THE CAT AND THE CANARY @ THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW MONDAY 13 - SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2021

 BILL KENWRIGHT PRESENTS

THE CLASSIC THRILLER THEATRE COMPANY

 

THE CAT AND THE CANARY

THE CREEPY COMEDY THRILLER BY JOHN WILLARD

ADAPTED BY CARL GROSE

 

STARRING ANTONY COSTA, TRACY SHAW, MARTI WEBB

GARY WEBSTER, BEN NEALON, ERIC CARTE

AND  BRITT EKLAND

 

THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

MONDAY 13 - SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2021

 

Bill Kenwright, The Classic Thriller Theatre Company and Theatre Royal, Glasgow are pleased to welcome the creepy comedy thriller The Cat and the Canary next week as part of a UK tour.

 

The stage adaptation of John Willard’s screenplay of the same name, The Cat and the Canary is the third show to be staged at Theatre Royal since it reopened on Sunday 5 September.

 

Starring silver screen and Bond-girl legend Britt Ekland, the chilling play is set 20 years after the death of Mr West as his descendants gather to learn who will inherit his vast wealth and the hidden family jewels. Within moments, the heritage hunters turn into prey. Walls crack open, shadows loom, and dark secrets are revealed.

 

Britt is perhaps best known for The Man with The Golden Gun with Roger Moore, The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee, and Get Carter with Michael Caine. She stars alongside singer-songw
riter, actor and former member of the internationally successful 00’s boy band Blue, Antony Costa, and Tracy Shaw, best known for her long-running role as Maxine Peacock in Coronation Street. They are joined by West End leading lady Marti Webb, whose credits include Evita and Tell Me on A Sunday; Gary Webster, who played Gary Costello in Family Affairs and Ray Daley opposite George Cole in ITV’s Minder; Classic Thriller Theatre Company veteran Ben Nealon, who played Lt. Forsythe in the drama series Soldier Soldier, and Eric Carte, who played Geoff Roberts in two series of Bouquet of Barbed Wire. The cast is completed by Priyasasha Kumari, Martin Carroll, Jack Taylor and Clara Darcy.

 

The Cat and The Canary is director Roy Marsden’s fifth Classic Thriller Theatre Company production. Other credits include the West End premieres of Agatha Christie’s A Daughter’s a Daughter at the Trafalgar Studios and Noël Coward’s Volcano at the Vaudeville Theatre. As an actor, he is well-known to television audiences as Inspector Dalgliesh in the long-running P.D. James series.

 

Adaptor Carl Grose was, until recently, co-artistic director of Kneehigh Theatre. His numerous plays and adaptations include book and lyrics for The Grinning Man, which Tom Morris directed at the Trafalgar Studios in 2017.

 

Designer takis’s diverse international credits include In the Heights, Gifford’s Circus and the Royal Opera.

 

Lighting Designer Chris Davey’s work includes Witness for the Prosecution at London’s County Hall and Touching the Void at the Duke of York’s Theatre.

 

Dan Samson is resident Sound Designer for The Classic Thriller Theatre Company. West End credits include Heathers at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Evita at the Dominion Theatre.

A Cirque in the Park

Theatre Royal Ghost Tours Return

Bigger and better minds than mine have tried to answer this question. Even saying 'it is what happens in a theatre' is no good, because some bugger thought up 'site specific events' and put on plays in any disused warehouse they could find. I usually end up getting confused and deciding that theatre is something to do with 'performing on purpose' for an audience. Hence my attempts to define the dramaturgy of lap-dancing.

Anyhow, this is so happening in theatre, it has got to count...


Back by popular demand, be prepared to be scared on a haunting tour of the Theatre Royal Glasgow. An empty auditorium, a lifeless stage, out of hours, after dark – is your mind playing tricks or have you caught a glimpse of the resident ghost? Theatre Royal Ghost Tours is an atmospheric experience of stories and suggestion that will bring you out in goose-bumps.

As a fan of live art, this probably won't scare me. I've been in plenty of empty auditoriums, and I challenge ghosts to be as scary as Ron Athey. However...


The Theatre Royal has a chequered history. As the building stands it dates from 1895, having replaced earlier theatres built on the site in 1867 and 1888 - both of which were destroyed by fires. In 1969 tragedy struck once more and the building was again engulfed in flames. But who really knows the personal tragedies of the staff, or those performers who simply refuse to accept the curtain, for them, has well and truly fallen?

I bet it is going to be those actors who knew 'dear Larry' and insist on declaiming at the top of their voices: the sort that think Hamlet is the best script ever because nobody can say hello without prefacing it with a poetic description of some geographical location they enjoy. Either that or the back-stage crew who were ignored in life and want some payback...

What’s On Stage: “For thrill seekers, it offers a tense and at times terrifying night of horror and history. For theatre fans, it offers an exclusive opportunity to experience the inner-workings of a grand theatre, visit its most inaccessible corners and enjoy a private tour of a very public place. The result is an unforgettable theatrical experience which both stimulates and scares.”

If you dare...the tours take place immediately after the evening’s performance. Patrons are asked to meet in the foyer where an usher will take you to the Ambassador Lounge for a safety briefing before the tour moves backstage. The tour will last approximately 45 minutes and is strictly for ages 18 and over.





LISTING INFORMATION

GHOST TOURS
THEATRE ROYAL GLASGOW

27, 28, 29, 30, 31 October, 9.45pm – after Dangerous Corner

2, 4, 5, 6, 7 November, 10.00pm – after Black Coffee

2, 3, 4, 5, 6 December, 10.30pm – after Top Hat
Tickets: £12 (plus bkg fee)

Box Office: 0844 871 7647 (bkg fee)

The Performance Geography of Glasgow: City Centre

The concentration of theatre venues in the City Centre suggests that diversity is Glasgow’s hallmark. From The Arches - a re-purposed collection of warehouses beneath the train station - to the Theatre Royal, the venue of choice for both Scottish Ballet and Opera: Glasgow runs the gamut of styles and spaces.

The Arches’ programme reflects artist director Jackie Wylie’s enthusiasm for experimental and emerging artists. During her tenure, two festivals (Arches Live! and Behaviour) have shaped the programme into two distinctive strands. There are the local and emerging artists - most frequently seen at Arches Live! or in works-in-progress throughout the year - and the makers of ‘expanded theatre’. 

As the chosen venue for the National Review of Live Art until 2010, it has strong associations with performance art and its atmosphere - somewhere between a dungeon and a night-club - conjures up an underground den where anything seems possible. When David Overend studied The Arches for his Ph.D, he recognised that its multi-purpose space (it is also a nightclub, and has a rather nice restaurant) lends performances a spectral resonance. 

Further east, Andy Arnold, formerly of The Arches himself, has

reclaimed The Tron as a theatre where words are celebrated. The annual Mayfesto, originally a celebration of political theatre, has tackled themes of identity and post-colonialism, while affirming The Tron’s commitment to scripted theatre. The opening production of the 2014 Autumn season, John Byrne’s adaptation of Chekov’s Three Sisters is typical only in so far as it is based on a script: Arnold is more likely to book or direct classic texts than find a relatively recent work, possibly from an Irish writer. 

The adaptation of Ulysses in 2012 revealed how effectively Arnold could channel language into bold theatricality, and a rare commission - The Tron tends to use existing scripts - Land And Sea and Sky (2010) married a naturalistic staging with a script that examined World War I through arguments as much as action.

Both The Theatre Royal and The King’s Theatre are run by the Ambassadors’ Group, and are part of a national chain of theatres, which includes The Playhouse in Edinburgh. Although they do produce shows - most recently, West Side Story with the ‘original’ choreography - these are made nationally, not in Glasgow and the majority of performances are from touring companies. 

Occasional amateur productions fill out the King’s calendar, but the majority of productions are of musicals or popular plays, including work from John Godber , Alan Bennett and The National Theatres of Scotland and England. 

Other venues that include theatre in their programme include the CCA and The Glue Factory. The CCA has an ‘open source’ strategy - artists can book the theatre - and this has included a recent Butoh festival Moving Bodies and a production of The Madness of Lady Bright by Cardboard Fox Company. The CCA has a long history in Glasgow’s alternative arts scenes . Previously The Third Eye Centre, director Francis McKee has done much to research its past glories and consciously models its current identity on the freedom and eclecticism of its earlier years.

The Glue Factory was, until recently, the home of 85A, the

collective who have made a splash with their cross-platform, post-industrial entertainments. Although The Glue Factory is still in a state of redevelopment, with part of the premises acting as rehearsal space for The National Theatre of Scotland, the nights staged by 85A, including an interactive film Chernozem, and the Fringe for the Glasgow International Art Festival (GI), suggest it is an untapped resource for performance. 

Gareth K Vile Is Unwell

He lost his leg thanks to drinking. He had 500 lovers. He invented a style of writing that jumped from journalism to memoir and back again, made horse racing sound exciting, chronicled the dying days of British Bohemia fucked up his marriages and pissed his talent up a backstreet somewhere in Soho. He spent more time in court than Johnny Cash, cuckolded his best mates and received letters of complaint from the press. His writing was passionate, self-deprecating, unrepentant, elegant and intelligent. When I grow up, I want to be Jeffrey Bernard.

In the meantime, that comedown off the Happy Pills is giving me aches. I can't sleep so well, I have taken a week off chasing round for Radio Hour interviews - Nick Spag is on that for the rest of the year - and I have decided my time is better spent on arranging meetings with the doctor and various social service offices.

This might explain why I am in the Upper Circle of the Theatre Royal, surrounded by Glasgow's Other Theatrical Community - the one that likes a Big Night Out, rarely sees nudity on stage and isn't too excited by the National Review of Live Art. It freaks me out to be the youngest person in sight. My bald patch excites no comment. I am glad I didn't bring a date, blowing my cover as a young hipster as my real peers settle down beside me, blue rinsed and sucking on the Werthers.

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell has become a piece of British Heritage. It stars that guy who played Jesus on TV - you know, he made that detective series with Jasper Carrot. He gets to wonder about, being Bernard, enjoying the anecdotes that Keith Waterhouse adapted for the stage. A cast of five come in and out, ghosts to illustrate particular stories, all RADA posh voices and 1970s London Commoner. They just slow the show. I'm here to hear tales of Soho, as it was before it got clean. 

The play was written in 1989, the butt end of Soho's golden years. Bernard hung out with whores, gangsters, alcoholics, artists, all the romantic stereotypes and mocked the stability of Middle England, the Middle Classes, the mediocre and the acceptable. He turned up pissed to the opening - or is that a legend? - and enjoyed the fame the play brought him. Then he had his leg chopped off and died in the 1990s. The ending, where he remembers his dead buddies, now has the poignancy of a lament for Bernard himself, as well as the way of life - indolent and cultured - that he loved.

The irony now is that the play - if not the person - is enjoyed by those people who would be horrified to have a pissed up Bernard smoking on their couch. And the time he laments was the era of oppression, before corporate lap-dancing clubs replaced the seedy strip-bars and the pub stank of ash. And all the adventures, usually involving sickened women or turf accountants, would be boorish shite without Bernard's own love of language. It is as if he learnt to drink like an alcoholic so he could still turn a fine phrase with a bottle of vodka inside him.

The play doesn't need the plush set - although it is nice - or the other actors. This is a glorious monologue, resolutely defiant: Robert Powell has a direct rapport with the audience that allows him to hide his character's moral turpitude behind a winning charm. It belongs, more obviously, in the grubby, marginal, theatres, the material militating against the ambience of the august Theatre Royal. Maybe, just sometimes, a good script is enough to make that breakthrough into the mainstream.

Still, it's still not safe for work: Bernard is as foul-mouthed as a Crazy Gary and while the pace and finale make this a requiem for a sentimentalised past, that past is littered with unapologetic conflicts and a quiet revolutionary spirit that mocks Marxist and Conservative with equal enervation. It is worse that I remember some of the Soho Bernard represents, as if my life has been a journey I have not noticed happening, only to find myself cast up on a further shore, wondering when my home was eroded by other waves.