Preview Stephen Joseph Theatre's Off Peak Shows
A look ahead to two early bird shows at Scarborough's theatre this summer
Preview: Stephen Joseph Theatre's Off Peak Shows
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In what appears to be a rebranding of its Lunchtime Shows due to the presence of evening performances, two ‘Off-Peak Shows’ are opening at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre this fortnight. While their dominant themes, cricket and cloning respectively, could scarcely be more divergent, both train their binoculars on the future.
James Quinn’s Twenty:20 is to receive its premiere. The point of its being set in 2013 seems to be that, by that time, the borders between the mother sport’s offshoots will have been closed. (Or that’s Quinn’s apparent extrapolation, at any rate.) Thus, when its protagonist, star Yorkshire batsman Rick Fielding, is asked to play for England against Australia in a test match, the task is more or less alien to a native of the Twenty20 genre of the game.
Pessimistically, Quinn prophesies the survival of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, which competes with cricket for supremacy in Fielding’s schedule, but otherwise the piece is a genial one. However, whether the premise of its plot is likely to stir much mirth among anyone who doesn’t converse in the parlance of silly mid-ons and fine legs is uncertain. Cricket is pretty popular in North Yorkshire, mind.
Its partner show is a gloomier proposition. First produced in 2002 at the Royal Court Theatre starring Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, a number follows the unravelling of events after a man in his mid-30s discovers from his father that he is a clone with 21 identical brothers and, naturally, is a trifle put out.
Written by Top Girls, Cloud Nine and Serious Money author Caryl Churchill, it’s an occupant of the ‘civilization’s itinerary’ tradition of playwriting. This is a strain of theatre predicated on the belief that, when people go to see a play, they are hoping to witness a dramatised discourse on some issue currently confronting the nation, or the species at large. Its success was such that it won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play in 2002.
While lunchtime and early evening performances of the two shows will be separate, they are to play as a double bill for evening and matinee slots and are staged by the same team. Their director is Adam Sunderland, an alumnus of Northern Broadsides via the company’s productions Heidi, The Water Babies and Treasure Island. He is joined by actors Richard Galazka and Christopher Wilkinson. However, Twenty:20 also features further input that ought not to go unmentioned. Sunderland et al have persuaded former cricketer, and now Sky Sports commentator, David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd to supply a few reels of his dulcets specially for the production.
a number, 2 July-28 August; Twenty:20, 13 July-11 September; Stephen Joseph Theatre, £7 or £12 for a double bill. See www.sjt.uk.com for performance dates and times.
Posted on Tuesday 29th June 2010
SW
Stephen Joseph Theatre
Westborough, Scarborough, YO11 1JW
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