Theatre News

Vertigo stage Die Mommie and Don’t Ask

Vertigo Theatre Productions have announced two new productions for next year. Following their play Out! comes Die Mommie Die and Don’t Ask Tell.

Vertigo enjoyed huge success with Bert V. Royal’s award winning off Broadway play Dog Sees God; Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, with two sell out runs at Taurus and The Lowry.

Charles Busch‘s Die Mommie Die plays at Taurus from 21 March and tells the story of Angela Arden, a fallen pop diva trapped in a hateful
marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with
her younger lover, Angela  murders her husband with the aid
of a poisoned suppository, leaving her two children to avenge their
father’s death. The show is part spoof and part homage to Hollywood’s now camp female lead roles such as Bette Davies (Dead
Ringer
), Lana Turner (Portrait in Black) and of course Joan Crawford
(What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?). The play itself is reagrded as a camp classic with a huge cult following.

Angela Arden is played by Dale Vicker (Stepping in to the iconic role made famous on stage and screen by Busch himself). Joining him are Emma Willcox as Edith and Richard Allen as Lance. with more casting to be announced soon. Die Mommie Die will be directed by Craig Hepworth and Adele Stanhope.

Vertigo also have a new original play taking to the stage in 2011 with the Arts Council funded drama Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Also written by Craig Hepworth and Adele Stanhope and starring Dale Vicker, Rick Carter, Benn Rayner, Christopher Faith, Richard Allen and Adele Stanhope (more casting to be announced soon), it tells the true story of a private in the American army killed by his fellow soldiers, and explores the prejudice surrounding his relationship with a transgender showgirl.

Vertigo will present a workshop readng of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in November 2010 at AXM before bringing the full scale production of the play to a large venue (TBA) in July 2011. This promises to be the biggest production the company have staged.

For more information, please visit Vertigo Theatre Productions’ website.