Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut - Pleasance Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
WRITTEN and directed by BAFTA award nominated Morag Fullarton, Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut runs at the Pleasance Islington from October 2 to October 21, 2012.
Described as a lovingly disrespectful homage to the classic film (itself developed from an unpublished stage play), Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut boasts a multi-tasking cast of three – Gavin Mitchell, Clare Waugh and Jimmy Chisholm.
Mixing film trivia with tight writing and fast paced invention, Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut transfers to the Pleasance London after a five star reception at the Gilded Balloon at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2012.
The story is set in 1941 in the deserts of Casablanca, a time when the Nazi takeover of Europe is well underway. American Rick Blaine (Mitchell in the Humphrey Bogart role) runs a café bar welcoming any and every lost soul, from petty criminals to refugees looking for safe passage.
They include Rick’s ex-love Ilsa Lund (Clare Waugh as Ingrid Bergman) and her husband, resistance leader Victor Laszlo (played here by Jimmy Chisholm, originally Paul Henreid).
Morag Fullarton wrote for Comic Strip presents and was the first person to bring Dario Fo’s work to Scotland. She has directed for a wide range of television and film projects, including the Emmy nominated At Home with the Braithwaites, Von Trapped starring Caroline Quentin, Rebus, Taggart, 2000 Acres of Sky and the BAFTA-winning This Life.
Her theatre credits include the award-winning Mistero Buffo with Robbie Coltrane, Glasvegas, the musical she wrote with Patrick Doyle and Ida Tamson by Denise Mina for Glasgow’s Òran Mór.
With a premiere almost exactly seventy years ago in New York on November 26, 1942 (brought forward to coincide with the allied invasion of North Africa), Casablanca won three Academy Awards – for Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. While not a runaway success as an initial release, its appeal has nevertheless endured for decades.
It was based on the unpublished play Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, and in 2006 the Writers Guild of America declared the screenplay the best ever written.
Tickets: Friday and Saturday £16.50, Sunday to Thursday £15 – available from the box office on 020 7609 1800 or online at www.pleasance.co.uk.
Time: Tuesday to Sunday at 7.30pm.
Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes.