Donkeys' & Rock Extend, Shared's Eyre Bows OutDate: 7 August 2006
Two West End plays have announced extensions to their booking periods, while one is to close a week earlier than planned after previously extending.
Michael Frayn’s Donkeys' Years is now booking to 16 December 2006 at the Comedy Theatre, having previously extended to 2 September (See News, 31 May 2006). Jeremy Sams’ highly acclaimed revival of the Olivier Award winning comedy opened on 9 May 2006 (previews from 27 April) and had been booking until 29 July (See News, 22 Mar 2006).
Twenty-five years after graduation, six former students return to their university college for a reunion dinner. Locked in college for the night, the graduates begin to relive their youth, with all its chaotic friendships and feuds. The play stars David Haig, Mark Addy, Samantha Bond, James Dreyfus, Edward Petherbridge, Michael Fitzgerald, Michael Simkins, Jonathan Coy and Chris Moran.
Trevor Nunn’s production of Rock 'n' Roll, the new play by Tom Stoppard, has extended its booking period at the Duke of York’s by six weeks and is now taking bookings to 5 November 2006. (See News, 18 Apr 2006).
The play, which opened in the West End on 22 July following its worlds premiere at the Royal Court from June 2006 (previews from 3 June) to 15 July, spans the recent history of Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution - but from the double perspective of Prague, where a rock 'n' roll band came to symbolise resistance to the regime, and the British left, represented by a Communist philosopher at Cambridge. Brian Cox, Sinead Cusack and Rufus Sewell star.
Meanwhile, Shared Experience’s Jane Eyre will close one week earlier than previously planned (See News, 4 Jul 2006). Polly Teale’s acclaimed production, which transferred to the West End’s Trafalgar Studio 1 on 12 May 2006 (previews from 9 May) following a UK tour (See News, 25 Jan 2006), extended its original six-week run by a further four weeks to 26 August 2006. It is now scheduled to finish on 19 August 2006.
Adapted from Charlotte Bronte’s novel, the play focuses on the stark contrast between Jane’s strict Victorian upbringing and her passionate, imaginative nature. Jane Eyre previously had a successful London run at the Young Vic in 1997. The cast includes Monica Dolan, James Clyde and Miriam Acharki.
Jane Eyre will be followed by Daniel Kramer’s revival of Martin Sherman’s 1978 play Bent, from 5 October 2006 (previews from 22 September), starring Alan Cumming (See News, 14 Jul 2006). The play is set in Nazi Germany, where homosexual Max is sent to Dachau, his lover killed en route. At the concentration camp, he denies being gay, preferring to wear the yellow star of the Jews, but when he falls in love with fellow prisoner Horst, he must make a stand.
- by Caroline Ansdell
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