What’s On
Mistral Productions
It is often difficult to believe that many historical figures were not what they seemed behind their façade of fame and respectability. Yet the man whose works earned him a reputation as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era hid the bleak reality of an increasingly strained and unhappy union to Catherine Hogarth, seperating from her after 22 years, considering her to have become mentally disordered and an unfit mother. On her deathbed in 1879, she handed a collection of letters to her daughter Kate “so that the world may know that he loved me once”. These precious documents became the subject of this absorbing presentation.
MALVERN THEATRE PLAYERS
(Resident Company of the Coach House Theatre)
44th Season
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE
By Jim Cartwright
Little Voice has a hidden talent. Alone in her room with only her dead father’s record collection for company, she sings along with the greatest divas of the 20th century with a voice that is pure gold. Downstairs, her hard drinking mother Mari is on the rampage – she’s after booze and a working phone line. When her latest squeeze Ray overhears LV’s secret talent, he realises that she may be his ticket to the big time. But LV is painfully shy and she will need to conquer more than her stage-fright if she’s going to find her own voice in the world.
Funny, brutal, beautiful and sad, this Northern comedy is packed with sensational tunes, bold humour and a gentle heart. Named in the top 50 plays of all time.
Winner of Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for Best Comedy
Laughter and Heartbreak – You’ll be surprised by Little Voice
Exuberant and affecting – sharp and witty
“And let those that play your clowns say no more than is set down” – advice that Will Kemp may have done well to follow!
In 1600 Will Kemp, the most famous comic and clown of his generation and Will Shakespeare, most famous playwright in history, fell out in an argument over a play. Shakespeare stayed in London, writing for The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and producing the plays still renowned the world over. Kemp embarked on a bizarre PR stunt, Morris dancing from London to Norwich.
Based on Kemp’s own diary, “The Nine Daies Wonder”, Kemp’s Jig is a romp through Elizabethan England, sharing the adventures of Shakespeare’s now almost-forgotten clown.
This one man show has been playing to rave reviews up and down the country, including at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at the famous Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich, where Kemp’s original event finished.
A “horrible history” for all ages, fans of Upstart Crow and Shakespeare in Love will enjoy cheering the maverick Kemp on his way.
