By Ferenc Molnár, Directed by Jamie Harper
NETWORK THEATRE, WATERLOO TUNNELS Wed 10th Aug – Sat 3rd Sept 2011
Following the a sell-out run of Ivona, Princess of Burgundia Sturdy Beggars return to the tunnels of the Network Theatre with a brand new adaptation of Molnar’s rarely-performed classic farce, the next play in the company’s Brain Drain Season. Molnar is one if Hungary’s most beloved writers, whose plays & novels have found success around the globe. His works have inspired a host of other writers, with adaptations of his plays including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical play Carousel, P. G. Wodehouse’s The Play’s the Thing and Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. Although published in four languages simultaneously in 1912 and last performed professionally in the UK in the early 1970s, the play’s exploration of the nature of success and obsession with money still finds resonance in society today.
Eugene Kelemen is not witty. He is not charming. He is not handsome. He does not know how to offer Vilma, his beloved wife, the wild ecstatic declarations of love that would get her heart racing. But he knows how to make money. If this business deal works, he will give her a million – that will be his declaration of love. Only time is running out, because someone is coming… A shapeless figure from her past that has promised to take her away.
Sturdy Beggars was founded in 2007 by Artistic Director Alex Andreou, whose recent credits include A View from The Bridge at the Manchester Royal Exchange, The Black Album at the National Theatre and A Golden Age at Southbank. He was joined by Brendan Jones as Deputy Artistic Director in 2009 and Hugo Thurston as a producer last year. The Wolf is their seventh production, their previous works comprise William Shakespeare’s Othello, Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Loula Anagnostaki’s The City, David Mamet’s Boston Marriage and The Outsiders – an evening of new writing by J Riches, PB Stantic and R Barnet
This production is directed by Jamie Harper, winner of the JMK award, the Northern Ireland Arts Council Tyrone Guthrie Bursary, and the Cohen Bursary for which he was Resident Director at English Touring Theatre and the National Theatre Studio. His recent directing credits include Invasion (Tooting Arts Club – Time Out Critics’ Choice); Our Town (RoseTheatre, Kingston); Beyond the Pale (Southwark Playhouse); Invisible Storms (Cock Tavern – Time Out Critics’ Choice); Sound Dust (Theatre 503); The Things Good Men Do (Lyric Hammersmith); The Infant (Old Red Lion); and Left, an improvised play for BBC Radio 4.
