Tag Archives: Perth Theatre

NEWS: Gray O’Brien to star in Perth Theatre’s Educating Rita

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Award-winning ex-Corrie favourite, Scottish film and television actor Gray O’Brien is taking on the iconic role of Frank in Perth Theatre’s production of Educating Rita.

Gray picked up the British Soap Awards Villain of the Year gong for his role as Tony Gordon on the cobbles from 2007 until 2010, and has also had regular roles in Peak Practice, Casualty and River City. In 2017, he starred in ITV mini drama series The Loch. He recently played Levine in Bill Kenwright’s touring stage show Catch Me if you Can.

Gray will be joined by Rachael-Rose McLaren in the role of Rita. Emerging talent Rachael-Rose was last seen in Perth Theatre in November 2022 in the sell-out National Theatre of Scotland production Enough of Him about the Perthshire slave Joseph Knight and his bid for freedom.

Running in Perth Theatre from Thursday 16 March until Saturday 1 April, Educating Rita is directed by Martin McCormick, who won the hearts of the people of Perth with celebrated community football show Oh When the Saints in June 2022.

Willy Russell’s hysterical, thought-provoking modern classic premiered in 1980 at the RSC and went on to win multiple awards as well as being adapted for a feature film starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine.

Still as relevant and powerful more than 40 years after it first hit the stage, Educating Rita centres around the relationship between Rita a working-class hairdresser with a thirst for knowledge and disillusioned university lecturer Frank.

Martin McCormick said:

“I’m thrilled to be directing Educating Rita as it’s very much what I’d consider to be a modern classic.  It’s the typical clash of cultures formula between teacher and pupil that can be traced back to Pygmalion and beyond. Rita seeks to enlighten herself with the help of university professor, Frank. There is loads going against her; family, class, her gender.  But the major stumbling block is Frank himself!

Educating Rita contains all the hallmarks of what audiences love in a play. It’s funny, entertaining, thought-provoking and- even after the 40 plus years since Willy Russell wrote it – very relevant.”

Educating Rita is the first play in the revitalised Perth Theatre Season Subscription which gives regular theatregoers significant discounts when booking a selection of shows including popular classics, timeless comedy, mind-boggling mysteries and uplifting musicals.

Other productions in the Perth Theatre Season Subscription are The Mousetrap, National Theatre of Scotland’s Kidnapped, London Classic Theatre’s Abigail’s Party and the Raw Material and Eden Court co-production The Stamping Ground.

Audiences receive a discount of 15% when booking at least three shows, or 25% when booking all five together.

For tickets and info about Educating Rita and the Perth Theatre Season Subscription visit perththeatreandconcerthall.com or call or visit the Perth Theatre Box Office on 01738 621031 (10am – 4pm Monday to Saturday).

REVIEW: Prince Charming – Perth Theatre

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illustration of prince charming as a child

There’s a lot of pressure being charming all the time. So many expectations. It’s enough to make you take to your bed and stay there in the same pants for three months. Prince Charming is crippled with anxiety, worrying about the dark, being struck by lightning, getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle, living up to his legendary name, falling into quicksand, fighting dragons and the last day of the world – to name a few. Our prince is “too busy with his brain” to get out of bed. It takes the kindly Gomo to help overcome his anxieties and coax our hero out from under his duvet.

Jenny Worton’s delightful tale reminds us that every worry has equal weight when you are a child and that worry unites us all, no matter whether you’re big or small. It also reminds us all that it’s perfectly OK not to have all the answers, we’re all in this together.

Giulia Innocenti’s Gomo is a warm guide through the story and Nix Wood manages to represent the whole gamut of human emotion in our strange-looking, but appealing, little wooden hero in blue Y-Fronts and a vest. There are a few musical numbers including the fabulous I’m Not Special (when it comes to worry), which reminds this reviewer of the unexpected and slightly subversive songs of Tim Minchin in Matilda. The set is simple but effective and the lighting, particularly the ceiling of stars is particularly beautiful.

There is as much entertainment for the adults as the children here. It all gets a bit meta as our Prince has an existential crisis: he’s already a “one size fits all character”, “general not special”, never the title character – there’s no story called Prince Charming, when he finds out he’s really a puppet, something that threatens to send him right back under the bed covers. But after he breaks the fourth wall and the tinies in the audience get up close and personal, all is well in our theatrical world.

It’s seems glib to say that something is heart-warming but Prince Charming truly is. Not only does it open up conversations on mental health in children in the most fabulous way, there are also laughs a-plenty, mild peril, some ear-worm songs and a whole lot to ruminate over, but ultimately it all adds up to a fabulous piece of entertainment for all ages that will send you to the street with a smile on your face.

Runs until 20 April 2019 | Image: Contributed

This review was originally written for THE REVIEWS HUB

REVIEW: And The Beat Goes On – Tron Theatre, Glasgow

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It would seem at first glance that a play about a pair of Sonny and Cher obsessives would be the perfect excuse for a night of high camp glitz and glamour, more sequins than substance, but Stef Smith’s new work,And The Beat Goes On proves to be a much darker and more satisfying beast.

It’s 1989, somewhere in the US, behind the closed doors of their breeze block garage, ex-pat Scots Peter (Johnny McKnight) and Lily (Julie Brown) spend their evenings recreating the entire TV back catalogue of the outrageously clad singing duo, but the arrival of new neighbour Joan (Julie Wilson Nimmo), a Molly Ringwald-esque vision in Barbie pink satin, sees Peter and Lily’s fragile existence start to disintegrate.

The explanation for this eccentric behaviour, the reasons that Peter and Lily are living a life “beyond normal” is slowly unravelled in Smith’s economical 75 minute work. The greatest strength of the piece (apart from the obvious chemistry between long-term collaborators McKnight and Brown) is the establishment of a sense of tension and unease from the very first moments and the air of mystery is maintained to the end: tiny hints are dropped into the dialogue, just when we thought it was predictable the clues which led us down one path veer us off onto another.

To say any more would reveal all, but safe to say, it plays upon the thirst for works like Gone Girl and draws upon real-life events and prompts commentary on the shelf-life of what was once news-worthy, and the world in which we live where “tragedy is tedious”.

This is an intriguing and thoroughly satisfying work, an accomplished piece of writing, briskly directed and beautifully acted (save for Julie Wilson Nimmo’s American accent, which is forgivable given the character).

Don’t be fooled by the high camp publicity posters, “a little darkness didn’t do anyone any harm”, Lily declares, indeed, in the case of And The Beat Goes On, a little darkness goes a hell of a long way to restoring your faith in new writing in Scotland.

Runs until 28th March at the Tron Theatre then touring

This review was originally written for and published by http://www.the public reviews.com at: http://www.thepublicreviews.com/and-the-beat-goes-on-tron-theatre-glasgow/