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Authors Firth & Russell Unite to Tour Other WordsDate: 11 May 2004
More accustomed to watching others perform their work, award-winning stage and screen writers Willy Russell and Tim Firth have combined forces in a new show in which they take to the stage themselves to present their own material. After an initial date at Manchester’s Opera House, In Other Words hits the road tomorrow (12 May 2004), visiting 13 further venues until 19 June.
Russell is best known to theatregoers for his long-running musical Blood Brothers, now in its 16th year in the West End, as well as the plays Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, also made into successful films.
Firth wrote the book for last year’s Olivier Award-winning musical Our House as well as plays such as Safari Party and Neville’s Island, long-running TV series Preston Front and the hit film Calendar Girls.
Both men – who met in 1983 when an 18-year-old Firth attended an Arvon Foundation writing course given by Russell – are also accomplished songwriters. In Other Words features 13 songs, mostly from their new albums – Russell’s Hoovering the Moon and Firth’s Harmless Flirting - interspersed with excerpts from some of their best-known works.
Speaking to Whatsonstage.com, the pair explained that they had no desire to become actors or singers. Instead, they said, the new show is intended to be something “peculiarly us, something that lets you into the world of the writer”. On stage, Firth and Russell are supported by a live eight-piece led by musical director Andy Roberts.
In Other Words calls at Felixstowe, Swindon, Liverpool, Mold, York, Hay, Northampton, Oxford, Birmingham, High Wycombe, Cardiff and Buxton, where it concludes on 19 June 2004.
- by Terri Paddock
