The Killing of Sister George
From: Wednesday, 5th October 2011
To: Saturday, 29 October 2011
Our Review: 
Your Reviews:
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Synopsis
Meera Syal follows her Whatonstage.com Award winning performance in Shirley Valentine with the grotesque role of June Buckridge in The Killing of Sister George at the Arts Theatre this autumn.
The Killing of Sister George is about is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers. Played by June Buckridge (Meera Syal), in real life she is the antithesis of the sweet character she plays. To boost ratings the character is axed and Mrs Mercy (Belinda Lang) confronts June who has played the part for some 2000 performances.
June has a domestic relationship with Alice McNaught, who shares her home and her bed. With the impending catastrophe of June's job lost the insecure relationship is taken advantage of and carnage and loss ensue.
The Killing of Sister George was first performed in the West End in 1964 with Beryl Reid as George. Two years later Reid reprised the on Broadway (with a cast also including Eileen Atkins as Childie) and she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. It was made into a film in 1968 with Reid, Susannah York and Coral Brown.
British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress Meera Syal leads the cast of The Killing of Sister George. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Ummi in The Kumars at No. 42. She won the 2011 Whatsonstage.com award for Best Solo performance for Shirley Valentine.
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Our Review:
Michael Coveney - 10 October 2011
This is a very important and hugely entertaining play. In 1965, author Frank Marcus, the first drama critic on the Sunday Telegraph, prophesied mass hysteria over killed-off soap stars, the dangerous melding of fiction and reality in public entertainment and sexual skulduggery behind closed doors at the BBC.
The latter element involves a lesbian tug-of-love over the dimwitted 34 year-old female domestic partner, Alice, or “Childie” (Elizabeth Cadwallader), of butch alcoholic June Buckridge (a crop-haired, bracingly stern Meera Syal) with the BBC producer, Mrs Mercy Croft (Belinda Lang); Mercy has come to tell June that her character, a district nurse in a popular radio serial of everyday country life, is to be killed off.
I haven’t seen the play since the first production starring Beryl Reid, Eileen Atkins (Susannah York played Childie in the subsequent, disappointing film) and the imperiou...
Latest User Review
Dave J - 20 October 2011:
Brilliant set - wish the production lived up to it. Rather mediocre, and a slow first half that couldn't decide whether it was panto or just taking the piss out of thee whole thing -it felt like a 'send-up' with the two main characters so OTT with their characterisation (caricatures more like) that you could not take them seriously, more's the pity as the play is superbly written. Sister george is played too butch and too young and her young protege sounds like Marilyn Monroe on helium at times. However with Belinda lang's arrival the tone changed and we had reak drama, real pathos in what was a remarkable performance that had men spellbound - and as i hadn't read the programme or looked at the cats list did not realise who it was. The second Act is better paced and the poignancy comes through. Pity abiout the first section! I was really looking forward to seeing this play but was disappointed by the director's take....
Cast
Meera Syal (June Buckridge)
Belinda Lang (Mrs Mercy)
Elizabeth Cadwallader (Childie)
Helen Lederer (Madam Xenia)
Creative
Frank Marcus (Author)
Mig Kimpton (for Arts Theatre Productions Ltd) (Producer)
Iqbal Khan (Director)
Ciaran Bagnall (Design)
Ciaran Bagnall (Lighting)
Mark Dunne (Sound)
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