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Alan Ayckbourn's "RolePlay"
01, 02 & 03 December, 2005, @ The Gulbenkian
Theatre , Canterbury, Kent. |
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The best of Ayckbourn’s trilogy ‘Damsels in Distress,
RolePlay is a hilarious piece with dark undertones, a vintage ‘dinner-party
from hell’.
Ayckbourn is a master at handling people divided by class, accent,
habits and race. A young well-to-do couple, living in a posh docklands
apartment, have planned a civilised occasion when they hope to introduce
each other’s parents and also announce their engagement.
The situation is tense enough before the arrival of two unexpected
guests, one a lap-dancing gangster’s moll, the other her burly
gun-toting minder.
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What her parents (the bigoted northern stereotype
and his dim twittering wife) and his mother (toy-boy chasing
and drink-soaked) find when they arrive shows us that the bourgeois
guests, under their respective veneers, are far more frightening than
the interlopers.
Each of Ayckbourn’s characters is playing a role to escape reality. |
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Click images to enlarge |
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On stage |
The Cast, in order of appearance:
Sally Parker as Sally-Ann Jobson
Edward Clark as Justin Lazenby
Emily Rosen as Paige Petite
Mike Rivarno as Micky Rale
Tony Johnson as Derek Jobson
Irene Marley as Dee Jobson
Anne Hancox as Arabella Lazenby |
On stage |
On stage
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On stage
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On stage |
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The Players in "Roleplay". We're awaiting biographies
for those currently not appearing here.
As Dee Jobson - Irene Marley
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As Justin Lazenby
Ed Clark
More about Ed |
Ed Clark
Actor: Justin, in Roleplay;
Tom in The Accrington
Pals; Peter in Blue Remembered
Hills
Ed has played a variety of roles over the last few years and keeps up
his skill set in a number of other disciplines, including singing and
sports, making him a very useful member of the Players and to others,
including film and tv production teams etc. |
As Paige Petite
Emily Rosen
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Emily Rosen
Actor: RolePlay;
More to come soon. |
As Derek Jobson
Tony Johnson
Read more about Tony Johnson. |
Tony Johnson
Actor: RolePlay;
Much Ado About Nothing;
Arsenic And Old Lace; The
Vortex.
Tony made his acting debut in the first year at Grammar school, when he
was cast as the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play.
"The embarrassment of this put me off acting for about twenty years,
until I joined the Charing Guild of Players with the proviso that I would
play only male roles.
"I began this acting hobby more than forty years ago and despite appearing in over fifty Plays and Musicals since then, I'm still trying to get it right!
"The
Vortex is only my second Noel Coward play since "Blithe Spirit" in 1977 so I'm looking forward to the role of 'Pawnie' - an elderly maiden gentleman - as the playwright describes him!
Should be a lot of fun." |
As Julie-Ann Jobson
Sally Parker. Actor.
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Sally Parker
Actor: Bazaar and Rummage; Roleplay;
La Ronde, Two;
The Vortex.
Sally made her stage debut as Noddy at FHODS Little Theatre at the age
of ten, and on leaving school played Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf". She made connections with CDS while acting in "Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight" and was immediately cast as the prompt for
"Dr Faustus". She went on to play Pattie in "Season's Greetings",
Dr Scott in "Who's Life is it Anyway", Olivia in "Twelfth
Night", Julie-Ann in "Roleplay", Ilsa in "La Ronde",
Bell-Bell in "Bazaar and Rummage",
and most recently the Landlady in "Two".
Sally is currently a full-time mother.
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As Mickey Rale
Mike Rivarno
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Mike Rivarno
Actor
Born in Southampton in 1967 and raised in the seaside town of Deal,
Mike embarked on a love of the Arts at very early age, with the Cinema
just down the road from his home and a family TV that for the most part
was always available to him. The eldest of 3 kids to a single hard working
mum he was left pretty much to his devices. Like a lot of kids at that
time the films of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were a constant source
of entertainment and for Mike, inspiration.
In 1983 at the age of 15 the School he sometimes attended was putting
together the first ever stage version of Alan Parker's Movie Musical ‘Bugsy
Malone’ and Mike was awarded the role of Fat Sam Staccetto.
The performance he gave is still mentioned to him to this day and the
enthusiasm he received from people made him want to do a whole lot more,
yet as he turned 16 and left the family home commitments to work and constantly
changing his address restricted his ability to commit to the roles that
came up in the local Dramatic groups.
