“The Fair Maid Of The West”
By Thomas Heywood [& including material devised by the compamny]
Touring South East and South West
August and September 2008
Third Party, the Hastings-based, international touring theatre company specialising in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, continues its highly successful adaptation of classics for outdoor performance with a rip-roaring, swashbuckling adventure movie from the sixteenth century.
Derring-do on the high seas, sword fights, live music, triumph, disaster, heroes, villains, impossible coincidence, pretty women and all manner of braggadocio, this has something for everyone - especially those who like a rattle with their yarn. The production will be playing all manner of outdoor spaces across the South East and South West.
Bess Bridges (that's an Elizabeth with red hair, a tribute to a certain English monarch) is a lowly barmaid in a Plymouth tavern - she's beautiful, brave, modest and funny - and she's in love with a nobleman called Spencer - If it weren't for the social divide they'd be happily married. An unhappy interruption leads to Spencer killing a fellow nobleman in a bar brawl and he's forced to flee. He takes a ship to the Azores to escape, with Bess vowing true love and constancy - ultimately she follows and thus the adventure begins…
Thomas Heywood was one of the most successful Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, having “a hand, or at least a finger” in over 100 plays. His “Fair Maid” Part One was so loved by the Queen and her public that a sequel was commissioned - our play is a reduction of the two.
Directed by the internationally acclaimed John Wright (assisted by Toria Banks), the company of 7 weave a spell-binding nautical epic in just under 2 hours. Set on a portable stage, we are transported from Plymouth to Fowey, to the Azores and Morocco. The company use a combination of half masks to make the story clear and exciting and the actors bound into action from stage-side trampettes..
Cast:
Shelley Atkinson, Nicholas Collett, Anthony Gleave, Neil Haigh, Clive Holland, David McMinn and Harry Smith.
The designer is Helen Stewart. Musical direction by Harry Smith. Choreography by Kitty Winter.
Third Party tours nationally and internationally; the company performs in theatres, art centres, village halls, outdoor spaces and at Festivals. Third Party was formed in 1993 and since that time the company has given over 900 highly original and audacious performances of such works as THE TRAGICALL HISTORY OF DR FAUSTUS - A DAMNED FINE PLAY [REVIEWS] (Landor Theatre, London), HAMLET, RICHARD III - TO HELL ON A HANDCART, THE CHANGELING (which was performed at Battersea Arts Centre) and THE ALCHEMIST. Work with directors Ben Benison (Theatre Machine) and now John Wright gives a visual and comedic drive to their work.
Shelley Atkinson made her Third Party debut as Lucifer in The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. Recent roles include Rita in EDUCATING RITA; THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (Vienna English Theatre); WHEN SNOW FALLS, GOTCHA (Half Moon Theatre) and THE BLACK MONK (Dublin Festival).
Nicholas Collett trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where he won the Newton Blick Comedy Prize. For the RSC he has performed Snug in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and Gaoler in THE WINTER'S TALE, as well as national touring, repertory, radio and television. He was a founder member of Third Party for whom he has played Clarence and Buckingham in RICHARD III, both Dromios in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Autolycus and Camillo in THE WINTER'S TALE, Face in THE ALCHEMIST, Polonious and Gravedigger in HAMLET, Richard in RICHARD III and Faustus in FAUSTUS.
Anthony Gleave, also a founder member of Third Party, has performed in and lit all of the company's work. Most recently he has played Mephistophilis in FAUSTUS, Stanley, all the murderers and the old King in RICHARD III, Dr. Alibius in THE CHANGELING, the title role in THE ALCHEMIST and Claudius, Ghost and First Player in HAMLET.
Neil Haigh trained at Middlesex University and is an actor, director, improviser and writer. TV credits: Dalziel & Pascoe & Casualty (BBC) and No Angels (CH4) and a year talking to a little version of himself as the face of ABBEY Me & My Money. Theatre credits include: Richard 3rd (UK Tour), also with Third Party & John Wright, Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Gate Theatre), Midsummer Night's Dream, (UK Tour), Rice (Vesturport/Paines Plough, Trafalgar Studios), The Windmill (Manchester Royal Exchange), Meat & 2 Veg (BAC, UK Tour, Hong Kong), Ratcatcher of Hamelin (BAC), & the nightly improvised play Hard Hearted Hannah (Lyric Hammersmith, Northern Stage) - all with Cartoon de Salvo and the award winning solo show Angels of the Universe (Gate Theatre, Budapest, Gilded Balloon), which he adapted from the Novel of the same name. He has directed professionally in London, Reykjavik & Edinburgh.
Clive Holland. Well, it seems but a blink since Clive last performed for Third Party in the Scottish play; it isn't of course, its millions of blinks but time is like that. Clive has worked in theatre for almost thirty years as an actor, director and writer … he is halfway towards finishing his first novel and has been for some considerable time. He has just moved to be beside the seaside in Ramsgate and is practising very hard at sitting on a beach with a notebook and pencil and looking Byronic … in flip-flops … though is often composing nothing more than a shopping list. Clive is currently writing a play about Alzheimer's disease … again … probably.
David McMinn
Harry Smith trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2004. His theatre credits include Twelfth Night and Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Bristol Old Vic, The Merchant of Venice at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, Treasure Island at the Tobacco Factory, A Christmas Carol at the Brewhouse in Taunton and a UK tour of The Importance of Being Earnest. He has also performed A Midsummer Night's Dream in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to passengers on board the Queen Mary 2. Harry has played the piano and the piano accordion in a number of shows and is available for birthdays, weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
John Wright is a multi-award winning theatre director. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Told By an Idiot Theatre Company. In 1980 he co-founded Trestle Theatre Company where he directed most of their repertoire until 1992. For Third Party John has directed HAMLET, THE CHANGELING, RICHARD III - To Hell on a Handcart and DR. FAUSTUS. He has worked with the company since 1998.
Third Party Productions
07768 694211 / 07768 694212
www.thirdparty.org.uk
Theatre contacts: Will Wollen [will@theatreroyalmargate.com]
Julia Bensted [mailto:julia.bensted@dovertown.co.uk]
Dave Gyll-Murray Marketing @ Acorn Arts Centre [mailto:marketing@acornartscentre.co.uk]
elaine@ballfield.plus.com
lewislintern@onetel.com
mail@plough-arts.org
'info@thirty-six-hours.co.uk'
Jaspall@aol.com
amanda.oates@shepway.gov.uk
| | |
