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Rita, Sue & Sequel Takes on London & WorldDate: 28 August 2001
A double-bill of two northern works receives a fresh outing this autumn ahead of an international tour. Rita, Sue and Bob Too, plus A State Affair will play at London's Soho Theatre from 28 November 2001, before heading to West Yorkshire Playhouse from 15 January 2002.
The productions are a co-presentation between Out of Joint, Liverpool Everyman Playhouse and the Soho Theatre Company. Rita, Sue and Bob Too undertook a major UK tour last year, and the same cast will resume their roles again. Written by Bradford-born Andrea Dunbar in 1982, the play casts an unsentimental eye over Bradford's housing estates, whilst introducing two tough schoolgirls who embark on affairs with the same married man.
Dunbar was only 18 when she penned the piece, which received its original commission from director Max Stafford-Clark. A work that caught the mood of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as prime minister, it quickly met with critical favour. The comic drama was also turned into an acclaimed movie in 1986, starring George Costigan as Bob.
In the summer of 2000, Stafford-Clark took his Out of Joint acting team back to the West Yorkshire estates where Dunbar grew up. The record of what they found there is related in A State Affair, which stars Sally Rogers and Matthew Wait (both pictured). Writer and actor Robin Soans interviewed a number of local residents, whose stories inform the text of A State Affair.
The touring company Out of Joint was founded in 1993, and specialises in presenting new writings. Director Stafford-Clark has also encouraged new talents such as Mark Ravenhill (Shopping and Fucking), Caryl Churchill (Far Away) and Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country's Good). Other successful offerings have included Alistair Beaton's Feelgood, Drummers by Simon Bennett and Sebastian Barry's Our Lady of Sligo. Supported by the Arts Council of England, the team has also won the prestigious Prudential Award for Theatre. Stafford-Clark also put himself in the frame recently for the National Theatre's directorship, which becomes vacant next year with the departure of Trevor Nunn.
- by Gareth Thompson
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