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Dennis & Suzman Lead Soho's Autumn Season

Les Dennis and Janet Suzman will lead the Soho Theatre's Autumn season, when they star in Bryony Lavery's adaptation of a major Finnish work. Entitled Cherished Disappointments In Love, the play by Jouko and Juha Turkka is Finland's biggest theatrical hit and opens on 12 September 2001.

Soho Theatre also presented prolific playwright and director Lavery's A Wedding Story earlier this year. Cherished Disappointments is described as a "passionate comedy, fragrantly spiced with sex, desire and sponge cake" and makes its UK debut in London.

Janet Suzman was born in South Africa but became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963. Her film debut came with A Day In the Death of Joe Egg in 1970, and she was Oscar-nominated a year later for Nicholas and Alexandra. Liverpudlian comedian Les Dennis is known to TV audiences via the Russ Abbott and Family Fortunes shows, but has also appeared in the West End Chicago and numerous pantomimes.

Jeffrey Roberson's increasingly popular The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman act comes to the Soho for three weeks from 15 September 2001. Roberson's six-foot-two, flame-haired creation is much admired by the likes of Elton John and Julie Walters. Described as a "drag goddess", Merman has performed on Broadway, receiving a number of awards and widespread acclaim.

Elsewhere the Soho's commitment to varied new talents continues apace with two further offerings. The venue's Artistic Director, Abigail Morris, is currently preparing this year's Edinburgh Festival's opening show, entitled Office, for 13 August 2001 at the Edinburgh Lyceum. Young Glaswegian writer Shan Khan won the Verity Bargate Award last year for this story of street life, which will also run at the Soho from 22 August 2001.

A collaboration with the Birmingham Repertory Company will see Gurpreet Bhatti's debut play at the Soho from 10 October 2001. The story of two teenage sisters in Birmingham, Behsharam is a comedy about the dreams and dysfunctions of a first-generation Asian family.

- by Gareth Thompson

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