The Manchester Theatre Awards is hosting a celebration of Manchester Theatre with a get-together of the winners and nominees from the 2011 awards.

The invitation only event is taking place at New Century House in Manchester on Friday 18 May 2012. The winners of the 2011 awards will be receiving their trophies.

See the Manchester Theatre Awards site for more details.

George is to star in Daementia, directed by John Rackham, based on the one act play written by Philip L. Milne.

“For nearly a thousand years there have been, across Europe, ritualistic sacrifices with the victims being children and teenagers. Five years ago, a boy named Eric Frasier witnessed one of these sacrifices and the experience has driven him insane. He is now resident in a psychiatric home in a district where similar killings have suddenly become increasingly common. The investigation into the recent murders is being headed by DI Gabriel, assisted by DS Monroe, who has been looking into the pseudo-religious background of the sacrifices. They learn of Eric Frasier and a seemingly coincidental link between the recent murders and Eric’s psychotic episodes. Despite Dr Holmwood’s insistence that Eric’s behaviour could not possibly be linked to any of the murders, other than the one he witnessed, Gabriel reluctantly allows Monroe to investigate along those lines. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, the detective constable refuses to believe that any of the suspects are guilty and instead starts hunting down a man that no-one else can see.” Written by Philip L Milne – IMDB

George plays the role of Dr Holmwood.

Promotional video on YouTube.

Daementia on:

• IMDB
• Facebook
• Twitter

The winners of the Manchester Theatre Awards were announced at 10am on 14 March.

Margot Leicester won the accolade for best actress for her performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Full details of all the awards can be found at the Manchester Theatre Awards website

Resources

• MTA – Best Production – The Manchester Theatre Awards – 14 March 2012
• MTA – Best Actor – The Manchester Theatre Awards – 14 March 2012
• MTA – Best Actress – The Manchester Theatre Awards – 14 March 2012
• MTA – Best Actor in a Supporting Role – The Manchester Theatre Awards – 14 March 2012
• MTA – Best Actress in a Support Role – The Manchester Theatre Awards – 14 March 2012
• Octagon wins four prizes at Manchester Theatre Awards – The Bolton News – 14 March 2012

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has secured a plethora of nominations in the newly revamped Manchester Theatre Awards.

Announced today at 10am Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has nominations for the entire cast and production, as follows:

• Best Production: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Best Actor: George irving
• Best Actress: Margot Leciester
• Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Hill
• Best Supporting Actress: Tammy Joelle

Full details of the nominations in all seventeen categories are available from The Manchester Theatre Awards.

Resources

• Manchester Theatre Awards Announced – The Stage – 24 January 2012
• Theatre in running for string of awards – The Bolton News – 19 January 2012
• The Manchester Theatre Awards: The Oscars of the North – CheshireLife – 19 January 2012
• Manchester Theatre Awards: The Nominations – Manchester Confidential – 19 January 2012
• Manchester Theatre Awards Nominations Announced – The British Theatre Guide – 18 January 2012

George starred in an episode of Midsomer Murders, series 14 episode 7, A Sacred Trust, broadcast on 26 October 2011 on ITV1 and ITV1HD at 20:00.

The series is also available to download from iTunes on a per episode basis or with a season pass.

When a nun is strangled to death in the cloistered world of Midsomer Priory Barnaby and Jones are faced with an investigation involving teenage trysts, missing antique silver, African art and holy orders.

Jones visits the local pub, where he learns that a woman was seen acting strangely on the day of the murder, and that teenagers in the area sneak into the priory grounds for romantic liaisons.

Later, the nuns discover that a valuable silver altar set has vanished, then the chaplain is found murdered. Can Barnaby and Jones work out the connection between the holy orders, the missing silver, the African art and uncover the killer?

