ENTERTAINMENT
Mercury Theatre launches its 2017 Spring/Summer season The Mercury Theatre Colchester has announced its packed season which sees the theatre collaborate with one of Britain’s most revered comedy icons. Mercury Theatre Artistic Director, Daniel Buckroyd said: “We’ve got one of the most varied seasons of theatre I think we’ve ever programmed on offer through Spring/ Summer 2017. We kick off with uproarious comedy in the shape of BANG BANG – a classic French farce with a distinctly British twist courtesy of the incomparable John Cleese; award-winning musical theatre with a Made in Colchester production of the West End hit Spamalot; and contemporary drama in our Studio with the first British revival of David Greig’s The Events, a gripping and profoundly humane play about one woman’s attempts to come to terms with an act of terror.”
BANG BANG The first Made in Colchester production of the season, BANG BANG, sees John Cleese partner with the Mercury Theatre to bring his brand new adaption of Georges Feydeau’s hysterical farce to the stage. BANG BANG tells the story of Leontine, a respectable lady of high society who is in danger of being hoodwinked by her husband Duchotel. While Duchotel is out hunting (“bang bang!”), back at home his lifelong friend comes calling – and he’s on the hunt too. Will Leontine get caught in his sights,
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or instead set a trap of her own? Saucy secrets unravel as the devilish Duchotel finds himself snared in a door-slamming, trouser-dropping, lover-hiding, balconyclimbing night of chaos set in the stylish apartments of Paris. BANG BANG will be directed by veteran of theatre, television and radio, Nicky Henson. Nicky was a founder member of the Young Vic Company and has worked extensively with the National Theatre, Young Vic, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, although his most recognizable role is as Mr Johnson, the open-collared, medallion-wearing playboy loathed by Basil Fawlty in the Fawlty Towers episode The Psychiatrist. He is also a prolific director of Alan Aykbourne plays. John Cleese said: “I love farce because it’s a little bit wild. This all comes from an idea I had forty years ago. The play itself is a typical French farce which means almost always that it’s about infidelity, which leads to ludicrous situations where people are trying to hide things which are happening, and pretend that things which are happening aren’t happening – it’s pure farce!” He added: “I’ve known Nicky Henson since 1966 when I did my first day of work at the BBC with him. He’s a great farceur.” “I think at the moment when everything is so bleak and there are so many crazies in charge of countries in this world, just to go and forget everything for two hours and laugh yourself silly is not just fun at the time – it actually does you good!”
SPAMALOT Mercury favourite Dale Superville will return in the second Made in Colchester production of the season, Spamalot. Written by Python legend Eric Idle, and lovingly ripped off from the hugely successful 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot is a riotous comedy full of misfit knights, killer rabbits, dancing nuns and ferocious Frenchmen. We join King Arthur as he travels around the land gathering his Knights of the Round Table. This band of hapless adventurers is then tasked with a divine mission to locate the elusive Holy Grail – with uproarious consequences. This hilarious show was the winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best New Musical and enjoyed a highly successful West End run. With comic tunes including Brave Sir Robin, We’re Knights of the Round Table and perennial favourite Always Look on The Bright Side of Life, audiences will be dancing in the aisles. Spamalot will be directed by Mercury Theatre Artistic Director, Daniel Buckroyd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Clybourne Park, End of the Rainbow, The Hired Man).