DEAD POETS LIVE: THE HAUNTER
DEAD POETS LIVE:
THE HAUNTER THOMAS HARDY,
EMMA HARDY & FLORENCE DUGDALE
Featuring Toby Jones, Lesley Sharp and Rosie Sheehy.
Sun 19 May 2024, 7:30pm
Running Time:
1 hour 50 minutes with interval
Dead Poets Live is supported by the T.S. Eliot Foundation.
THOMAS HARDY, EMMA HARDY &
FLORENCE DUGDALE
Every bereavement is a kind of ghost story. When Thomas Hardy’s wife Emma died unexpectedly in 1912, her loss unstoppered a flood of poetry in Hardy. Taken together, his poems about Emma constitute the most original, strangest and arguably the greatest series of elegies in English poetry, a complex exploration of nostalgia, regret, self-recrimination, self-mythologising, immense pain and yearning. They are the record of a haunting. Which all came as a most unpleasant irony to the second Mrs Hardy…
Working with the poet Mark Ford, whose book examining Hardy’s Emma poems, Women Much Missed, was published last year, Dead Poets Live return to The Coronet this May with a ghost story which is also a love story – a dramatization of a poet haunted into his greatest work.
DEAD POETS LIVE
Dead Poets Live have established a cult following at The Coronet Theatre for their dramatised readings of classic poetry, attracting some of Britain’s finest actors including Rory Kinnear and Tamsin Greig, Denise Gough and Tom Hiddleston. All proceeds from their evenings go to the charity Safe Passage.
Toby Jones OBE has amassed a varied and distinguished body of work in theatre, television and film. In the theatre, he won an Olivier award for his work in The Play What I Wrote and was nominated for one for his Vanya in Uncle Vanya (2020). Among his television work, his portrayal of Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs the Post Office made brought a great injustice to national prominence. Previously his portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl earned him Golden Globe and Emmy nominations He was nominated for a BAFTA for his work on Marvellous, and won one for his lead role in Detectorists. He co-created and co-wrote BBC2’s Don’t Forget the Driver, in which he also starred. On film, particularly notable work includes his Truman Capote in Infamous, for which he won the London Film Critics’ Circle Best Actor award, as he did for his lead role in Berberian Sound Studio (2012). Other notable performances include The Painted Veil, Frost/Nixon, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and in 2020, First Cow Recent work includes The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Clare Foy, The Wonder, Empire of Light and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
TOBY JONES ROSIE SHEEHY
Rosie Sheehy’s work in theatre includes playing Young Woman in Machinal (Old Vic; Theatre Royal Bath); Julie in Romeo and Julie (The National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III and All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC), Oleanna (Bath Theatre Royal & The Arts Theatre West End), King John** (RSC), Anna X (The Vaults), The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Whale (Theatre Royal Bath), Uncle Vanya* (Theatre Clwyd/Sheffield Theatres) for which she won the ‘Best Female Performance in the English Language’ award at the Wales Theatre Awards 2018, Escape the Scaffold (Theatre 503), Strife (Chichester Festival Theatre), Bird (Royal Exchange Manchester), The Hairy Ape (The Old Vic) and Chicken (Paines Plough)
Her screen credits include The Red King, A Violent Man (Ascendent Films), Steeltown Murders (BBC1), Call The Midwife (BBC1, Neal Street Productions), Wild Bill (42, Anonymous) and Chernobyl (HBO/Sky).
** Nominated for South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award and The Ian Charleson Award
* Won ‘Best female performance in the English Language’ Award’, Wales Theatre Awards 2018.
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LESLEY SHARP
Lesley Sharp is a British actress, who can currently be seen reprising her role as lead Detective Inspector Hannah Laing in series 2 of Channel 4 British remake of cult Swedish drama Before We Die; and on the Disney+ revival of award-winning The Full Monty, where she returns as Jean. She has just wrapped on a 6 part thriller for ITV called Red Eye, opposite Richard Armitage and Jing Lusi. Other recent work includes Lena Dunham’s feature adaptation of Catherine Called Birdy for Amazon and Working Title, and as the title character Philoctetes in Kae Tempest’s powerful version of the Greek tragedy, Paradise, for the National Theatre.