Cast

• DCI John Barnaby – Neil Dudgeon
• DS Ben Jones – Jason Hughes
• Sarah Barnaby – Fiona Dolman
• Dr. Kate Crawford – Tamzin Malleson
• Lauren Hendred – Emma Davies
• Callum – Josh Parris
• Duncan Hendred – Jamie Blackley
• Matthew Hendred – George Irving
• Tamsin Bickford – Martha Mackintosh
• Mother Julian – Joanna David
• Sister Catherine – Fiona Glascott
• Mother Thomas – Susan Sheridan
• Mother Jerome – Rosalind Knight
• Father Behan – Michael Colgan
• Bishop Graves – Hugh Ross
• Katy – Hannah Arterton
• Peter De Winter – Philip Anthony
• Barry – Cliff Parisi
• Colin Flemming – Tom Knight
• Serena Fleming – Louise Bangay
• George Norrington – Richard Walsh
• Delia Norrington – Jessica Turner
• CID Officer – Nick Thomas-Webster

Written by Rachel Cuperman & Sally Griffiths
Directed by Renny Rye

Just press play!

With kind thanks to AllFM

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Is Edward Albee’s most acclaimed play, debuting in 1962, a time many consider to be a period of relative innocence before subsequent turmoils. The play is both a product of it’s time and a fascinating multilayered piece touching on subjects far beyond the seemingly inconsequential quarrels of a bickering couple. The inclusion of a timeline of world and particularly significant American events in the programme is a useful reference point for those unfamiliar with the social history of the time and as such the underlying themes of the piece.

David Thacker is of course an established authority in the direction of the great American plays. Having opened his Octagon tenure with All My Sons in 2009 and following this up with Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire in 2010 and Miller’s The Price later in the 2010-2011 season he again returns to the genre with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

While the title was inspired by a simple line of pedagogic graffiti adorning the mirror of a bar visited by the author, as with other Albee works criticism of the damage, both morally and spiritually inflicted by an excess of material wealth and an obsessive misguided pursuit of the American Dream is at the heart of the piece.

Albee’s works are often viewed as being searingly critical of traditionally held values and in keeping with his custom Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is another affirmation of his deep seated unease with the absurdity of the human condition.

As with many recent Octagon productions this one is played in the round, an acknowledged preference of the director.

The set, like All My Sons, Ghosts and The Price, is the creation of Patrick Connellan and is an authentic academic based residence replete with an entire collection of eclectic ephemera strewn liberally. This creates an intimate arena into which the audience are inexorably and voyeuristically drawn.

The tone for this challenging piece is set as soon as Martha and George appear in Act 1 and the verbal sparring begins. Far from being a dour piece Albee’s perceptive dialogue crackles with long held tensions hiding deep felt wounds. These tensions reach breaking point as the cynical sniping of the main characters continues but the production draws humour from every quarter in the first two acts.

The savagely sarcastic vitriol continues flowing as freely as the liquor despite the arrival of their guests, a couple positively oozing the hope and expectation of youth.

Through a series of increasingly cruel games, under the increasingly embarrassed gaze of their young guests, illusions are destroyed and the façade of each character is mercilessly stripped away.

The cast work extremely well together, dovetailing the demanding and rapid dialogue in the most immersive way.

Even in Acts 1 and 2 where seemingly Martha has the upper hand in their games, George Irving’s George is not simply an emasculated foil for Martha’s fury; rather he displays a sparkling wit and controls much of the action. Instead of feeling the intended humiliation from Martha’s attacks he seems to thrive on it and meets each assault with a suitable scholarly retort.

Martha’s soliloquist opening to Act 3 augurs a change in pace of the production. This introspective scene is played with a perfect poignant vulnerability by Margot Leicester who shines with a quiet intensity throughout the entire play.

Kieran Hill is a veteran of numerous memorable Octagon performances over the last two years, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedians, The Hired Man, Love on the Dole and A Streetcar Named Desire to name but a few. He proves again here his versatility and superb acting skills.

As with Lydia in All My Sons, in 2009, Tammy Joelle is perfectly cast as Honey, the young wife of new Biology professor Nick. She manages to convey the perfect mix of naivety and unspoken pain as the younger couple are drawn in to the dangerous games of the older duo. She manages to make Honey annoyingly simpering yet somehow endearing. A completely enthralling performance.

