The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
2002 SPRING TERM PRODUCTIONS

Access to all theatres is in Malet Street

John Gielgud Theatre.
SIRENS
A chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses Directed by William Gaskill. Designed by John Bausor
Tuesday 5 February - Thursday 14 February at 7.45pm Matinee: Saturday 9 February at 2.30pm Tickets: .£7.50
Friends of RADA £6.50, Concessions £6.50
Dublin. 1904. The Concert Room of the Ormond Bar. Presided over by two formidable barmaids - Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy. So Joyce envisages the seductive sirens who lure his heroes to potential destruction. But this is not the world of classical Greece but the minutiae of the lives of Dubliners. This is the world of Leopold Bloom, the cuckold and young Stephen Dedalus the anti-heroes of one of the greatest literary masterpieces of the twentieth century. Using Joyce's remarkable and inventive prose William Gaskill and his company will bring to life the singular characters of the Irish streetscape with cadences which interweave like a musical canon.
This promises to be a very special and unusual theatrical event. Seating is limited, so please book early.

GBS Theatre
NAPOLI MILIONARIA
by Eduardo di Filippo Directed by Joseph Blatchley. Designed by Michael Vale
Wednesday 6 February - Friday 15 February at 7.15pm Matinee: Wednesday 13 February at 2.30pm Tickets: .£7.50, Friends of RADA .£6.50, Concessions £6.50
Di Filippo has proved to be one of Italy's leading post-war dramatists, whose delightful comic plays, first performed by his own Neapolitan theatre company, have become classics staged all over the world and notably by the Royal National Theatre in London.
This hilarious and touching story centres on a resourceful mater familias, who enriches herself and her family by running a lucrative black market in occupied Italy at the end of the second world war. When peace breaks out however there are old scores to be settled and rebellious children to be dealt with.
Evoking the unique world of Naples with its exuberance and wit, the play contains a large gallery of characters, lurid, shady and larger than life.

Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre
DAISY PULLS IT OFF
by Denise Deegan Directed by Ellis Jones. Designed by Alexander McPherson
Thursday 7 February - Saturday 16 February at 7.30pm Matinee: Saturday 16 February at 2.30pm Tickets. £7.50, Friends of RADA .£6.50, Concessions .£6.50 Friends' Night: Monday 11 February to include an aftershow discussion with the director and cast, FREE to Friends of RADA .£3. 00 for non-Friends
A girls' public school, hidden treasure and a plucky little lass from an elementary school whose trials and tribulations lead to a great discovery gives you a good sense of what is in store in this witty parody of a schoolgirl romance.
Our heroine, a poor scholarship girl, beset by prejudice and enemies such as the sneaky Monica and toady Sybil still manages to solve the mystery and score the winning goal at hockey!
A West End hit in the 1980s the play cleverly captures the spirit of a bygone age in a way that evokes laughter and suspense. As the critics wrote: "Scrummy entertainment".

GBS Theatre.
THE BEAU DEFEATED
by Mary Pix Directed by Glen Watford.
Wednesday 13 March - Friday 22 March at 7.15pm Matinee: Wednesday 20 March at 2.30pm Tickets: .£7.50, Friends of RADA .£6.50, Concessions .£6.50
The richly decadent milieu of Restoration London spawned numerous bawdy comedies which maintain their popularity with modern audiences. Less well known however are many comedies of the period, written by women dramatists, which were in their day even more popular. Of these writers Mary Pix was one of the most original and accomplished.
At the heart of this play is the contrast between Town and Country. When two rich widows, one from Yorkshire and another from London, go on the hunt for a better husband second time around, it proves harder than expected among the social climbers and gamesters of London. They soon find themselves caught in the intrigues of lovers, rivals and fops, exemplified by the `beau', Sir John Roverhead.
The twists and turns of a cleverly constructed plot ensure the maximum of enjoyment. A chance to sample a woman's view of the marriage market in this scurrilous period.

GBS Theatre
SMELLING A RAT
by Mike Leigh Directed by Gari Jones.
Tuesday 12 March - Thursday 21 March at 7.45pm Matinee: Saturday 16 March at 2.30pm Tickets: .£7.50
Friends of RADA .£6.50, Concessions .£6.50
`Mike Leigh's strength is his satirical observation of English tribal customs... the result is both consistently funny and extremely disturbing.' So writes Michael Billington of The Guardian. RADA graduate, Leigh, has made his name as playwright and film maker using a unique participatory technique which draws with ingenuity on the imagination of his actors. In this piece he brilliantly draws on the tradition of farce to dig deep into the social mores of the nouveau riche, out for themselves and devoid of moral values. A bedroom comedy with a distinct difference.
A fascinating contrast to the Restoration comedy in the GBS.

Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre
THE TEMPEST
by William Shakespeare Directed by Nona Shepphard.
Thursday 14 March - Saturday 23 March at 7.30pm Matinee: Saturday 23 March at 2.30pm Tickets: .£7.50
Friends of RADA .£6.50, Concessions .£6.50 Friends' Night.' Monday 18 March to include an aftershow discussion with the director and cast, FREE to Friends of RADA .£3.00 for non-Friends
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on..."
A magical island, a displaced magician, romantic love, airy spirits... Shakespeare's great testament to his art, the last of his romances conjures the imagination of its audience in a way not quite matched by any of his other plays.
Prospero, Duke of Milan, has been exiled by his brother and abandoned with his daughter on a Mediterranean island. By magic he has enslaved the local inhabitants, the spirit Ariel and the earthy Caliban. When the King of Naples, his son and Prospero's usurping brother are shipwrecked by a storm of Prospero's making the scene is set for a tale of revenge and reconciliation.
Director, Nona Shepphard, whose production of "Winters Tale" is well remembered at RADA, will be using the Vanbrugh stage once more in-the-round

FRIENDS SPECIAL EVENT

BARBICAN THEATRE
TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare
Wednesday 20 February at 7.15pm
Starring RADA Graduates: Zoe Waites & Guy Henry
We have a limited booking of 12 excellent seats available to Friends at a special price of £24.00 each.
We are delighted to offer Friends of RADA the opportunity to see the RSC's production of
Twelfth Night at the Barbican Theatre.
Tickets are available to Friends of RADA through the Academy Box Office.


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