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Passionately pursuing a career that has taken me to over sixty countries, offered opportunities to play Shakespeare at Stratford, direct in the West End, and perform solo shows worldwide. Now focusing on nurturing other artists through mentoring, writing original work and dramatisations. And after recording over two hundred audiobooks I still love the microphone.
This video introduces you to my show Shylock and who to contact if you would like to see a full 75 minute performance.
November took me back me back to my beloved India to perform Shylock and and the Dylan Thomas anthology, Young and Easy, which John Griffiths and I perform together. We played in Kerala at the Hortus Literary Festival in Calicut and in the beautiful Ranga Shankara theatre in Bangalore. I remember when the theatre was still a building site and it’s great to see it now, flourishing and very well attended.
The staging in October of my play Fondly Remembered by an amateur company was announced by French’s, my publisher, some months ago. When I discovered it was in Paphos, Cyprus that seemed like a very good excuse to mix business and pleasure. Cyprus was glorious and the production was excellent. In fact the best non-professional production of the play I’ve seen.
Fondly Remembered was last performed professionally in May and June 2024 and had a really cracking cast:
In order of appearance:
Donald Sowerby …………..Robin Kermode
Rev. Thomas Haldane……Jeremy Booth
Cressida Brent………………Barbara Wilshere
Zoe Seymour…………………Rosemary Ashe
Barry Dumont……………….Michael Relton
The play was briefly staged in 2015 for just five performances, but this revival had a 4 week run and did really good business.
It’s billed as a wickedly funny play full of revelation, rediscovery and revenge.
Is a man’s memorial service the right time to tell the truth?Reunited for the occasional a group of friends gather to celebrate a life. But who are they remembering? A creative genius, a former lover, a bitter rival – or the man who deceived them all?
Here’s what the critics think:
“First produced ten years ago, and performed several times since then in the U.K, “Fondly Remembered” is a beautifully acted and well-directed comedy that is now on at the Theatre at the Tabard until Saturday 7th June.
The cast of this production are all outstanding professional actors. Most of them are, surprisingly, of pensionable age and thus have long and fascinating credits that you can read in the programme. Probably, you have seen many of them in the West End, on television or at the cinema.
The plot concerns a group of thespian friends meeting the vicar of a High Anglican church to discuss the programme for the Memorial Service of Douglas. They all knew him well: they know each other well and we enjoy watching them continue to develop their relationships.
Gareth Armstrong’s witty, nuanced script is bursting with insightful moments about the deceased. Peals of laughter filled the auditorium on Thursday night as the many surprising twists and turns kept every one absorbed and on the edge of their seats for 90 minutes.
The charismatic cast is headed by the brilliant Jeremy Booth (last seen at the Tabard in, “A Critical Stage”). He plays the Rev Thomas Haldane, an ex-city slicker who drives a Porsche and he opens the play. Holy Smoke! What an opening: Jeremy sets the mood and the rest of the cast carry on with lashings of gusto.
Barbara Wilshere plays the emotional Cressida Brent. She is delightful as she recalls tearfully her complicated relationship with Dennis and tries, at the same time, to sort his memorial programme.
Robin Kermode (Donald Sowerby) however revels in winding up his ‘old friends’. His electric blue eyes twinkle with wicked glee and his performance is riveting. Donald is a tough cookie and his acerbic asides can be quite wounding to his old friends.
Rosemary Ashe, a West End star, is a hoot at portraying with aplomb Zoe, a bitter sweet soap character, and recalling her friendship with Dennis. She delights the audience with a flow of malapropisms.
William Relton (Barry Dumont), besotted by his young rich Russian husband, who we never meet, adds many touching foibles to his character, and recalls yet another aspect of the deceased Dennis.
Rosemary Ashe Barbara Wilshere and William Relton. Picture: Charles Flint
The production is smoothly managed by a team of imaginative creatives including: lighting Simon Beyer, music – Simon Slater, – costumes – Bolu Dairo, and is deftly written and directed by Gareth Armstrong.
A true feel good play that was greeted with great whoops of approval from the lively first night audience – certainly a stunning summer show that will add an extra ‘je’ne sais quoi’ to the start of The Bedford Park Festival on the 7th June. Maybe I’ll see you there and wave to you from my dodgem car!”
Susan Stanley-Carroll
Meanwhile I contine to tour Shylock and hope there might be some foreign travel with the show this year. There has been much controversy around a recent touring production of The Merchant of Venice because of political events in the Middle East and this provokes some lively discussions in the Q&A sessions I always offer after my performances. The enduring power of Shakespeare to engender debate is a reason why performing his work and related scripts is such a privilege.
