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Callow Wreaks Holy Terror on Tour Before West End

As previously tipped (See The Goss, 4 Nov 2003), Simon Callow will star in Simon Gray’s The Holy Terror, directed by Laurence Boswell, which opens at the Theatre Royal Brighton on 12 February 2004 (previews from 5 February), ahead of short regional tour and planned West End transfer in April.

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The play was originally seen, under the title Melon, in 1987 at the West End's Theatre Royal Haymarket, where Gray's long-time collaborator, the late Alan Bates, starred. The author later revised it for a Broadway run in 1989. Gray’s many other plays include Quartermaine’s Terms, Otherwise Engaged, Japes and The Late Middle Classes.

As an actor, Callow's other recent stage credits include Through the Leaves, The Mystery of Charles Dickens, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Chimes at Midnight, while his numerous films including Shakespeare In Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral, A Room with a View and Howard's End. Last year, he also directed the Tommy Cooper tribute, Jus' Like That, in the West End.

In The Holy Terror cast, Callow is joined by Robin Soans (as Gladstone), Geraldine Alexander, Beverley Klein, Tom Beard, Matt Canavan and Lydia Fox.

The production is presented on tour by the newly formed Theatre Royal Brighton Productions, which aims to mount three new shows each year. It’s also the first project from the stable of Laurence Boswell Productions. The director’s other recent credits include Up for Grabs, This Is Our Youth, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Popcorn and, for the Royal Shakespeare Company where he’s an associate director, Beauty and the Beast.

Following Brighton, The Holy Terror will call at Richmond, Woking, Milton Keynes, Malvern and Bath, where the tour concludes on 20 March 2004. A West End venue and opening date has not yet been announced.

- by Terri Paddock

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