Since this production uses Albee’s 2004 re-write of the text the audience is denied the opportunity to fully appreciate the extent of the transformation Honey undergoes during this torrid night and reduces the impact of her declaring her desire to have a child in Act 3.

The cuts were explained by Albee in subsequent interviews as being no more than he felt he had overwritten those parts originally. Unfortunately, they remove whole swathes of Honey’s character and while this arguably creates a stronger ending to Act 2 it means the audience miss the opportunity to see the final revenge from forming in George’s mind. It also means the loss of the final moments from the original end of Act 2 where his almost whispered preparatory speech mirror Martha’s susurrous opening of Act 3.

In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albee innovated a blending of realism and absurdism creating an enduring work. The updated profanity probably still doesn’t have the capacity to engender the same level of controversy that accompanied the original release but time has done nothing to dull the acerbic wit and power of the piece.

This wonderful production is another triumph from the Octagon.

22 September 2011 – Elaine Giles – GeorgeIrving.co.uk

“AMERICANS think and speak at the same time,” says George Irving, who is appearing in the American class Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Octagon.

“It’s great for an actor, I like doing American writing because it’s so in the present”

The actor will be playing George, the university professor whose relationship with his alcoholic wife Martha forms the crux of the play.

He is no stranger to the American classics – or to the Octagon – having appeared in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which was David Thacker’s first production at the theatre when he took over in 2009.

Edward Albee’s play, named after a literary quip he had seen scrawled in a bathroom, also stars Margot Leicester as Martha. The two played opposite each other in All My Sons and in the next play staged at the theatre, Ibsen’s Ghosts.

“If you are going to play these characters which involve a great deal of tearing strips off each other, you need to be with someone you can trust.” George says. “Margot and I know how to look each other in the eye. We know what it’s like to play a range of couples.”

He says most people will know the play through the film version released in 1966, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

“They yelled at each other all through the film and famously yelled at each other for decades.” George says. “The play’s not as dark as the film, it’s really very, very funny.”

“I told myself I would be in this play when I was grown up”

George and Martha invite new professor Nick and his wife Honey, played by Kieran Hill and Tammy Joelle, to their’s after a party. Fuelled by alcohol the evening descends into a hilarious but wrenching exposé of the cracks in the older couple’s marriage.

George says: “It is essentially about a crisis in their marriage and George is the person who is responsible for getting hold of the challenge. He knows that at the end of the night he either has to rescue his marriage or they have to go their separate ways or they will tear each other apart.”

George, who played Anton Meyer in the BBC hospital drama series Holby City, and has also taken on roles in a host of stage and screen productions, says this is the only role he has ever really hankered after.

“I saw it in the 1980s when I was much too young to play the part,” he says. “I’ve never had ambitions to play particular parts, with the exception of this one. He’s witty, very clever. He has these flights of fancy – you have to have a lot of this going on at once. After I’d seen it, I told myself that I would be in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? when I was a grown up.”

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is at the Octagon from September 22 to October 15. For tickets, £9.50 to £22.50, visit http://octagonbolton.co.uk or ring 01204 520661

September 2011 – The Bolton News

George is to star in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, running from 22 September to 15 October 2011 at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton.

After the success of All My Sons and A Streetcar Named Desire launching his first two seasons David Thacker opens his third season as Artistic Director of the The Octagon Theatre with another classic contemporary American drama, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Opening at the Billy Rose Theatre, on Broadway, in October 1962, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the multi award winning play written by Edward Albee.

A newly arrived professor and his wife are the unsuspecting guests inexorably drawn into the confrontational web of machinations arising from the volatile relationship between George (George Irving), a professor suffering a moribund career and his demanding, coquettish wife Martha (Margot Leicester).