Lesley made her film debut in Alan Clarke’s Rita, Sue and Bob Too, and shortly after starred in Clarke’s film version of Jim Cartwright’s successful stage play Road. Lesley’s other film credits also include The Full Monty, Mike Leigh’s Naked and Vera Drake, and Jimmy McGovern’s Priest. Best known for her television work, Lesley was first seen on the small-screen as Constance Martin in ITV mini-series Dandelion Dead. Lesley then went on to have lead roles in ITV prime-time drama Bob & Rose (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA and an RTS Award), BBC One drama Clocking Off, ITV detective series Afterlife (for which she won an RTS Award), and Sally Wainright’s Scott & Bailey, opposite Suranne Jones. Lesley has also had roles in Doctor Who, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, BBC One’s BAFTA-winning Three Girls, and Netflix’s hugely successful teen drama Fate: The Winx Saga Lesley’s theatre credits include Pam Gems’ imagining of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, for which she was Olivier-nominated, Simon Stephen’s Harper Regan, both at the National Theatre, and Sam Shepard’s 9/11 drama The God of Hell at the Donmar Warehouse.
THE CORONET THEATRE
“For me, the artist is at the heart of the programme, and I work closely with the makers of the pieces I bring to London, sometimes watching and encouraging them for years. In this increasingly fractious world, I feel strongly that one of the greatest uniting forces is the international language of and desire of all of us to engage with art, whether as a maker or spectator.
My goal is to fill the theatre spaces – the Main House, Print Room Studio, and bar – with diverse and wonderful arts from across the world, celebrating all its many forms and the audiences who enjoy them”
Anda Winters Artistic Director & CEOThe Coronet Theatre is a risk-taking, international arts venue in a restored and re-imagined Grade II listed building in Notting Hill. Both its programme and the building’s restoration are curated by Artistic Director, Anda Winters.
Our year-round multi-disciplinary programme of world-class drama, dance, music, poetry and visual arts in our main auditorium and studio space welcomes our own productions as well as visiting artists, including many UK and World Premieres.
We offer memorable and often unexpected experiences to audiences, while supporting established artists and nurturing new talent Our mission is to entertain, educate and excite UK audiences with the art and cultures beyond our borders.
THE CORONET THEATRE TEAM
ArtisticDirector&CEO
AndaWinters
GeneralManager
AndyMcDonald
SeniorProducer
HettyShand
FinanceManager
AndrewMichel
Company&ProductionCoordinator
EmmaSmith
Producer
DaphneSeale
AssistantProducer/PAtoArtistic
Director
LolaGabellini
AssociateProducer
CathyLewis
DigitalMarketingOfficer
RiccardoTitoPescini
MarketingManager(Freelance)
ElliotHall
PressRepresentative
SharonKean
PoetryCoordinator
MarionManning
AudienceExperienceManager (MaternityCover)
AmeliaCampbell
BoxOfficeAssistant
IvanaDieli
Duty Managers
Francesca Battinieri, Adrielle Feliciano, Maria LisbergJonasson, Sofia Bitelli
Front of House Staff
Brian Maitland, Andreane
Rellou, Ewa Emini, Sua Tsubokura-Aguiriano, Maya
Giulivi, Hazel Townsend, Daniel
Camou, Elias Giulivi, Kelsey Moebius, Thea Gavanski, Aishani Ghosh, Eugénie
Bakker, Emma Laird-Craig, Daniel Timoney, Cooper
Tweedie, Dominika Jarečná, Hamza Mullick, Dong Ting
Huang Trustees
Linda Bernhardt, Mike Fisher, Mimi Gilligan, Jane Quinn, Anda Winters, Bill Winters (Chair)
