Alastair Whatley Archives - North West End UK

Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong is coming to the Playhouse

13Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong is coming to the Playhouse

Sebastian Faulks’s epic story of love and loss, Birdsong, returns to the stage in a brand-new production for 2024 at the Liverpool Playhouse from Tuesday 8th to Saturday 12th October. Featuring award-winning actor Max Bowden (EastEnders), this production marks the 30th anniversary of the international best-selling novel. The critically acclaimed show, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and directed by Original Theatre’s Artistic Director, Alastair Whatley, tells the story of one man’s journey through an all-consuming love affair and into the horror of the First World War.   Max Bowden (EastEnders) who plays Jack Firebrace said: “I’m so excited to be collaborating with Original Theatre again on a project close to my heart. Birdsong highlights the tragedy of war, yet the...

Into The Night – Original Theatre Company

29Dec

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

REVIEWS

Into The Night – Original Theatre Company

On the 19th December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat the ‘Solomon Browne’ was launched with a crew of eight men (including the coxswain), to rescue the crew from a coaster, the ‘Union Star’, which was in danger of foundering on the jagged rocks of the West Cornwall coastline. There were sixteen lives lost that terrible night as the bad weather conditions made the rescue impossible. The Original Theatre Company, in collaboration with writer Frazer Flintham and the author of ‘Penlee – The Loss of a Lifeboat’, Michael Sagar-Fenton, have brought together their skills as theatre makers, with North South who specialise in bringing the stage to the screen. Writer Frazer Flintham had the difficult task of bringing together the historical detail, whilst always considering that the viewe...

16Apr

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Splinter of Ice – Original Theatre

This is story of two friends, Kim Philby and Graham Greene, two ex-spies, one turned traitor and one turned author. If you're interested in the story of these two men and their friendship but don't know many details, don't worry: this three-hander tells pretty much the entire story of Kim Philby's part in one of the biggest spy scandals of the 20th Century through one conversation between them. Written by Ben Brown and directed by Alastair Whatley with Alan Strachan, the team behind the play which inspired the Oscar-winning film Darkest Hour, the play imagines the final reunion between them just a year before Philby's death, their only meeting since the latter was revealed as a member of the Cambridge Spy Ring and fled to the USSR. I say “imagines” because, though the circumstances behi...

Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter of Ice begins UK Tour on 8th June

6Apr

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter of Ice begins UK Tour on 8th June

Following a highly productive and successful season of online productions, Original Theatre Company is delighted to announce its first live stage production since March 2020. The UK Tour of Ben Brown’s new political drama, A SPLINTER OF ICE, will open on 8th June in Malvern and will tour until 31st July. The production, starring Oliver Ford Davies as Graham Greene and Stephen Boxer as Kim Philby and directed by Alan Strachan with Alastair Whatley, has also been filmed on stage at the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and will be released online via originaltheatreonline.com from 15th April until 31st July 2021. Whilst Sara Crowe will play Rufa Philby in the online version, she is unavailable for the tour, so the casting for Rufa on tour is to be confirmed. Moscow 1987 and th...