Cast

• Margot Leicester – Martha
• George Irving – George
• Kieran Hill – Nick
• Tammy Joelle – Honey

Interviews

• The Bolton News – September 2011
• George Isn’t Afraid to Recall Holby – Manchester Evening News – City Life – September 2011
• Margot Leicester on ALLFM – 11 September 2011

Part 1 of an interview with Margot Leicester about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Margot Leicester on ALLFM – 18 September 2011

Part 2 of an interview with Margot Leicester about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Reviews

• First Night Review – GeorgeIrving.co.uk – 24 September 2011
• What’s on Stage – 24 September 2011
• The Public Reviews – 24 September 2011
• The British Theatre Guide – 25 September 2011
• UKTheatre.net – 25 September 2011
• The British Theatre Guide – 25 September 2011
• Artbeat – 25 September 2011
• The Stage – 26 September 2011
• This is Lancashire – 26 September 2011
• The Bolton Evening News – 26 September 2011
• The Lancashire Telegraph – 26 September 2011
• The Guardian – 27 September 2011
• Daily Mail – 29 September 2011
• The Theatre Show – 29 September 2011
• Reviews Gate – 1 October 2011
• The Mancunian – 11 October 2011
• David Chadderton – Twitter – 23 September 2011

Resources

Creating The Set

• The Octagon Theatre
• The Bolton News – 14 May 2011
• The British Theatre Guide – 15 May 2011
• What’s On Stage – 16 May 2011
• Full Circle Arts – 17 May 2011
• North is the Right Direction for Octagon Shows – CityLife – 19 May 2011
• David Thacker on The Theatre Show – 21 July 2011

David Chadderton interviews David Thacker about the 2011-2012 season at The Octagon

• Lyn Gardner’s What to See – The Guardian – 16 September 2011
• Full Circle Arts – 22 September 2011
• Lyn Gardner’s What to See – The Guardian – 23 September 2011
• Visit Manchester – September 2011

Creative Team

• David Thacker – Director
• Mark Gill – Assistant Director
• Edward Albee – Author
• Patrick Connellan – Designer
• Mick Hughes – Lighting Designer
• Andy Smith – Sound Designer
• Lesley Hutchison – Associate Artist (Movement)
• Sophia Horrocks – Deputy Stage Manager
• Danielle Fearnley – Assistant Stage Manager

Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? and Edward Albee

• ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ Returning to Broadway – New York Times – 26 April 2011
• Quiz: Who’s afraid of Edward Albee? – The Guardian – 17 May 2011
• Edward Albee Talks About Revival of ‘Tiny Alice’ – San Francisco Chronicle – 2 June 2011
• Playwright Albee Defends ‘Gay Writer’ Remarks – NPR – 6 June 2011
• Edward Albee Is 2011 MacDowell Medal Recipient – Playbill.com – 29 July 2011
• The MacDowell Medal Day – ArtsEditor – 5 August 2011

George starred in The Piper a new play by Colleen Murphy at Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights on 12 July 2011

From the programme:

Rats take many forms in the corporate democracy of Hameln where an orchestrated chaos reigns and ghosts of dead children mingle with the living. Ruled by the tyrannical Mayor Pop, the Town Council sells off essential services so that they can buy more casinos. A gang of Rats, led by Kingsley – who reads Nietzsche and longs to be human – bristle at being forced to do naughty jobs in exchange for leftovers. Into this greedy landscape comes Piper, a meek musician who literally collides with Pink, the Mayor’s daughter, and they are instantly smitten…but their love is interrupted when the body of the Deputy Mayor’s son is fished out of the river. Moral outrage erupts, Kingsley is publicly tortured, and Hameln declares war on the Rats…then the fun begins. Beneath the theatrical merriment of this boisterous comic-tragedy lies an astute meditation on a self-destructing society and the anguish of children clinging to the notion of unconditional love.

For more details see the Finborough website

Creative Team

Written by Colleen Murphy
Directed by Fidelis Morgan

Cast

Jo Cameron Brown
Poppy Carter
Rupert Farley
Rupert Frazer
Hermione Gulliford
Bob Gwilym
Carsten Hayes
Philip Herbert
Robin Hooper
Angus Imrie
George Irving
Frances Lo
Katie Meekison
Pauline Moran
Peter Moreton
Olivia O’Shea
Emilie Patry
Dudley Sutton
Sian Thomas
Julian Wadham
Christopher Webber
Tristram Wymark