COMEDY-SATIRE. Cont'd.
"FOLLOW MY LEADER" by Alistair Beaton
What I did find offensive in Beaton's satire is his depiction of Americans as complete idiots. And some of this idiocy was conveyed to Blair who kept on repeating ad infinitum "I know this is the right thing to do". And Bush enjoyed tremendously the loyalty of Blair. The audience applauded the satire. The audience reaction was positive and welcoming. Certainly, for the public wanted badly to see Blair and Bush as ridiculous figures who lacked sound political judgment and alert reasoning. The audience wanted to see and to hear what exactly the audience heard and saw in Beaton's satire. The acting was very pleasant and animated. The theatrical action was unified and well sequenced. The music was superb, of course. A great deal of admiration should be given to Dawn Hope and Martyn Ellis. Their performances were splendidly superb.
‘A topical treat… Beaton's play is bang on the money’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Alistair Beaton rediscovers and restores the lost art of political satire’ THE TIMES
"FOLLOW MY LEADER" with Jason Durr, Martyn Ellis, Nicola Hughes, Dawn Hope,Stuart Milligan, Paul J Medford, Giles New, Peter Polycarpon and Sevan Stephan. Director: Mark Clements. Musical Director: David Roper. Choreographer: Paul J Medford. Stage Designer: Philip Witcomb. Lighting Chris Ellis Projection Design Second Home Sound: Nick Greenhill.
Performances details: Previews 21, 22, 23, 24 April at 7.45pm. Press Night 26 April at 7pm .Monday to Saturday at 7.45 pm, matinees at 3pm on Saturdays. Captioned performance 5 May. Showdown (post show discussion) 12 May. Sign Language Interpreted performance 13 May. Audio Described performance 15 May at 3pm
Prices: Previews & Monday evenings £13.00. Tuesday – Friday evenings & matinees £17.50. Saturday evenings £21.00
CAST PROFILE:
Jason Durr. Theatre credits include: Claudio in Measure For Measure and Paul in The Blue Angel (RSC); Malcolm in Macbeth (RSC); Ben Weeks in The Destiny Of Me (Leicester Haymarket); Liam in The Wrong Side Of The Rainbow (Donamr Warehouse) and Zack in A Chorus Line (Sheffield Crucible). Television includes: Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Dave Harty in Femme Fatale, Lord Kiely in Sharpe’s Battle, Liam in The Wrong Side Of The Rainbow, John Brewster in Inspector Morse, The Paradise Club, Bugs, A Dark Adapted Eye, Christmas and PC Mike Bradley in Heartbeat, for which Jason was nominated for a Best Newcomer Award at the National Television Awards. Film includes: Young Soul Rebels, which won the Crtics’ Award at the Cannes film Festival, and The Killer Tongue.
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