars, schemers and the odd famous old writer. After each one-off performance the audience will be invited to take part in a short 30minute discussion when members of the cast and the director, will give their insights into the play.
Sunday 22 May, 2pm: Léocadia by Jean Anouilh
(translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker)
Directed by Charlotte Donachie The Prince continues to lament the loss of his great love Léocadia, an opera singer who died two years ago. Since then everywhere the Prince and Léocadia spent time has been moved brick by brick to the grounds of a huge estate. The final instalment is a poor milliner; Amanda, and all she has to do is live up to the powerful memory of Léocadia, but then, memories can be deceptive.
Sunday 29 May, 2pm: The Second Mrs Tanqueray by Arthur Wing Pinero
Directed by Robert Laycock
Reputedly England's answer to Ibsen, The Second Mrs Tanqueray explores the story of widower Aubrey Tanqueray who has fallen in love and decides to marry the beautiful Paula, a troubled woman with a scandalous past. The marriage is on rocky ground from the beginning, but Paula discovers a chance to save everything with the return of Aubrey's daughter from his first marriage, the conversely angelic Ellean.
Sunday 19th June, 2pm: Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade
Directed by Charlotte Donachie
Did you ever find a dead body? Would you wonder at the journey that brought you both to the same spot? As Amy, a chambermaid who has the luck of always finding the recently deceased, wonders about the life of a dead occupant of the hotel room she was about to clean, we are invited discover the circumstances that led up to the event in this cleverly constructed drama.
Sunday 26th June, 2pm: The Lady Is Not For Burning by Christopher Fry
Directed by Charlotte Donachie
In the mid-15th century a man claiming to be the devil demands to be executed while a peasant girl who made the mistake of showing a little too much intelligence, protests her innocence as she is accused of being a witch. This is all too much for the small village township as they desperately try to come to some kind of decision.
Sunday 17th July, 2pm: Laburnum Grove by J.B. Priestley
Directed by Robert Laycock
George Redfern is a respectable and reliable man. Everyone thinks so. He is a family man and lives in the quiet suburban Laburnam Grove where, his daughter complains, nothing ever happens. The play begins one evening when his daughter's soon-to-be fiancé, and his brother in law intend to borrow a bit of money from the seemly affluent George, that is, until George calmly explains where his money comes from and he might just be a criminal mastermind.
Sunday 24th July: Burnt Piano by Justin Fleming
Directed by Robert Laycock
Never performed in the UK; Burnt piano is the torching story of Karen; born under the star of Waiting for Godot. She attempts to make sense of tragic events in her life by tracking down the one man on earth she believes can help her: the aged Samuel Beckett now living in Paris. One of the thieves was saved, but which one?
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