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It wasn’t until 1999, when he returned to his hometown
of Deal that he was able to really get into a more regular pattern of
drama, switching between the towns two rival groups he found himself performing
in a lot of comedy farce and one or two pantomimes. In 2001 the town had
a new group emerge and the chance to do some more dramatic work presented
itself and Mike soon found himself performing in plays by authors like
Harold Pinter, Debbie Isitt and Eugene O’Neil.
Having lived in the village of Ash since 2003 he has been working with
Canterbury
Players for much of that time and recently performed a play with Ashcan
Theatre Company. He still gets the same buzz backstage now as he did way
back in the summer of ’83 and is always looking forward to the next
exciting challenge to present itself.
Selected work from the past:
On
An Average Day 2009
The
Accrington Pals 2007
Roleplay
2005
My Boy Jack 2005
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime 2004
Hobson’s Choice 2003
Whose Life Is It Anyway? 2003
The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband 2002
Betrayal 2001
Abigails Party 2001
Bugsy Malone 1983
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As Arabella Lazenby
Anne Hancox. Actor.
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Anne Hancox
Committee Member
Actor: RolePlay;
Play It Again, Sam; Fallen
Angels; Bazaar and Rummage;
Two; The Vortex.
Anne's early performances were all in music theatre. Later came a shift
to straight drama.
Her involvement with Canterbury's long-established amateur theatre group
Playcraft for 21 years and now, with The Canterbury Players has provided
a wealth of acting opportunities.
She has enjoyed numerous leading roles ranging from Nora in
Ibsen's "A Doll's House", Katharine in Shakespeare's
"The Taming of the Shrew"; the drunken and shameless Arabella
in Ayckbourn's "RolePlay"
and Julia in "Fallen
Angels" by Noel Coward. |
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Stagecraft for Roleplay.
Director
Rani Innes
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Rani Innes
Performance Director, Actor.
Rani joined Canterbury players in 1998, a year after moving to the UK
from Japan. Her love affair with theatre started over 30 years ago in
India where she founded Spandana, an amateur theatre group, which
is still going strong. She’s worked as an actress and director with
several amateur and repertory theatre groups in India and the well-known
English theatre group TIPS (Tokyo International Players) during
her 17 years in Japan.
By profession, Rani is an English language and literature teacher and
has worked as teacher and teacher trainer in countries like Japan, Austria,
India, Malaysia and the UK. Until recently, she was the vice principal
of Stafford House College in Canterbury.
Rani has directed several plays for The Canterbury Players since 1998:
Death of a Salesman, Dr Faustus, Habeus Corpus, Whose Life is it Anyway,
Desire Under the Elms and the well received Roleplay.
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Set Design and Construction
For this production: Stage Manager
For this production: Prompt
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Mark Charles Smith
Actor: For Canterbury Players Gosforth's
Fete; La Ronde; Fallen
Angels; The Accrington
Pals; Much Ado
About Nothing; Arsenic And Old
Lace
Sound Engineer for Blue Remembered
Hills.
For Chilham Players: Seasons Greetings
For Kent Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night.
Mark is pleased to be back in rehearsal with the Canterbury Players
after a brief foray at Mt. Ephraim with Kent
Shakespeare Company's production of 'Twelfth Night'. He is looking
forward to his first 'farce'. (Comments will surely appear after that
statement!)
Mark has appeared in a number of Canterbury Players productions, as
well as end of year short films at universities in Canterbury and Hastings,
as a film extra for various productions filmed in Kent including "The
Other Boleyn Girl" and "Wild Child", in a Chris Tarrant
TV programme called 'Tarrant Lets the Kids Loose' and as a major player
in a KETV production
called 'The Sea Shall Have Them'.
Mark is looking for more TV and film work to get him out of the office
once in a while.
My Facebook page.
A recent video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY9qcWjPomk |
For this production: Prompt
Publicity and Press
Geoffrey Learner, Our Chairman and actor.
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Geoffrey Learner
Chairman (2004 - )
Actor: Much Ado About
Nothing; Arsenic And Old Lace
Geoffrey began his acting career as Professor Theophilus Brainwave in
a sci-fi play at his junior school in the 1930s.
After being Secretary of his college dramatic society at university,
he became a junior school teacher and over his career directed more than
twenty plays on the school stage.
