From Simon Gray to Alan Ayckbourn, many playwrights have kept their most interesting roles out of sight – but very much in mind
Rowan Atkinson dominates the posters for a West End production opening this week – a wise calculation that the chance to see on stage the comedian internationally famous as Mr Bean is a major selling point. But another attraction of Quartermaine's Terms, in which Atkinson plays the title role of a baffled bachelor teacher, is the fact that other parts in the play require no actors at all.
The 1981 drama by the late Simon Gray is one of the strongest examples in modern theatre of the use of off-stage characters. Set in an English-language school for foreign students in Cambridge in the 1960s, the script calls for seven members of staff – including, in addition to Quartermaine, fussy principal Eddie Loomis, bluff senior tutor Henry Windscape and elementary conversation teacher Anita Manchip.
Rowan Atkinson dominates the posters for a West End production opening this week – a wise calculation that the chance to see on stage the comedian internationally famous as Mr Bean is a major selling point. But another attraction of Quartermaine's Terms, in which Atkinson plays the title role of a baffled bachelor teacher, is the fact that other parts in the play require no actors at all.
The 1981 drama by the late Simon Gray is one of the strongest examples in modern theatre of the use of off-stage characters. Set in an English-language school for foreign students in Cambridge in the 1960s, the script calls for seven members of staff – including, in addition to Quartermaine, fussy principal Eddie Loomis, bluff senior tutor Henry Windscape and elementary conversation teacher Anita Manchip.
- 1/28/2013
- by Mark Lawson
- The Guardian - Film News
Producer Scott Rudin has axed the Broadway run of the hit play after falling out with its writer, Bruce Norris, according to reports
The producer of Clybourne Park has cancelled the play's run on Broadway after falling out with its writer, Bruce Norris, according to the New York Post.
Norris was due to appear in an acting role in producer Scott Rudin's HBO adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's book The Corrections, but is reported to have pulled out on Monday after three months of contractual wrangling, saying: "I don't like to do pilots."
Rudin, regarded as the most powerful producer on Broadway, then axed Clybourne Park, which was due to reach Broadway in the spring, as well as two other Norris plays he was planning to produce in 2013.
The theatre is not accepting ticket bookings, while the play's publicists, Boneau/Bryan-Brown, said they were no longer representing the show.
The producer of Clybourne Park has cancelled the play's run on Broadway after falling out with its writer, Bruce Norris, according to the New York Post.
Norris was due to appear in an acting role in producer Scott Rudin's HBO adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's book The Corrections, but is reported to have pulled out on Monday after three months of contractual wrangling, saying: "I don't like to do pilots."
Rudin, regarded as the most powerful producer on Broadway, then axed Clybourne Park, which was due to reach Broadway in the spring, as well as two other Norris plays he was planning to produce in 2013.
The theatre is not accepting ticket bookings, while the play's publicists, Boneau/Bryan-Brown, said they were no longer representing the show.
- 2/1/2012
- by Alex Needham
- The Guardian - Film News
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