Christopher Hampton Archives - North West End UK

20Mar

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sunset Boulevard – Sheffield Lyceum

‘I am big. It’s the pictures that got small’. Norma Desmond’s famous line encapsulates all that is Sunset Boulevard, pure opulence from the scrumptious score to the dramatic and flamboyant performance. Based on the 1950’s film by Bill Wilder starring silent movie queen Gloria Swanson, the stage version; after many attempted and aborted musical adaptations; finally had its debut in 1992 with the book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and the music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Sunset Boulevard powerfully charts the decline of the silent movies and instead of celebrating the rise of the talkies such as the musical Singing in the Rain, it hovers moodily over the demise of the stars who were cast aside and ‘dethroned’. Told through the eyes of the struggling writer Joe Gillis as he...

God of Carnage – Cheadle Players

Written by Yasmina Reza, ‘God of Carnage’, a play that was originally written in French and translated by Christopher Hampton, graces the stage of the Players Theatre in Cheadle Hulme this week. Directed by Bruce Taylor, this was certainly an interesting performance choice from an amateur theatre company. Having been lucky enough to see Reza’s play ‘Art’ in London's West End in the late 1990’s it was exciting to see another of her plays. ‘God of Carnage’ was certainly a challenge to an amateur theatre company. Proud owner of a Tony Award in 2009, the story is set in a New York apartment. It relays the story of two couples, ‘Veronica’ (Sarah Howsam), and ‘Michael’ (Matthew Powell). The second couple, ‘Annette’ (Alexandra Severn) and ‘Alan’ (Christopher Billington) are invited to discuss...

The Forest – Hampstead Theatre

French playwright Florian Zeller describes his plays as ‘little labyrinths in which we can get lost, and sometimes, find ourselves’. This play is a masterpiece by the writer, in which its cleverness holds your mind hostage so that it is cornered and coerced into exploring the avenues that the plot leads you down. Written in French, translator Christopher Hampton has interpreted Zeller’s nuances and according to Zeller, their collaboration comes from his deep respect for Hampton’s great sensitivity and precision. It is important to explain that the cleverness of this play is not only due to the writing, but the director Jonathan Kent’s interpretation of the writing, which encourages designer Anna Fleischle to create a three-set stage to enable the cast to play out this...