Dukakis Makes UK Stage Debut in Rose at RNT
Date: 13 April 1999
Hollywood film star Olympia Dukakis will make her British stage debut this summer in the world premiere of a new one-woman play by Martin Sherman. Rose opens 24 June (following previews from 19 May) at the National's Cottesloe Theatre.
The play tells the life story of a fiesty Jewish woman. Rose is a survivor. Her life began in a tiny Russian village, took her to Warsaw's ghettos and a ship called The Exodus and finally to the boardwalks of Atlantic City, the Arizona canyons and salsa-flavoured nights in Miami Beach.
Dukakis, well known for her roles in films such as Steel Magnolias and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar, stars as Rose. Dukakis was a founder member and artistic director of Whole Theatre in New Jersey from 1971-1990, where she directed and appeared in many productions. She was last seen on Broadway in Social Security, directed by Mike Nichols. Her other Broadway credits include Who's Who in Hell, The Aspern Papers, Abraham Cochrane and Night of the Iguana. She has received two OBIE Awards: for Bertolt Brecht's A Man's a Man and Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo.
Nancy Meckler, artistic director of the UK's acclaimed Shared Experience theatre company since 1988, directs, with design by Stephen Brimson-Lewis and lighting by Johanna Town.
Rose is Martin Sherman's first play at the National since Bent in 1990. His other work includes Messiah, When She Danced, A Madhouse in Goa and Some Sunny Day. His films include Bent, Clothes in the Wardrobe and Alive and Kicking (directed by Nancy Meckler).
