Annalene Beechey Archives - North West End UK

The King and I is without doubt one of the great musicals with a sensational score but has been in recent years a problematic piece as the original play and movie had something of a white saviour narrative to them. This intelligent and sumptuous revival directed by Bartlett Sher is now much more about the repercussions of culture clashes as widowed British teacher Anna and her son travel to Siam to teach the many children of an autocratic king. He is keen to embrace western values to protect his country from the imperialist vultures circling around his small kingdom as civil war rages in America. The King gambles that western values will make him stronger, but he soon discovers through smart and feisty Anna that what he hopes to import into a centuries old Siamese culture brings une...

A show originally performed in 1956, It would be easy to write this off as old, irrelevant, dull, an anachronism, a three-hour yawn fest? How wrong you would be! It is the very opposite on all counts and has to be one of the most opulent and lavish and thoroughly entertaining touring productions I have ever seen at The Edinburgh Playhouse. Not only that, it also has themes which are extremely relevant and pertinent to our times. At its centre, the role of women, particularly in Asian society and the tensions between East and West, which are probably even more extreme and concerning now than they ever were when this was written. Anna Leonowens, played brilliantly by Annalene Beechey, is the headstrong school mistress travelling to Bangkok in Siam (now Thailand) to teach the King’s (Bria...

Tag: Annalene Beechey

The King and I – Leeds Grand Theatre

The King and I – Edinburgh Playhouse