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Retiring to Canterbury in 1989, he joined the Canterbury
Dramatic Society in 1998 for a production that never reached performance.
As Secretary, he helped to bring about the reuniting of C.D.S. with
Playcraft in 2003 and established the pattern of regular performances
before the public at the Gulbenkian Theatre, the Whitstable Playhouse
and other venues.
He has appeared in seven productions of the group and directed the performance
of the play ‘597’ connected with the unveiling of the statues,
in Canterbury, of Ethelbert and Bertha by Prince Michael of Kent in May
2006. Geoffrey appeared as Signor Antonio in Much
Ado About Nothing and Mr Witherspoon in Arsenic And Old Lace.
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| Crew
For Canterbury Players RolePlay production: |
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| Director:
Rani Innes |
| Stage Manager:
Sarah Gooch |
| Technical Director:
Derek Standing |
Construction assistants:
Chris Graves, Brian Jones |
Transportation:
Charlie Jubber |
| Assistant Stage Manager:
Geoff Morley |
Lighting Design:
Shaun Weager |
Lighting Operator:
Adam Webb |
| Sound Engineer:
Tony Innes |
Publicity and Press:
Ian Burroughs, Geoffrey Learner |
Prompts:
Liz Findlay & Mark Smith |
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| For the Gulbenkian Theatre |
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| Director:
Dee Ashworth |
Technical Director:
Pam Hardiman |
Marketing Manager:
Frances Moran |
| Front of House:
David Edgar |
Box Office Manager:
Ian Baird |
Bar Manager:
Ben Silcock |
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Alan Ayckbourn's "RolePlay"
Directed by Rani Innes and performed on 01, 02 & 03 December,
2005, @ The Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, Kent.
| 16th December 2005.
Reviewed by:
Elaine Godden.
Kentish Gazette. |
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Excerpt of the review by Michael Pilcher, BBC.
The Canterbury Players performed each of their characters impeccably, with
Ed Clark’s Justin someone you
can truly emphasise with.
Some of the situations may be far-fetched, but the story is well written, funny
– wickedly so at times – and makes for a thoroughly engaging piece.
Below, review by Elaine Godden, Kentish Gazette.
Regarding the set:
".... Docklands flat, brilliantly designed by Derek Standing,
in which the play was set."
And the production:
"Sally Parker must have subdued a large chunk of herself
to play the neurotic frump Julie-Ann so convincingly, yet at the same time win
sympathy in her futile psychological battle against Paige, the hard faced tart.
"Emily Rosen ably revealed the complexities of Paige's
character; adaptability in an impossible social situation, catty flashes of
temper and an underlying vulnerability which seemed at first to exist only in
Justin's imagination.
"Anne Hancox, as his [Justin's] mother Arabella, was
magnificent, the middle aged but stunning alcoholic whose outrageous, batty
behaviour contributed so much to the demise of her son's relationship with his
fiancee.
"Tony Johnson and Irene
Marley were hilarious as Julie-Ann's parents; two provincial bigots
ultimately succeeding in conducting their daughter's life.
"Above all, Mike Rivarno, playing Mickey, almost dominated
the stage with his menacing near silence, but his masterful acting also betrayed
the aggressive inadequacy of Mickey's character ("I don't eat foreign!")
and finally gave him the humanity which allowed Paige her freedom.
"Ayckbourn's drama is typically, more than a riotous comedy. An unerring
psychological insight which works alongside the crazy actions of his dysfunctional
characters and this production was hugely successful in provoking thought as
well as providing entertainment."
Audience response:
"We enjoyed RolePlay so much, please let us know of your next productions."
RM.
"Brilliant, haven't laughed so much in a very long time."
MCS.
"I wanted to hit you - the way you treated Justin!"
Response from member of the audience on the night, to "Julie-Ann".
Canterbury Players would also like to thank all those other Members and
associates who have indirectly helped to make this production possible, especially:
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RolePlay's MAJOR SPONSOR:
St. Christophers School
An independent Co-educational day school and nursery for 3 - 11 years.
New Dover Road, Canterbury, Kent.
Sponsor for Alan Ayckbourn's "RolePlay", December 2005
"Where the needs of the child come first."
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Plus:
Brewers of Maynard Road,
Glass Services Ashford
and
Marley Plumbing
for helping with set requirements
and
David Foster (Plumbing) 01227 830032
for water service requisites. |
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