DRAMA: Alfie at Worthing's Connaught Theatre
ONE of the great creations of the 1960s comes to life again in a new production of Alfie heading or Worthing's Connaught Theatre from Tuesday-Saturday, February 9-13.
Blackeyed Theatre are on the road with the tale made famous by the movies starring Michael Caine and more recently Jude Law, based on the original stage play about a young man with an overwhelming desire for the ladies.
Artistic director Adrian McDougall set the company up in 2004: "And it has grown rapidly since then.
We started off touring regionally small-scale productions, and in 2007 we started touring nationally.
Since 2007 we have done tours of Oh! What A Lovely War and The Cherry Orchard and Oedipus.
"I guess the artistic policy – which is very much why I set it up – is to put on productions that are both challenging and entertaining.
"I felt for a long time that there was a little bit of a gap in what audiences can see in the theatre these days.
"It's very often large-scale popular theatre or theatre that would appeal only to a minority. I wanted to offer something in between."
And Alfie fits that bill: "It's a title that everybody knows, and it is a fantastic play which will appeal to a wide variety of people but which is also challenging. Entertainment is fundamental.
"It has to entertain, but if you can do it in a way that is different and which challenges, then so much the better.
"We have live music and we do it very much as an ensemble performance.
"We have a cast of five actors who play about 20 characters between them."
For Alfie, it's important to retain the 1960s context: "Alfie as a character is a product of the 60s, of the post-war poverty and the reaction to that in the 1960s.
"It was the first time people had disposable income.
"The youth in the 60s were very much taking advantage of that and letting loose in terms of spending money but also in the way that they lived, particularly in Alfie's case in terms of being promiscuous.
"There was a sexual liberation in the 60s that became almost accepted.
"But also setting it in the 60s in terms of how we have designed the production enabled us to use a lot of 60s music. The design is fairly bold and bright and the music is the same."
Tickets for Worthing on 01903 206206.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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