Arts: Les learns the art of treading the boards; Broadway play promises good season.Byline: Joe Riley LES DENNIS Les Dennis (born Leslie Dennis Heseltine on October 12, 1954 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English television presenter, actor and celebrated saxophonist. Dennis married actress Amanda Holden in 1995, but the pair have since divorced (November 18, 2003). (pictured) may have ditched his Royal Court comedy festival gig on Monday in favour of telly work. But I'massured he WILL be at the Playhouse come November. The Merseyside show presenter and comic is advancing his wish to be an actor by being cast in the Liverpool staging of Broadway's most successful play. Art, which won both a Tony Award and a West End Olivier Award for best new comedy, will also star Dynasty actor Christopher Cazenove Christopher Cazenove (born December 17 1945) is a British cinema, television and stage actor. Cazenove was born in Hampshire, and educated at the Dragon School, Eton College and Oxford. and TV favourite John Duttine. Christmas at the Playhouse will be given over to a 20th anniversary production of Willy Russell's comedy, Breezeblock Park, while the Everyman's now traditional rock 'n' roll pan to is Mother Goose. Breezeblock Park will be directed by former Everyman artistic director Glen Walford, responsible for the revival of Russell's Educating Rita Educating Rita is an award-winning stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of a university lecturer. , starring Angela Clarke. The new playlists, announced today, are the last to be chosen by the joint theatres' present executive director Josephine Beddoe. The shows, which include a number of classics,also centre on some controversial issues. Hannah And Hanna (Everyman,November) is the story of a teenage friendship between an English girl and an asylum seeker asylum seeker asylum n → demandeur/euse d'asile . There are also two Everyman productions for Black History Month in October. Athol Fugard's Master Harold and The Boys looks at the impact of apartheid in South Africa, while Nelson Mandela's favourite play,Out Of Bounds, is the story of Indians growing up in a township on the outskirts of Durban. The Playhouse season opens on October 14 with Stones In His Pockets Stones in His Pockets is a two-hander written by Marie Jones and directed by Ian McElhinney. The origins of the play are a bit cloudy but the most popular iteration of the play began life at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast with the initial run touring to the small community , the story of a major Hollywood studio descending on a rural Irish community. There is also a new adaptation by Fay Weldon of Flaubert's French classic Madam Bovary. This is staged by Shared Experience, who have already been to Liverpool with their productions of Mill On The Floss and The Magic Toyshop. The Playhouse will also host Mold-based Clwyd Theatr Cymru's version of Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge A View from the Bridge is a play by Arthur Miller originally produced as a one-act verse drama on Broadway in 1955. It was based upon an unproduced screenplay that Miller developed with Elia Kazan in the early 1950s, entitled The Hook, dealing with corruption on the Brooklyn . Among tours to the Everyman is 13 Objects, a new play by Britain's leading playwright, Howard Barker, which explores the connections people make between the everyday things of life. After success here with Oedipus, Northern Broadsides, Barrie Rutter's Yorkshire company which specialises in productions featuring regional accents, will give their own special interpretation of Antigone, by Blake Morrison. Jo Beddoe, who is leaving Liverpool after a four-year stint to take up writing in the Lake District, said: ``Achieving Capital of Culture status was one of the best things that ever happened to Liverpool,and I go confident and happy that the Playhouse and Everyman will flourish.'' In September, Gemma Bodinetz becomes artistic director of both theatres, with Deborah Aydon as executive director. Their first choices will be seen next spring. |
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