I am hoping that more schools and colleges will take up the show as I think its theme of anti-semitism is all too relevant now. Revisiting Shylock after Lockdown after a gap of over a decade has also given me some new perspectives on my play and Shakespeare’s matchless text. I now also include a workshop (A Wilderness of Monkeys) with schools performances.
Currently the brilliant and indefatigable Gerard Logan, who performs in my productions of Shakespeare’s epic poem The Rape of Lucrece, and Wilde Without The Boy, my dramatisation of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, is touring his two shows of supernatural tales by E.F. Benson: Night Terrors and Hauntings, and selling out all over the country as well as recently in Milan. We are about to start work on a new trilogy of supernatural tales, as yet untitled.
With my recordings of all Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels I am getting very gratifying feedback from listeners, so audiobooks continue to play a big part in my working life, and recording audio dramas for Big Finish is great fun.
I had the pleasure of directing the hugely talented Alison Skilbeck in her new one-woman show called Uncommon Ground . The play won high praise at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe and is now touring. My second show at the Fringe was rather nostalgic for me – the revival of a solo play I first directed over 20 years ago starring the late Roger Llewellyn Sherlock Holmes The Last Act. The part is now played beautifully by Nigel Miles-Thomas, a Fringe veteran, and it is also touring domestically and internationally.
My last play, A Critical Stage, played at London’s Tabard Theatre from May 31st – June 17th 2023 and proved a hit with audiences and critics alike. Her are some details:
A CRITICAL STAGE
Egos clash against a background of conflict, prejudice and a poignant love.
1942 and in a wartime London of blackouts, rationing and the Blitz, James Agate, famous author and theatre critic, refuses to change his lifestyle. But if the bombs can’t curb his passion for hard work, high living and illicit encounters, there are soon some bombshells threatening to blow his world apart.
Agate has written a damning review of Gwen, a prominent actress who confronts him in a lively battle of words. He is looked after by Smike, a young and tolerant houseboy and he also has a volatile relationship with his secretary, Leo, an Austrian Jewish refugee. Agate’s increasingly careless behaviour is not going unnoticed with his bosses at the Sunday Times newspaper…
The play is based on real life events; James Agate was a hugely influential English writer, theatre, music and literary critic in the mid-twentieth century. A self-educated polymath, prolific author and indiscreet homosexual, his impact on the theatre, arts criticism and the cultural life of Britain was enormous.
A Critical Stage is an amusing and provocative exploration of the roles of critic and artist.
National and online reviews.
http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=evtabard271criticalstagereview.htm
★★★★ https://loureviews.blog/2023/06/02/review-a-critical-stage-theatre-at-the-tabard/
★★★★ https://www.theatrereviews.design/a-critical-stage-4-stars/
★★★★https://www.jacktheladmag.com/theatre-reviews/a-critical-stage
https://chiswickherald.co.uk/a-critical-stage-is-a-critical-success-p17950-95.htm
Aside from the intriguing details of Agate’s work/sex life, Armstrong brings fresh insight into the dog-eared art v criticism debate, particularly in the stand-off between Agate and his friend, actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies (Barbara Wilshere), who finally snaps at his torrential pompousness.
Pithy opinions and witty ripostes ricochet around Hazel Owen’s set as Agate attempts to justify his lifestyle to all, including his gay Jewish secretary Leo (David Acton): “Have you ever tried bondage?” “No, we gave that up when Moses led us out of Egypt.” Well worth seeking out. ★★★★ The Daily Mirror (Neil Norman)
A Critical Stage is beautifully conceived with a huge depth of knowledge informing the story and realisation onto stage. ★★★★★ The Review Chap
With four on-point performances complementing each other perfectly, allowing Gareth Armstrong’s script to freely flow, the writer also directs with an eye to place, props, and pacing. ★★★★ Lou Reviews
A very witty script that lands squarely with a couple of surprises supported by larger than life character actors! A must-see production of great entertainment. ★★★★ Theatre Design Reviews
A Critical Stage is a gentle, but nonetheless highly enjoyable, witty and surprisingly layered production ★★★★ Jack the Lad Magazine
A charming, period piece, which perfectly evokes war-torn London, and gives us a fascinating insight into Agate’s lifestyle…well worth the trip to Turnham Green – UK Theatre Web
Enjoyable, sharp, and immaculately acted
The Reviews Hub
A short play I wrote for the Dylan Thomas Society about an imagined meeting between Dylan and Thomas Hardy won a playwriting competition and had its world premiere last November in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. It has also been audio recorded with John Griffiths as Hardy and Wayne Foreseter as Dylan, both giving superb performances. You can hear this audio via a link on my AUTHOR page.