Sugar Sees World Premiere at Bush
Date: 23 June 1998
Simon Bent s latest play Sugar Sugar will receive its world premiere at west London fringe venue the Bush Theatre on 10 July 1998 (previews from 8 July).
In Scarborough, it's sex every day and twice on Sundays at the Seatos guest house. Landlady Val was a bit of a goer in her youth and her family is much like her guest house - badly in need of home improvements. The arrival of a winter guest, the enigmatic Mr Wilson, brings a sexual charge that threatens to tip the household over the edge.
Of Bent's two previous plays at the Bush, 1994's Bad Company was also set in Scarborough, focusing on the aimless, restless lives of the towns youth. Two of the Bad Company characters, Steven and Shirley, re-appear in Sugar Sugar.
Paul Miller, who directed both Bad Company and Bent's Goldhawk Road at the Bush, returns to direct Sugar Sugar. Miller was Resident at the National Theatre Studio under Peter Gill.
Andrew Lincoln, who played Egg in the BBC cult TV series This Life, will make his stage debut in Sugar Sugar. Nicolas Tennant, who played Steven in Bad Company, re-enacts the character in the current production. They are joined by David Daker, Sue Johnston, Deborah McAndrew and Jonny Phillips.
The Bush Theatre has recently received accolades on both sides of the Atlantic for its productions. In New York, actor Brian Cox won the award for Outstanding Performance in the 1998 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off Broadway for his performance in Conor McPherson s St Nicholas, originally produced by the Bush in February 1997.
In London, Bush writer-in-residence Helen Blakeman won the 1998 George Devine Award for most promising play for Caravan, produced by the Bush in November 1997. Blakeman gained her MA in Playwriting from Birmingham University in 1997 and Caravan was her first full-length play.
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